Philip was surveying the landscape while driving and hadn’t noticed he was going less than the speed limit. A car overtook him. The front passenger glared at him. The passenger had a way of staring that invited trouble. Philip just gave him his half smile and carried on like he didn’t exist.

He drove past a gate. It seemed like an odd place for a gate. That needed closer inspection. Philip turned the camper around, opened the gate and walked down a dirt road. There was a wooded area to the left. The dirt road seemed to go around it and down to some old buildings. It looked like the perfect base, hidden from the road. There was a small farmhouse-type building and two small outbuildings. They were run down and falling apart. That didn’t matter. What mattered was the steep forty-foot cliff down to a small beach. The breeze coming off was a paraglider pilot's dream as it would give the needed lift to get into the air. He'd found a little paradise. And it appeared, for now, to be all his.

After exploring the buildings and giving the area a good survey, he tactically positioned the camper for a quick exit if needed. Just one small problem, there was only one entry and one exit. It wasn’t long before the kettle was on and Philip was orienting himself to the map. He knew there was probably a lot going on in the area that the map didn’t cover because nobody really cared to record it.

Philip wasted no time getting into the sky, he was gaining altitude quickly. He wanted to get up high so he could get the best bird's-eye view. He started circling the area, understanding all the folds in the landscape. It was mostly rough farming land with a network of roads that just seemed to go nowhere, with no purpose.

Philip got back to the camper to plan his life, and settled in for a night with some of Barcelona's finest vino. He couldn’t get a channel on the radio in the camper and was a bit bored with his own music library. Philip had seen a busy beach about fifteen miles away. The plan was to do a night raid with his metal detector and then head back to the camper for breakfast. Alarm clock set and topped up with some vino, he was ready for an early night.

The alarm went off. He wasted no time setting off in the pitch black, working the glider to get some altitude so the moonlight could help show him the way. About an hour later, he had spied out the beach. It wasn’t hard. It was lit up like a Christmas tree and the beating music was pounding out. He watched the show hovering in the dark, like a vampire waiting to strike. The party goers were totally oblivious.

He landed and found his vantage spot for the night. He was not impressed with their carry-on, but very interested in where people went for their carry-on. He had an idea in the

Philip Jonathan Lloyd

back of his head that he could have found the jackpot. The party died down and he headed into the danger zone. His detector was beeping so much that it sounded like he had his own disco going on. He was pulling up all sorts of chains, watches, wallets, rings and bucket loads of coins. The hours passed. It was about an hour off daybreak. His sixth sense told him he was being watched. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly where from, but then he didn’t care much. Whoever they were, he would deal with them if he had to.

He started packing all his tools, pulled the rucksack over his back, and headed to his paraglider. Two figures moved out of the bush and headed towards him. Guess he was about to find out who the on-lookers were. As they got closer he could see they meant business. Both had sharp knives held ready. One went behind Philip, the other confronted him, shouting in who-knows-what language. Philip took the rucksack off and placed it next to the detector. All the hundreds of hours and billions of drops of sweat practising hand-to-hand combat, were about to pay off. Philip had his half-smile on his face.

As the person behind made a swipe at him, Philip, with one eye on the other guy, took hold of the man’s wrist and moved it away, punching him straight in the face at the same time. He took the knife from him and stabbed him just below his shoulder blade. Looking him in the eyes, he twisted the knife left, then back. The shrill coming out of his mouth was at the right volume, letting Philip know he'd done a good job. Philip let go of him. He dropped to the floor screaming. The next guy made the fatal mistake of overreaching but not enough to get Philip. Philip grabbed his wrist, wrenched it back hard, and heard all the bones and tendons crack. Philip then grabbed the knife and without hesitation, stabbed the guy in the exact same place, also making him scream. Philip was pissed now, and he really didn’t like this one. So, he violently karate-kicked him in the knee. The knee cap snapped in half at the same time as his knee dislocated. Philip looked at him and said, “Go tell your fucking mummy what I just did!”

The sun was appearing. It was now daybreak. Philip grabbed his things and headed for the skies. The smile on his face was from ear to ear, for he had a rucksack full of loot, and he’d just kicked the crap out of two criminals. Philip liked the feeling of dishing out a bit of justice on bad people.

