Soul Saviour

By Ross Lloyd

She was the hottest property on the planet and everyone wanted a piece of her, but some wanted a lot more than just a piece of Lana Richards. On the surface she was just the latest hot American pop star flaunting her beauty and talent to make it in the fickle entertainment industry and this made her a prime target for those who mix terror with religion. But to others who knew much more about her, including just how pure of heart she really was, Lana Richards represented the perfect final element necessary for bringing about an apocalyptic destiny for us all.

While on a concert tour of the “Land Down Under” Lana’s survival and her very soul would come to depend upon one unique individual. Someone who, perhaps by chance, or perhaps by ultimate design she would encounter and who would intervene to stand up for her, to defend her and to fall for her, while defying all odds and Lana’s own seemingly predetermined dark fate. Would the efforts of a loner, a single pawn in the eternal struggle between good and evil be enough to spare Lana from an unspeakable doom and thereby the world from everlasting darkness?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ross Lloyd
• Release date: Nov 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301910847

Ross Lloyd

Author of "Soul Saviour" 2012, "Get Emily" 2013 and "For Anastasia" 2015. Formerly a career Commonwealth of Australia Public Servant. Other written works have previously spanned everything from Cabinet submissions and legislative drafting instructions to Ministerial speeches and Prime Ministerial correspondence. Published articles include "Savage Saviour" and "Echoes of Thermopylae" published in WARTIME Magazine, the official magazine of the Australian War Memorial.Born in Sydney 1957, schooled in Canberra. Junior ACT Judo Champion before switching to Olympic Weightlifting. Eleven times ACT Weightlifting Champion and 94kg Class Australian Masters Champion 2002 and 2012. Oceania Masters Champion 2012.

Book preview

SOUL SAVIOUR

By

Ross A Lloyd

Eternity in the hands of a lone Biker!

Extended Edition December 2021

Chapter 1

Abducted

It was past midnight and Lana Richards was totally exhausted as she slid between the sheets of the bed in her hotel room, wrapping her arms around a large soft pillow as she lay face down. It had been a long flight to Sydney from LA. The traffic between the airport and the hotel in the northern part of the city had been the worst she could ever remember seeing outside of New York. All Lana wanted to do now was sleep, forever would be just about long enough she thought. Within mere seconds she was deep in slumber. So deep in slumber in fact was she that the young, slender blonde beauty, clad only in a white satin nightgown, did not hear the lock activated on her door a short time later, nor the handle turn gently downward.

Three tall figures clad in black entered the darkened room quietly, partly to ensure that they did not disturb other guests in the hotel, particularly Lana’s mother, who occupied an adjoining suite. They knew that Lana would be very tired and that she was a heavy sleeper, but still they did not wish to risk arousing her before they were ready to deal with her anticipated reaction. As the men surrounded the bed, the largest of the three pulled a small bottle out of his pocket along with a handkerchief. He carefully unscrewed the lid and wet the handkerchief with the contents of the bottle. With this done, he replaced the lid on the bottle and slid it back into his pocket. Now looking up he nodded to the other two men facing him across the bed. Then they made their move.

******

As he rode along the old highway the lone biker reflected on what a struggle it had been to get through the competition. He had pushed himself to the limit, but had been reasonably successful. I really am too old for this he mused, wincing at the pain in his right wrist from inside his old glossy black helmet. The helmet had dozens of scratches on it from far too many years of use. The bike humming smoothly beneath him had also seen more than a few years of use, but not that many. It was commonly known as a Super Blackbird, the first street-legal motor cycle to claim a potential top speed of over 300 kilometres per hour. It was over a decade old though, whereas the helmet was almost half as old as its fifty year old owner, Ryan.

Ryan was a bit of an enigma to all who knew him. Friendly, kind and generous, but with a very different philosophy and view of the world that often made him seem at total odds with all those around him. Today he was alone, riding home to the city of Canberra after competing in an Olympic style weightlifting competition in Sydney. Since he was in no great hurry, something had prompted him to enjoy the mild autumn weather and head home along the old back roads. At this moment he was heading towards the rather trendy and historic township of Berrima. Once there he planned to stop for a drink and stretch his aching muscular legs and give his backside a much needed respite from the bike’s rather hard and narrow seat.

