Hey guys! As many of you know I'm writing a novel. I've come up with the premise for a new idea, I'm looking to give it some scope, depth... etc. My latest involves four British Special Forces operatives being drafted in by the Security Services to work on an operation to track down four operatives of an Active Service Unit of the IRA planning to assassinate heads of the British Armed Forces. They're working in tandem with Protection Command, specifically SO1, or Specialist Protection that operates from the Close Protection Unit, Royal Military Police. The Increment is purely a rumour and there has never been any acknowledgement by the British Government - its operations are supposedly overseen by the Security Services. My four operatives are recruited into The Increment, what I'm looking for is something to make it more 'dark and mysterious', something to make it a deniable op, perhaps these IRA men have outside help? Not quite sure what else? Thanks, hawky.
One or more of the IRA individuals might be of prominence and cause a back lash if it appeared to be an assassination. The individuals the IRA intend to assassinate maybe working on a top secret project. The political environment might be such they couldn't have it look like they were at odds with the IRA. Maybe a peace deal being worked out and some group on either side wants to kill it by firing up public opinion.
One of the characters in the novel I'm writing is a SAS bloke on a solitary mission with just the kind of a dark twist you described. So I won't give you any concrete suggestions but if you closely research recent wars, you should be able to find many controversies which can be used for the purposes of the story
Ominous secrets go a long way in creating that dark, mysterious vibe. Maybe the characters figure out that there's human experimentation of a very nasty sort going on, but they don't know what kind of experiments or for what purpose. Or maybe there's an equivalent of "Room 101" or some sinister plan that could have catastrophic repercussions for a lot of people. Also, I think it's important to have a lot of plot twists and mysteries surrounding characters. This will leave readers constantly wanting to keep reading more, and add more points of interest besides just the main storyline. No matter how exciting the main storyline will be, the most riveting books have more going on than one linear flow.
The team of four does have an Irish guy in there, he was in Northern Ireland during the eighties, and oversaw the torture of Irish prisoners at Castlereagh, saw the torture of his fellow Irishmen. He'll be the thorn in the side, eventually leading to a betrayal... (Not sure how, haven't formulated that part yet) That's what I've got so far. But.. looking for the depth and mystery which would correlate with a 'black op' -- the team was originally tasked with tracking down but NOT killing these terrorists, however, I'm planning for that order to change, which throws the whole mission and 'darkens' the mood and re-establishes the pace. Something like: "The situation has changed drastically, your orders are now to eliminate, I repeat, eliminate the targets. This is a kill order. I repeat, this is a kill order." The sh*t hits the fan when that kill order is given... apart from that... I'll do some research on recent wars and the politics of the IRA and Sinn Fein. Thanks for your help everyone! Keep those suggestions coming!