As the camper van came into sight, he noticed a tent pitched not far off. He was sure it wasn’t there when he'd left. He landed. Nobody seemed up. On went the kettle along with some scrambled eggs on toast. He eventually heard the zip on the tent being pulled and peered out to look. A cute little face popped out. Philip just gave his half-smile to the girl, waved and said, “Good morning.” The young girl smiled back and said, “Bonjour.“ Now he knew the girl was French. He suspected there were two. It didn't matter, they passed the friendly test and Phillip was happy to have their company.

Philip’s day was not going to include girls though, andhis senses didn’t perceive a threat. He'd bought two scuba tanks from Mario. They were filled and ready to go. He wanted to go diving and had already spotted somewhere close. Philip scrambled down to the little

Philip Jonathan Lloyd

beach with a scuba tank and swam out to the place. He was soon underwater, playing with the fish and checking out the sea snails. Apparently, they fetch a good price from the right buyer, but he wanted to leave nature right where it was.

He thoroughly enjoyed his solo dive and headed back to the beach. Looking out to sea, he wished he'd gotten a canoe. He could have caught his lunch. Philip was actually a keen fisherman, having been raised with a river at the bottom of his garden. He got back to the camper and gave the girls his half smile and a little wave. They were cute. Harmless, just out for a bit of fun.

Philip was happy now. He spent the rest of his day going through wallets. Some people had really lost all their holiday money romping in the sand. Everything was all nicely cleaned up and packed away.

Not including the jewellery, he had just over five thousand Euros. His goal of financing his adventure through his metal detecting had come to fruition. He still had a thousand five hundred left over from his Barcelona beach detecting days.

Tonight he wanted to do a night flight but at a super high altitude. The weather was great for it and he did not appear to be on any flight path, so no problem with aeroplanes. It was time to feast, get very hydrated, and head off.

The girls had made a nice campfire for themselves. Their eyes nearly popped out of their heads when they saw Philip unfold his paraglider and take off into the early night. It was so quiet. The land soon became a distant object.

Philip's altitude meter wasn’t working - this was dangerous. One could go unconscious at high altitudes where the air gets too thin. Philip really was in a bit of a fix when he started to gasp for air. That was his cue. He had gone high enough. The goal had been achieved. The next challenge was to locate the camper in the dark. This is why Philip wanted to do something this crazy. To gain the experience and sharpen his skills. He was starting to be one with his glider and the elements, reading all the signs correctly. After all, he was still alive so he couldn't be that bad at it. Being still alive was the ultimate test.

He spotted the camper in the distance and a car halfway down the dirt road. His radar was on high alert. His mind was moving into full-on combat mode. There was faint screaming in the distance. Philip was coming in fast and hard. He could see two men holding the girls on the ground. A third was standing over them laughing. Not for long. Philip was in pure stealth mode. As he glided in he took out the man standing up with a violent kick to the head. The other two men were clueless as to what had just happened. Philip was out of his glider in an instant, ran over and with a short-sharp-blow punched one of them at the back of his head, knocking him out. The other man was holding one of the girls on the floor when Philip let rip a brutal karate-kick straight in the nose, resulting in a bone-shattering crack, knocking him on his back.

The salesman back at the car place, where Philip bought the camper, had thrown in a bag

Philip Jonathan Lloyd

full of electrical cable ties. Philip thought it very odd at the time, but now they came into full use. Philip dragged the three men over to a tree, tied their feet together, then tied all three of them around the tree. He ran back to the girls and touched one on her little face. She had a busted lip. The other had bruises on her neck.

The girls got busy packing up their belongings and tent. One of the men was struggling to get free. Philip went into the camper and pulled out the bat Kat gave him. He went over to the men and violently broke all their kneecaps without reservation. Then hit them under the chin, knocking them all out. Philip was fuming. It wasn't steam coming out of his ears but the eruption of hot molten volcanic lava. Right now he only cared about the girls' safety and getting out of there. He packed his glider away. The car up the dirt road was blocking the route out, so he ran up and moved it down. With the psycho criminals under control, he felt he had bought some time.