In spite of his many years, Ryan was a formidable sight at any time. Beneath his black leather jacket, black helmet and black jeans was a body that had been constantly engaged in very heavy physical training for almost its entire life. The result was a physique that the eighteen and nineteen year old students who trained at the same gym aspired to attain one day, if they could stick it out that long. However, the machine-gun like speed and efficiency with which he always cranked out thirty or forty chin-ups at the end of a training session often disturbed more than a few of the girls, as well as many guys who also trained there casually from time to time. One young female member of the university rowing squad even went so far as to advise Ryan that it was in fact, quite scary!

While his face did not show his true age, most likely due to a fairly healthy life that scorned things like cigarettes, drugs and alcohol, yet oddly constantly craved sweet treats like biscuits and cakes, one could still reasonably surmise that he was in fact no kid. It was often remarked as being totally freaky by many, that a guy supposedly his age could actually do what he does!

It had been a long time since Ryan had used this quiet old back road, usually preferring the faster and more direct freeway when travelling to and from Sydney, especially when riding the sleek black machine he presently sat astride. But today he was taking the time to smell the roses as he would say and was enjoying seeing the yellow and orange colours of the trees as they were changing with the season along this more scenic route.

Sweeping around a bend in the road Ryan cruised up behind a bus loaded with school children who were obviously on an excursion. He thought to himself in amusement that I had better get past the bus and get in to the café in Berrima before the school kids do, otherwise I may have to wait in a rather noisy queue for quite a while.

Spying the rider clad all in black on a rather mean-looking black bike from the back window of the bus, a young red-haired and quite bored girl tapped her friend’s shoulder and turned around on her seat to wave at the rider as he followed the bus towards the base of a nearby hill. Soon there were more than half a dozen young girls waving to the rider in black, with his dark tinted visor having been raised slightly to let more air in now that he was forced to travel at the same relatively slow, snail-pace speed as the bus. Keen to get past, Ryan kept looking around the side of the bus for an opportunity to pass. Amused by the attention, which he often received in similar situations, he waved back at the children before seeing that the road had now widened with a second passing lane. This made it clear enough for him to twist the throttle and shoot past the bus and up the hill. The girls at the back of the bus and several of the boys who had joined them leapt to the right-hand side of the bus to catch a last glimpse of the black-clad man and machine as they disappeared over the top of the hill, at an already highly illegal speed.

The old Blackbird is a great machine to ride fast, but oh, it’s so flippin hard on the old wrists and rear end Ryan thought to himself as he slowed up coming into the township. Yep, these things really aren’t meant for low speed cruising at all he reminded himself. Nevertheless he cruised through the town and pulled up near the park on the south eastern side in the shade of a huge old tree, a short distance away from a few parked cars. Kicking the side stand down, thus cutting the engine Ryan dismounted letting out an audible ‘ugh’ as he did so. The Blackbird’s seat was designed for speed, not comfort, especially for someone who possessed a rock hard behind from years upon years of constant heavy squats and other lifts on the weightlifting platform. With that in mind Ryan opened up his black tinted visor and took off his black sunglasses. Taking off his helmet he quickly replaced his sunglasses to shade his eyes from the bright near mid-day sunshine and set off towards the nearest café, stretching from side to side in odd looking movements as he walked.

******

Lana awoke gradually, and then remembered in shock, the hand that had smothered her attempt to scream before she had blacked out while in bed in her hotel room. As she continued to regain consciousness she became aware of the movement of the vehicle she was in, as it drove over a few rough bumps on the old back road. She opened her eyes slightly and did so slowly, cautiously. She was frightened now, and she knew that she was in all likelihood alone with someone who probably meant her harm. That much she knew for certain, but who they could be, she didn’t know.

Through her barely raised eyelids Lana could just make out the shapes of two men in the front seats of the car and sensed the presence of a third next to her in the back seat on her right. The driver seemed to be quite tall, dark and possibly rather thin from what she could tell. The bulky man next to him in the front passenger seat began to talk in a southern American accent.

‘Why did you have to get a limmo with such hard suspension? This thing feels every bump on the road, and using this old goat track instead of the main freeway ain’t helping my back either.’

