FAST TEAM is a serialized novel published weekly on Substack—structured like a season of television, but written sentence by sentence for the page. It follows a highly trained DEA FAST team (Foreign-Deployed Advisory and Support Team,) operating in the grey spaces between law enforcement and warfare.
This is an ordered story. It’s built to be read from the beginning.
Begin at Chapter 1 read forward, and let the story build…
At a lesser-used entrance in Shenandoah National Park, four motorcycles pull up to the entrance booth. A forest ranger in uniform steps out to greet them.
“Sorry, but motorcycles are not permitted at this entrance. Y’all need to go around to the main entrance on Jasper Road.”
The bikers start to turn their bikes around. Then they stop.
They turn back and gun their engines, storming the gate. One biker pulls a handgun with a silencer and shoots the ranger twice in the chest. He drops.
The motorcycles roar past the entrance booth and disappear off-road into the woods.
The pilots, both women as they remove their flight helmets, open the crate. Inside: bricks of heroin, wrapped and stacked with precision.
The sound of motorcycle engines approaches through the trees.
The four motorcyclists arrive at the clearing, parking in a loose circle around the crate. They pull handheld devices from their packs, GPS trackers showing the beacon location.
No one speaks. It’s choreographed, rehearsed.
The pilots unload the heroin bricks. The motorcyclists pack them into saddlebags mounted on the bikes. Once the transfer is complete, the pilots strip off their flight suits, revealing cycling gear underneath. They pull on helmets and get on the backs of two of the bikes.
Now they look like regular touring bikers, nothing suspicious.
The four motorcycles fire up and head back through the woods toward a different exit.
The four motorcycles roll out of the park through a different entrance. It’s all casual, unhurried. They merge onto the main road and disappear into traffic.
State trooper cars and park ranger SUVs are posted at the entrance, lights rolling. Crime scene tape cordons off the booth.
Josh and Max step out of a FAST Team vehicle. Renee, Gabriela, and Ajay drive past the blockade after flashing their IDs, heading deeper into the park.
Max and Josh flash their badges to the troopers at the perimeter and walk past. Jack is already there, inspecting the body covered with a tarp.
“Any DNA or prints?”
“No. We’re not going to find anything. This was surgical.”
Josh crouches near the body, jaw tight. “Poor son of a bitch.”
Deeper in the park, Gabriela, Renee, and Ajay reach the clearing. Their beacon device flashes, indicating the signal source. The crate sits in the center of the clearing, parachute draped across nearby branches.
The crate is empty.
Renee pulls a walkie-talkie from her belt. “We found the crate from Batumi. Nothing inside. We can dust for prints, but why bother? Very pro.”
She looks around the clearing and sees tire tracks from motorcycles, boot prints, but nothing that will lead anywhere.
“Whoever planned this, knew what they were doing.”
…continued in Chapter 10…
“FAST TEAM” is Written by Brian S. Kalata and Rick Shaughnessy. Based on the screenplay by Brian S. Kalata & Eric Hooge and the teleplay by Brian S. Kalata & Rick Shaughnessy. Copyright 2026
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