The two girls were watching as he searched the car, looking through the glove compartment and all the little pockets. There wasn't much in the car. He stood back and looked at the car. It struck him – hiding places. He pulled on the back seat, and it just flew up. There were three bags: one was full of cash, another had weapons and ammunition, and the last bag was the smallest, it was crammed full of passports.

One of the girls opened the boot. She screamed, jumped back with a look of shock-horror on her face and covered her mouth with her hand.

Philip came around the back, looked in, and saw a naked girl curled up. Her left eye moved. Philip instantly grabbed her to lift her out. It wasn't easy to move her. He realised the eye movement was just a latent muscle spasm. The girl had early rigour mortis. Sadly her light had gone out. He lay the small body about twenty feet away from the car in the grass. She must have been only sixteen, maybe eighteen. The world was like Kat had described. They just don't care.

With both girls now in the camper, Philip went back to the three men. One was semiconscious, begging him in a slurred voice. Philip took out his knife and was filled with rage. He looked them up and down, then made a move on the first, cutting off all his clothes. Philip saw he had a money belt on him and some thick gold jewellery which he obligingly removed. It was the same drill for the other two. They were now totally naked and stripped of everything.

Philip went back to their car, opened the petrol cap, stuck a rag in, and set it alight. As he jumped into the camper, there was an epic explosion. The car lifted into the air by a good fifteen feet and came crashing down. There were flames everywhere. Philip turned the key to the camper and roared to the gate. One of the girls jumped out and opened the gate. They were now on the road back to Barcelona, fleeing from the crime scene. The speedometer hit ninety five miles an hour on the camper - baby could handle it!

There was no traffic on the road. It was gone two a.m. Philip drove right through the morning. There was no point stopping. He got onto the main highway, dropped the speed

Philip Jonathan Lloyd

down to the limit, and cruised into Barcelona straight back to Mario's.

Mario was kicked out of bed and told half the story. Mario knew this sort of thing was happening with girls being taken which is why he kept his sister close. His sister was still with Skinny.

Philip asked if Mario knew somebody who spoke French to translate for the girls. Mario knew Jacques. He was an ex-Legionnaire who did twenty years in the French Foreign Legion to escape doing hard time for killing a criminal. Jacques had a bad attitude toward the criminal world. He'd told Mario he would do another twenty years if he ever needed to.

They all jumped into the camper to find Jacques and caught him just before he was due to go to work. After hearing the story and seeing the two cute girls, he called in sick. Jacques said with a deep French accent, "I'm ready to dust off my uniform if you need me." He meant it. Philip opened the bag of money. He took a third out and handed it to Jacques, saying, "Your job is to get the girls home safely." He handed the bag to the girls and said, "Your job is to go live the life you want – but get an education." Jacques translated. One of the girls broke down sobbing, the other gave Philip a well-deserved big brother type of hug. The girls knew their ordeal was over.

Philip still had a few loose ends to wrap up. Jacques said, "That bag of passports needs to go to the Interpol office with the details of where the men are now." Mario asked, "Do you have the address, Jacques?" He said, "No, but I have a contact there called Ken, who will jump right on it and leave out the story of looking for Philip and the girls. Leave it with me. I'll get this sorted out right now." Philip had an instant affinity for Jacques. He was a number one good guy in his mind and somebody Philip wanted to get to know.

Mario started panicking about his customers. Philip offered to help him, and off they went. Jacques was going to report back when the mission was accomplished.

Philip had one of the best days of his life with Mario. Mario's boat was busy. He chatted to customers, served drinks, helped with the food at lunch; Mario loved him – best mates. There they were, helping each other get through life, and none of it was ever moneymotivated. A hot bikini babe had her eye on Philip. He was more in war mode than love mode. However, he noticed.

All the passengers had gone. Philip was cleaning up in the kitchen. Mario came and put his arm around his shoulders and said, "You know, since you came into my life, it's been a screaming roller coaster of excitement. What's next?" Philip cracked up laughing and said, "Life's a blank canvas, you just have to be willing to paint." Mario loved that. He said he was going to paint that quote on the side of his boat. Trouble was, the boat did not belong to Mario and the Capitalist who owned it kept putting the rent up.

