PATHFINDER DOWN

It’s like Saving Private Ryan but without the huge budget.

It’s a 115-page WW2 Espionage Thriller with an Action movie ending. The Resistance Groups, weapons, and tactics are historically accurate, but it’s more than a history lesson. It’s a fast-paced story with a believable female protagonist who is a composite of real S.O.E. agents, including Violette Szabo, Vera Rosenberg-Atkins, and Noor Khan.

Protagonist Madelaine:
A 27-year-old French refugee, her husband, and brother have been killed in the war. Madelaine joined the UK resistance as a wireless operator. She is surpassing all expectations, speaks three languages, and outperforms many male agent trainees. Her instructors trust her skills but are concerned about her psychological state, specifically her loner tendencies and her Communist leanings. In the end, she gets what she wants when she brings the young aviator home alive, and she gets what she needs when she regains her humanity by defying orders and choosing not to be the assassin.

She is tasked with finding

Pathfinder Lieutenant Savard:
Baby-faced, 20-year-old French-Canadian Navigator from the elite Pathfinders Squadron. Inexperienced, socially awkward in life, but has knowledge of ultra-secret navigational systems and can’t be taken alive by the enemy. Lost behind enemy lines, he evolves from a panic-stricken kid to elusive prey. In the end, he makes it to England, a changed man, barely in one piece; broken nose, two black eyes, concussed, nearly drowned, and no longer a virgin.

Getting in her way is our

Antagonist Gestapo Major Kempf:
Mid-30s, diminutive, meticulous, calm, and lethal. He abhors violence and begs his captives to talk, and he is never present during torture. He hates communists and has a soft spot for the Catholic Church…these flaws cloud his reasoning. A highly competent hunter, Kempf keeps the pressure on the Navigator and Madelaine until the very end.

Sister Anne:

Mother Superior at a local convent. Mid-30s, tiny, energetic, devout, and fearless. Her group is engaged in the fight by creating counterfeit documents and uniforms for local Resistance Groups. She becomes Madelaine’s most trusted accomplice, providing her with a new cover story, documents, and a safe house when disaster strikes at plot point one.

Story
Set in occupied Belgium in 1943. A freak mechanical failure sets an, R.A.F. Pathfinder Mosquito on fire. Savard bails out, leaving his best friend and pilot behind. The British Secret Service is tasked with extracting or executing Savard. Madelaine’s Commanding Officer proposes her for the job and makes a convincing case for the unconventional approach.

Madelaine parachutes into occupied Belgium and is received by Sr. Anne. The tension builds immediately on the journey to the convent when Madelaine is nearly discovered at a German roadblock. The nuns’ original plan was to provide Madelaine with a temporary safe house and hand her over to the Belgian agent Crecy. Catastrophe strikes when the Gestapo arrests Crecy before he can connect with Madelaine. Plot point 1 page 34

Now, in addition to finding the airman, Madelaine must find a safe house, a suitable location for an extraction, and recruit a team from a community paralyzed with fear. Madelaine accepts Sr. Anne's proposal and assumes the new role of a nun.

Madelaine and Sr. Anne cross paths with Kempf early in Act 2 when they meet at a farm where Savard spent a night. A tense interrogation of the nuns, the farmer, and the farmer’s wife ensues.

Madelaine and Sr. Anne narrowly escape an encounter in a church bell tower when German agents surprise her as she sends a wireless message. Madelaine uses her silenced Welrod pistol to kill the Germans and escape.

Madelaine believes she has located an aligned resistance group she has located, Savard, and sets up a rendezvous and extraction, only to have the resistance group no-show.

Madelaine makes a last-minute call to turn the extraction into an arms drop. The nuns recruit some locals to commit acts of sabotage with the arms, but, as amateurs, they make a fatal mistake.

The nuns’ other side hustles also come to light, making Kempf suspicious.

Kempf capitalizes on these mistakes and closes in on Madelaine’s team.

She is forced to go on the run before she can find Savard. Alone and out of options, she is at her low point. Page 94

Meanwhile, Savard uses his wits to stay one step ahead of Kempf’s methamphetamine fuelled tracker, Sergeant Weiler. Savard finds refuge in a remote farmhouse owned by a brave, helpful, but lonely woman. She likes having the young aviator around and hides his uniform from him, delaying his progress. Savard is finally sprung and eventually connects with the Belgian Resistance, which relays his whereabouts to Madelaine. She coordinates an extraction with the British Secret Service. The Germans intercept the communication, and the race is on.

Madelaine gets to Savard first, but Kempf and a contingent of German soldiers surround the forest sanctuary.

The British High Command doesn’t like the odds, overrules the Secret Service, and carpet bombs the enclave. Madelaine and Savard survive the horrific bombardment and team up to win a life-and-death engagement with Sergeant Weiler.

Still gasping for air after almost being choked to death and with prospects for success looking dismal, Madelaine chooses assassin over savior, but freezes at the last moment. Too late. The damage done, Savard no longer trusts Madelaine, but with no other options, he is compelled to follow her. Madelaine leads the dysfunctional pair on a perilous, cross-country trek to a new extraction point. They are forced to overcome their differences and barely elude the relentless Kempf.

The pair narrowly survives a final gun battle with Kempf and flies out of immediate danger in an R.A.F Lysander. The escaping aircraft evades night fighters and ground fire at tree-top levels. Low on fuel, the Lysander is forced to ditch in the English Channel. Madelaine heroically pulls an unconscious Savard from the sinking airplane, and they are rescued by the Royal Navy.

She completes her character arc when she finds joy and purpose in caring for another human being again, bringing Savard home alive.