Protect the kids

Idea:

A less than perfect bodyguard is left on the bench as others pick up the glamorous jobs. Then a call comes in to babysit two kids. He sent to pick up the detail. We alternate between him and a group planning to kidnap the kids, kill them quick, and then claim the ransom. So we know what's coming: if he lets the kids fall into the hands of the kidnappers they die.

We can also show the parents and give some background on why they would be targetted. Probably non-descript wealthy business people. Possibly someone has set the kidnappers up to divert attention from another plan involving the business; they want the husband or wife to be thinking about the kidbap and not another move that is being made.

Meanwhile the washed up bodyguard goes on the run with the kids, with theusual close escapes, possibly being viewed as a suspect by the police which limits his options.

And of course the kids make things harder with their own paranoia that he is fact a kidnapper and they need to escape from him.

End: Someone mentioned (Stephen Donaldson?) that they've had an ending to a story that they always write towards but the story takes on a life of it's own and finds it's own ending. But it's still good to have, so...

Beat up to hell, the bodyguard ends up in the offices of the couple, hiding out from the remains of the kidnappers. The poilce are closing in and have orders to take him out. The crooked business partner is in the building making his/her move against the couple. The kids call the parents, who alert the police, but as things come to a close the involvement of the dodgy business partner is given away, and the parents, unable to alert the police somehow speak to the kids who save the bodyguard life.

Hmm. A maybe. Could be a bit Die Hard like (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). Smacks of generic American pulp, which may read well but gets turned into a sub par summer failure of a movie.

Why I might write this: Write what you know, and having two kids there's potential there for the interplay between the bodyguard and them. Also the potential for action, which I like, though I tend to over do the level of violence, which might be a bit much. But the threat level does need to be high to give the sense of danger they are all in, so not a bad thing.

Why I might not write this: Would need to set this in the States (he'll need to carry a gun, the kidnappers will need guns), I hate writing stories set in London. Also, I prefer to have a level of humour - however dark - and I'm not sure how that would fit here. I wouldn't want him to be a wise crcking Bruce Willis character, and wouldn't want to write cliched Russian kidnappers.