Luck Is a Hard Target

Synopsis

Jean (Mike Kaminski) is a Bulgarian special agent and an exceptional counterterrorism professional, who is highly respected and has partnered with the services of various countries, including the American FBI. For the last four years he has been working for Israeli intelligence. And he is the first to have succeeded in eliminating one of the leaders of Hamas, using a remote-controlled detonator via telephone. However, he is exposed, and Mossad urgently sends him to Canada under the cover of seeking humanitarian asylum as a private individual with a Bulgarian passport. Only the head of the Canadian secret service, CSIS John Power, is informed of this. Jean is granted refugee status and expects a peaceful and trouble-free stay in Saint Johns, the capital of Canadian province of Newfoundland. By a twist of fate, he ends up on the French islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, where, completely unexpectedly and for a very special reason, he is presented with extremely valuable personal artefacts belonging to the legendary gangster Al Capone, which had been kept for decades in the local cathedral. During Prohibition, Capone imported alcohol from the islands to America. Among these artifacts are notebooks with notes by Capone's personal bodyguard, Frank Rio. Immediately after his return to St. Johns from the islands, three people with whom Jean had been in contact are murdered. As the reason for the murders is unclear, John Power urgently sends Jean to a safe house. It is a bungalow in a small village in the province of Alberta, under the new identity of Michael Kaminski. At the beginning of his stay in the village, Jean becomes close with his bungalow neighbor, The Big Tim, and Sandra, the owner of the only café. Just days after settling into the bungalow, Jean's expectations for a quiet life evaporate, and he finds himself in the eye of the storm. The first attack comes from the Calabrian Mafia, the 'Ndrangheta, operating in Chicago, which wants to get its hands on Capone's priceless artifacts in his possession. But the FBI also sends a squad to get hold of and destroy evidence of a secret that has been covered up for years, involving the name of Edgar Hoover and the 31st president of the United States. Namely, that Al Capone blackmailed Edgar Hoover himself, to pressure the 31st president in his own personal interest, and financed his presidential campaign. A secret that the FBI cannot allow anyone to know. From Frank Rio's notebooks, Jean learns another secret about Al Capone private life. He had a mistress, Leila, a former mistress of Edgar Hoover, whose illegitimate son by an English diplomat had been abandoned and raised in the French islands Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and who later helped Capone with alcohol smuggling. And, after the FBI shot Leila, Capone deposited a significant amount of money in a Swiss bank to financially support Leila's illegitimate son. He sent him the bank account code, but, for some reason, the money was never used. Two violent incidents took place at Jean's bungalow. During the second attack by the FBI squad, Jean realizes that these are not FBI agents, but imposters from the 'Ndrangheta, led at the highest level by Javed Ahram, a senior officer who holds positions in the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI. Thanks to his vast experience in interrogations, Jean learns that Ahram is being heavily blackmailed by the 'Ndrangheta, who have discovered that he has a son working for ISIS in Afghanistan. In fact, it turns out that the 'Ndrangheta is blackmailing the FBI to order the CSIS to keep Jean in this safe house until he is caught and eliminated. In the final shootout, Jean survives with the help of The Big Tim, who turns out to be a former CSIS agent, and Maurizio Conte, an FBI agent undercover in the 'Ndrangheta, but all three are seriously injured. The 'Ndrangheta learns of Maurizio's double agent status and makes an unsuccessful attempt to kill him in a military hospital in Toronto. After all, three recover, Jean, Maurizio and four Canadian commandos leave on a secret operation in Afghanistan, led by CSIS and Mossad and kept secret from the FBI because of the 'Ndrangheta's mole, Javed Ahram. The goal of the operation is to capture Ahram's son, dead or alive, and take him to the American military base in Kandahar to expose the mole, his father, who is threatening America's national security. After fierce battles and unforeseen and almost fatal twists and turns on the road from Kabul to Kandahar, they succeed. Javed Ahram is exposed and arrested, along with a large number of 'Ndrangheta members. After the successful operation is done, Jean and Sandra go on vacation to Switzerland, where, with extraordinary luck, Jean manages to get hold of Al Capone's unused deposit, which, after a hundred years of interest, turns out to be a considerable sum.