He sat down in his captain's chair and finally told Philip the whole story of the boat. He said, "I don't know what to do." Philip said, "I do!" and laughed. He told him the story of Jack, the birdwatcher he met in the Black Forest. He also told him about the listening

Philip Jonathan Lloyd

device. Mario jumped up with such vigour he nearly put his own head through the roof. He said with excitement, "I know that bastard is up to dirty shit! But, I'm not dragging you through that." Philip replied, "I'm just the secret type of agent you do drag through that." Mario shook his head, "No, I will use Jacques when he gets back." Philip agreed, "Okay, but let's go out tonight and play with the device. We can see what the wildlife is up to and you can see how it works." Mario was on another emotional high around Philip. He could see a possible end to his problem.

The boys went out. Philip pointed the dish at a balcony. The two lovers there had just gone inside. They could hear every word crystal clear as though they were standing right in front of them. Mario was cracking up trying to translate, "He's saying he can't and he already helped her out at the beginning of the week." Philip slapped his forehead, "Fucking loser!" Mario joked that maybe they should go around if the partner leaves for the pub or something. Philip was just cracking up. Mario was totally into this. They listened to a few more family crises in different places. Then Mario said, "I have the day off tomorrow, let's go get drunk and find some girls to play with." Philip quickly jumped out of war mode. Mario stashed the dish on the boat – totally confident he knew exactly what to do. The boys got cleaned up and hit the town. The vino flowed and chatting-up worked. The boys were back on the boat, and the real party was about to begin.

The next morning, Philip woke up to hear an argument on the boat. He got up to see what was going on. A policeman was having a go at Mario. He wanted some money to keep his mouth shut that Mario was technically drunk in charge of a boat. When Philip got up to speed, he walked right up to the policeman, an inch away from his face, and shouted, "FUCK OFF!" The startled policeman stumbled backwards, turned around and left. Mario was astounded and gasped, "PHILIP! How did you do that?!" Philip said, "They're dishonest, so they are immediately on the back foot and they know it.

One of the tricks is to get into their personal space, then, you don't ever ask them to fuck off, you tell them. Always be in charge. The other way is to get all the truth right out in the open. Boy! Do they hate that! They think they have you on the back foot and that's why they take the gap. Not to-fucking day!" Philip cracked up laughing at what just happened, he said to Mario, the other way they get you is if you actually start to care about what they have to say.

He looked around and asked, "Is your girl still here?" She suddenly appeared, walking through the door naked. Philip smiled and said to Mario, "I'm so glad my friend has amazing taste. What I was going to say, and it's really up to you, is I know a small deserted beach that could have some great diving in its waters." Mario smiled and said, "I'm not sure about diving today." Philip felt a hand slide along his back. It was Penelope, his new playmate, and she was dragging him back to the bunk. Well, they never went anywhere that day and Mario got even more drunk in charge of his boat – because he could. After all he had one of the most vicious dogs-of-war with him and they were best buddies.

Philip Jonathan Lloyd

The following morning the girls left and the boat quickly filled up with paying customers. Philip got a chance to show Mario that secret beach and the waters around it.

Mario made it his number one destination. It was set-up to have lunch privately on the beach and go diving in a safe deep cove full of sea life. In fact, he started charging more for that trip out. And the people paid.

When they arrived back at port, Mario heard that Jacques was back. Philip and Mario grabbed the camper and headed over to see him. Jacques was in his greenhouse, harvesting his garlic. The three had a good old natter session. Jacques said the girls were back safe and sound and their parents were over the moon to see them. It was a good job completed.

The next day Philip headed back down the south coast and went past the crime scene. It was all taped off. He got to the next town where the incident was all the talk. It hit the mainstream news. Interpol was all over it. Despite the injuries they had sustained, the three were sentenced to over twenty years each.

Philip took a day off in memory of the girl in the back of the car. Authorities still hadn't identified her, but thought she was of Polish origin. Actually, it was half a day off. The other half was thinking about what he was going to do to take more responsibility so people could live in a safer world. He still didn't have the idea fully formulated but he did know that he wanted to be more than a person doing his job well as part of a team. He had bigger ambitions.

