James Bright Society, Chapter 2: Pages 1-2

Page 1, 5 Panels- Corridor, D.C. SkyTrans- December 24th, 1943

Panel 1: Cut to a close-up shot of DETECTIVE TASHA RANDOLPH seated in the middle of a row of busy tourists in one of the city's SkyTrans dirigibles. She's a woman in her late 20s with dark hair, green eyes and caramel skin. She's dressed in the standard uniform of the D.C. Police Department of the time. Her eyes are glancing up toward the roof of the building, listening to the Christmas music playing on the radio.

DET. TASHA RANDOLPH [narrating Off-Panel window]: Ah, Christmas...this would be the fifth year I've been away from my family in Guatemala. Never gets easier!

Panel 2-4: A three-part set of panels that are centered on the same setting as the previous panel. The layout in each of these panels widen out to take in the rest of the row of people who are busy in their own worlds, either reading the newspapers or chatting with each other or playing. As was the case in Panel 1, Tasha is bored and skiddish in her seat; the dirigible slowly descending toward its destination. In Panel 4, she looks back toward the radio speaker upon some interesting news.

DET. RANDOLPH [Cont., Panel 2]: I was the first person in my family to emigrate to the United States. Most of the women in my family became either teachers or maids. DET. RANDOLPH [Cont., Panel 3]: I wanted to be a cop to provide a little good in this dumpster fire of a planet. Luckily for me, the police chief wanted some good PR after a corruption scandal. DET. RANDOLPH [Cont., Panel 4]: Maybe there's some good whiskey left at the station that hasn't already been drained by my cavemen "colleagues"-- NEWS ANNOUNCER [Off-Panel, from the speaker; Panel 4]: Fighting continued in Guatemala between Axis forces and rebel forces loyal to President Urico...

Panel 5: Cut to a shot of the ceiling to the dirigible a split second later. You can see the speaker as it blares out the latest news; the appliance is affixed toward a corner of the ceiling in front of a row of halogen lights that run in the middle of the shot, providing illumination to the other people inside. You can also see the tops of a handful of heads belonging to other passengers seated across from Det. Randolph at that moment.

NEWS ANNOUNCER [Cont.]: The rebels, who call themselves the New Chiapas, attacked a German Scharnhorst class battlecruiser outside the port city of Puerto Barrios. Eyewitnesses say that a contingent of Águilas fuego, or fire eagles, collided with the battlecruiser just after 8 A.M. yesterday morning, disrupting yet another attempt at Nazi penetration into the country.

Page 2, 4 Panels- Corridor, D.C. SkyTrans

Panel 1-4: A four-part set of panels that are centered back on the same setting as the start of Page 1. Each one is split into four different sections, portraying the same single setting at the same moment in time. We see Tasha in Panel 2, split between a businessman visible in Panel 1 and a housewife who is seen in Panel 3 reacting to the news from the radio. All the while we see the dirigible start its descent toward ground level.

NEWS ANNOUNCER [Cont., stretching out over the top margins of Panels 1 through 3]: This is the third such incident that the New Chiapas have been involved in since the Nazis began forward operations three years ago into what they deem the "Südlichenland." DET. RANDOLPH [voiceover caption, top of Panel 2]: My cousin Lita...she got me situated here in the States. She's been fighting with the New Chiapas for a little over a year...couldn't be more proud of her!. Her family were not that happy about their daughter risking her life for a country she hadn't seen since she was 8. But they knew they couldn't stop her and...just let her be. DET. RANDOLPH [Cont. voiceover caption; Panel 2, Caption 2] I remember, before she left for Guatemala, she offered to get me into the group. But I told her no- I just wanted to help people, not be used as cannon fodder. And from what I saw on the newsreels, the Americans could use the help... BUSINESSMAN [reacting to the news with disgust, Panel 1]: Fucking savages...at least they're being put to good use! DET. RANDOLPH [Panel 2, caption 3; next to the Businesman's quote]: Even if they don't act like it half the damn time!