Having had a long and well-deserved rest after the mission, Jean is fascinated by the fate of two long-dead compatriots and inventors, Professor St. Naydenov and Iliya Valkov, who in various ways and successfully, have worked to turn water into fuel. He was especially intrigued by the life of Iliya Valkov, later renamed Yule Brown. He learns that Valkov had managed to escape the Bulgarian communist regime, ended up in a Turkish prison and was eventually released by unknown FBI Major. After which he was sent to emigrate to Australia. A man of quick decisions, Michael flies to the US and visits the FBI archives to find out more about Yull Brown, but the file is classified, and Jean comes under the scrutiny of his FBI colleagues. Irritated by this fact and highly motivated to deal with the situation, Jean visits his black FBI colleague and fighting friend, Samuel Dante, in New Jersey, and with his help, obtains classified information about Yull Brown's former business partner, Griffiths. It turns out he's a former FBI agent who, in the past, had a special mission to monitor Yull Brown's inventions. This important information was secretly obtained from a relative of Sam's, Bruce, a top FBI official. He is married to Patty, Sam's wife's cousin, and an oil tycoon heiress. Extremely excited about the information received about Griffiths, Michael visits him in a nursing home in Seattle and learns that Yull Brown has been locked away in a Swiss bank vault, a chemical formula invented and given to him by Professor Valkov. Formula that turns water into fuel. And that Griffiths holds the key to this vault, delivered personally by Yull Brown. Having gained Griffiths' trust, he is given the key to the vault. Jean/Mike is full of ambition and excitement, and he firmly decides that he will go to Switzerland to get the formula, but first he has to get rid of the FBI surveillance on him. He disguises himself, rents a luxury limousine and travels to the Canadian border, in the hope that he can escape the FBI. His plan includes taking Sandra with him and travelling to Europe together. On his departure from the United States, however, he received a 'friendly' helicopter visit from FBI officers, who hinted that he would be closely watched even in Europe. After some twists and turns, and with a lot of luck, Mike, with the help of Sandra, finds the formula, but from that moment on, he falls in the eye of the storm. He finds out that a call for highly paid assassins to steal the formula from him has been posted on the Dark Web, and the approved candidates come from five different European countries. With the help of the Swiss police and Europol, Kaminsky survives the raids of the first two squads, but things get from bad to brutal and his friend Samuel Dante arrives from America to help him. The two get into several heavy, fierce fights with the next squads of assassins, and they must free Sandra, who was kidnapped and whose life was threatened. During very intense battles, which Michael takes, he receives threatening phone calls from a modulated voice, apparently, belonging to the organizer of the assassinations. Mike and Sam strongly suspect that this is Bruce's voice, and that the operation is being secretly orchestrated by the FBI. Unexpectedly, after a spectacular car chase, Sam is kidnapped. On another call, talking to Mike, the modulated voice uses a specific phrase: “Luck Is a Hard Target!”, that Mike has previously heard on the phone from Bruce. This reinforces his suspicion that Bruce is playing a double game against him. Left alone, Mike is completely confused and decides that he cannot cope with such a powerful organization against him, but Fate gives him a hand. His fighting friend, Maurizio, arrives from Spain to help. From the States, Bruce informs Mike that has urgently organized a rescue operation to free Sam, using elite Special Forces helicopters from the American base at Ramstein in Germany. However, due to lack of time, Mike and Maurizio overtook the rescue team, and, overcoming quite a few unforeseen situations and battles, manage to free Sam. After interrogating a kidnapper, Mike learns that the person with the modulated voice is on a private jet at an airport in Switzerland. Surprisingly, modulated voice calls him on the phone and tells him that he has already managed to steal the formula from the bank vault. Ambitious and determined to solve the mystery of the modulated voice, Mike and Sam take a big risk. They enter the plane and surrender to the kidnappers, relying on the Special Forces rescue team to come soon. On the plane, to their great surprise, they are met by Patty, now Bruce's ex-wife. Mike and Sam realize that the modulated voice was hers. Having the formula, Patty could have flown away on her plane right away, but her ego wouldn't let her. She wants to see Michael's disappointed face and prove her superiority to him. Unexpectedly for Mike and Sam, she reveals that she heads a powerful secret organization of oil tycoons in America, whose aims were different from those of the government. And also, that she has organized and financed all the gangs to get the formula from Mike. As proof, she shows him the original artefact containing the formula. Mike is really desperate when he sees it. On top of that, hearing this confession from Patty, Mike and Sam realize that they are in great danger of not getting off the plane alive. The situation becomes critical when Patty orders the pilot to take off, but Maurizio who is their backup, thwarts this by crashing a technical car into the front landing gear of the plane. A battle ensues between the arriving special forces and the plane's security guards. After a prolonged hand-to-hand fight, the guards in the plane's cabin are also neutralized, and, surprisingly, Bruce appears, and it turns out that he has to arrest his ex-wife. Mike and Sam now realize why they have heard the same phrase, “Luck is a hard target!”, from Bruce and the modulated voice that was Patty's. On behalf of the FBI Director, Bruce congratulates Mike and his friends on successfully uncovering the sinister plot. And informs Michael about a government proposal, the formula to be frozen for the next 20 years, and Mike to officially be paid the amount of one million dollars for each of them. Mike agrees and shares the first million for the first year with her three friends Sam, Maurizio and the Big Tim.