Following an explosion at Columbia's old creosote plant, Joe Don McDaniel learns of a top-secret Pentagon contract and thousands of drums of Agent Orange and other toxic chemicals buried on the plant property. With the aid of some nefarious characters from New Orleans, Joe Don devises a plan to spill additional chemicals onto the plant's grounds to ensure that no one will come near the plant. He and some nefarious New Orleans characters can then use the plant to manufacture a new street drug called crystal methamphetamine. The story follows a prominent civic-minded local couple, a local newspaperwoman, and a New Orleans television investigative reporter trying to determine who intentionally spilled Agent Orange onto the plant property and why.

On a clear spring morning in 1977, the old creosote plant in Columbia, Mississippi, exploded, spewing chemicals and debris into the air, causing the evacuation of nearby, primarily poor neighborhoods and spreading fear throughout the community. Nearly three years after two illegal drug operations went sour, the now virtually unrecognizable former spy, Joe Don McDaniel, leaves his heavily wooded, secluded hideout in Hancock County, Mississippi, to check out the mysterious blast. Through conversations with a loose-lipped plant official he meets at a Columbia bar, Joe Don learns of a top-secret Pentagon contract and thousands of drums of Agent Orange and other toxic chemicals buried on the plant property. With the aid of some nefarious characters from New Orleans, Joe Don empties the contents of the plant's 30,000-gallon tanks onto the creosote plant grounds, creating an even more severe environmental disaster. Then, with the plant declared off-limits, Joe Don schemes to use the plant's two laboratories and mixing facilities to manufacture crystal methamphetamine. The drug is inexpensive to make and, unlike cocaine, can be sold at a price that is affordable to anyone. Best of all, the entire enterprise can operate under the noses of the locals who are deathly afraid to go near the abandoned and potentially lethal creosote plant site. The story follows a prominent civic-minded local couple, a local newspaperwoman, and a New Orleans television investigative reporter who are trying to determine who intentionally spilled Agent Orange onto the plant property and why.

B. C. Murray is a native of Columbia, Mississippi, a graduate of Ole Miss, and the proud father of two sons. He has written three novels set in and around Columbia, Mississippi, during the 1970s; Dancing with the White Squirrels, Blown Sky High, and the third, Intercepted, which will be available soon. The author's essay, A Boy, the Moon, and Camille, appeared in the July/August 2020 issue, and his essay Rendezvous with the Red-Headed Nurse in the November/December 2021 of Mississippi Magazine. In addition, the short story, The Incomparable Donny Moss, appeared in the December 12th, 2021, issue of Litro Magazine USA.