Spirits of the Crane

The story opens at dawn in a 1992 Los Angeles apartment, where we witness the usual morning routines of ARMAN MANOOKIAN (27), an Armenian-American Marine veteran preparing for a morning run, when suddenly he is arrested by FBI agents and taken to a black site facility at Guantanamo Bay. Defense contractors from the Bland Corporation prepare to use experimental consciousness extraction technology to harvest his memories of classified military briefings, Turkish diplomatic intelligence, and his potential terrorist connections to his executed cousin KOKO KASSARDJIAN (29). Through flashbacks, the story reveals that Arman is being detained on a pretext of planning to assassinate Turkish officials, when the real reason is his knowledge of top secret briefing of an unauthorized war by the CIA, and his knowledge of who framed Koko for the assassination of a Turkish diplomat that was carried out by the Turkish Grey Wolves working with the CIA and FBI. As Arman undergoes waterboarding and memory extraction procedures, the process inadvertently awakens his inherited psychic abilities to send images and emotions of his location for help telepathically. When the contractors attempt to implant false memories and erase his last remaining identity, Arman's consciousness becomes a conduit for justice-seeking Armenian spirits. Arman's mind uses these ancestral forces to turn the extraction technology against his captors, causing the deaths of the corporate board members through supernatural means that can never be proven and appear coincidental---as stress-induced heart attacks and suicide. Meanwhile, his lawyer cousin AIDA KASSARDJIAN (30) and former CIA operative JOHN KIZIRIAN (65) use political leverage to secure Arman's release through Congressional intervention. The story climaxes when John executes the last surviving conspirator at gunpoint, making it look like another suicide and placing the CIA in a Catch-22. In the resolution, Arman returns to Los Angeles with his memories fragmented by the viral memory erasure. Still, he recovers through channeling with his deceased family members via a photo album. Through his awakened ancestral consciousness and connections with Koko’s former girlfriend, he chooses to build a family with her and gradually piece together his identity and experiences. The story ends with Arman retaining his commitment to preserving Armenian memory and justice at Koko’s grave site. SPIRITS OF THE CRANE is a genre blend of thrillers that transcends traditional revenge narratives, exploring how intergenerational trauma and geopolitical conspiracy can ignite a profoundly personal, psychic war for justice and identity. It offers a unique cultural lens where the medium becomes the message on universal themes of resilience, memory, and delivers catharsis, regardless of ethnicity.