Philip continued further south, right into enemy territory. He questioned what he was doing there. Looking for trouble, naturally. Sitting in enemy territory waving a flag was not tactical. He'd started to attract attention and it was just a matter of time till they scoped out his attitude and put two and two together. Anyhow, he was missing Mario and all the bikini babes. But still, he was torn and couldn't pull himself to go back to Barcelona. He decided to go to Madrid instead as he had a friend called Finlay who worked in the British Embassy who wanted to see him.

Madrid at the time had its problems with terror attacks. He wondered if that's why Finlay wanted him there. Philip tuned into the world news on the camper radio. There was a report of a bombing that week in Madrid. As Philip got closer he was starting to agree with himself that it was just all a bad idea. The plan was simple. Have a chat with Finlay. Let him know he was on sick leave and find another destination.

It was a full day's drive to Madrid and Philip headed straight to the British Embassy. As he walked in, he said in a loud voice, "I have an arrest warrant for a Mr. Rodger Finlay!" The receptionist knew Philip's type well. She picked up the phone willing to play the game and said to the voice on the other end, "There's an official-looking person here waving an arrest warrant around for you!" Finlay came straight down, and the moment his eyes hit Philip, he said, "Asshole – you fucking asshole." He threw his arms around him and said, "You fucking had me." Philip asked the obvious question, "What have you done?" The

Philip Jonathan Lloyd

receptionist laughed and said, "You two obviously know each other well." Finlay was over the moon once his heart rate calmed down and said, "It's dinner! I know the perfect place, and I'm paying." Both the receptionist and Philip looked at each other and smiled. She said, "You should jump at the opportunity. It's not every day he puts his hand in his pocket." Philip smiled, looked at Finlay, and said, "After you, boss."

Finlay was a tactical expert and an Officer in the British Military. Philip had had his back on many occasions. Finlay knew he could rely on Philip. He also knew Philip was badass. They went down to a nearby busy plaza, buzzing with hordes of people. Finlay said, "Check out the talent, mate." Philip smiled and said, "It's not as good as Barcelona." Finlay looked at Philip blankly. Philip said, "They only wear tiny bikinis down there." Finlay smiled.

A car pulled up alongside them, and a man got out holding onto a briefcase with both hands. Philips radar went onto full red alert. There was something drastically wrong with this picture. A scruffy, unshaven, sweaty man with a briefcase held in both hands. That wasn’t working for Philip. He grabbed Finlay by the arm and said, "Don't move from this spot!" Philip jumped into action and walked right behind the man. The man made a move to one of the restaurants, slipped the briefcase under the table out of sight, turned around and bumped into Philip. Without looking at Philip, he pushed past him and headed back to the car. Philip grabbed the case. No one was expecting it and nobody suspected a thing.

Philip was right behind the man as he got in the car. Philip smoothly slipped the briefcase on the car's roof rack. The two men quickly drove down the road, to a more secluded area, where the car stopped. One man got out with something in his hand. There was a massive explosion. The blast nearly blew Philip off his feet from where he was standing. The bomb would have killed hundreds. Meanwhile, it only got two – the two in the car. Finlay grabbed Philip's arm and said, "Where's the fucking car gone, it’s evaporated!" All that was left was a huge hole in the ground. The blast ripped through a water main, giving Madrid a new forty-foot fountain. The plaza emptied out fast with people screaming and running everywhere.

Philip walked into the nearest restaurant with Finlay trailing behind, spied out a freshly placed bowl of chicken salad, grabbed a bottle of beer, found an empty table and sat down. "Come on, find something to eat Finlay, and sit down." Finlay sat down, but he'd lost his appetite. "At least have a drink." Finlay absent-mindedly grabbed a bottle and took several swigs from it. He was in shock. He was more a tactical office boy. Philip would refer to him as the party planner. 'Party' was Philip's euphemism for battle. Philip didn't want a medal or any attention for this incident. He just wanted to find out what Finlay wanted and head back to Barcelona – or maybe Italy if the wind blew that way. Little did Philip know, a life-changing curveball was about to knock him flat.

Philip Jonathan Lloyd