‘Put a sock in it, we’ll be there inside the hour’ snapped the man in the back seat on her right in an abrupt, yet more cultured tone of voice.

From his tone Lana knew the man sitting next to her was in charge and was used to being obeyed. She could not see him clearly without moving her head. However, she was not about to move and let on that she was conscious. She was frightened, but not stupid and hoped that if they thought she was still unconscious they would leave her be, at least for now anyway.

‘There’s a town ahead, better keep it under the limit,’ said the leader. ‘We don’t want to draw any more attention than this hot rod you chose already does.’

‘OK, not a problem’ answered the driver.

******

Ryan walked slowly back to his Bird as he often called it, sipping on a can of Pepsi as he went. Looking around he wondered why it was so quiet, even for a Monday of a working week. He’d taken the whole week off work following the competition to use up some of his excess leave that the boss had insisted he take. He wasn’t about to complain about how quiet it was though. He liked it that way, especially without traffic. He noticed that the school tour bus was pulling up now fifty metres away in front of the takeaway shop he had just visited and was glad that he had managed to get in and out before the little darlings arrived.

As he reached his bike Ryan spied a dark green sedan cruising towards him from the direction he had just come from himself. Looking at it he recognized it as a Holden Special Vehicle, a Statesman model of some description. Probably fitted with a 6.2 litre V8 under the bonnet, and a supercharger no doubt Ryan mused, looking at the conspicuous bonnet scoop air intake and the lowered suspension. Bit of a pimp mobile, he thought to himself smiling. Chrome mags are never a good look on a car like that. Anyway, I’m very much a Ford man through-and-through after all.

******

As the car she was in made its way through the town Lana’s hopes rose. Perhaps they’ll stop? Perhaps I will be able to attract someone’s attention, she thought. Unfortunately, from where she sat slumped against the left hand rear passenger door, all she could see over the door sill was a bus and a few people walking past the craft shops and cafés too far away from the road to be of any help. Then, as they swept around a bend in the road to the right she saw him. A lone biker in black with a can of drink in his right hand looking straight at the car not more than fifty feet away, and they were going to pass right by him! Perhaps as close as about ten feet, she thought.

The sight of the biker made her spirits rise, even though, clad as he was all in black, he appeared at first glance even more frightening and dangerous than the men in the car. He even looked to be almost dressed for war, wearing black shin guards on the outside of his long black boots like an armoured knight. Something about him though, perhaps the lines of his mouth that she could now make out clearly, suggested kindness. At any rate Lana steeled herself. This was her chance, and she knew she had but one very risky shot at it. A few seconds later, as they were almost level with the biker, Lana quick as a flash undid her seat belt and sat up, grabbed the door handle and tried to push the door open to fling herself out of the car.

No! She shouted inside her terror-stricken mind. Now completely panicked and afraid, she realised that the door’s handle did not work! They must have flicked the child safety switch on the door she surmised. Her eyes were wide open with hopelessness and fear as she looked straight at the rider they were now passing. Just then she was grabbed from behind, flung backwards and struck across the face by the dark and foreboding man in the back seat.

‘Don’t try that again Missy’ he snarled at Lana.

Ryan was shocked by what he had thought he had just seen through the heavily tinted rear passenger window of the car. Did I imagine that? Surely that couldn’t have been for real? The windows of the car were quite dark after all he thought. But no, strangely enough I know I didn’t. He immediately processed what it was that had played out in front of him. A young girl, with a vaguely familiar face, had seemingly thrown herself at the door of the pimp mobile in what may have been an attempt to get out of the car while it was still moving. That speaks of desperation, he thought. From the expression he was quite sure he had seen on her face, she looked frightened. He had also seen that she appeared to have been thrust back into her seat by someone behind her and also may have been hit. Anger started to mount in Ryan’s mind picturing a worst-case scenario.

Chapter 2

Cannon Ball

From the moment he was born Ryan had been raised on a massive diet of the heroic tales of Tarzan of the Apes, Robin Hood, King Arthur, Ivanhoe, Superman and also the ANZACS. Chivalry ran deep within his psyche, right to his very core. Indeed it was fortunate for humanity that it did, for without this constraint on Ryan’s inherently lethal inner self, he would have made the world’s worst homicidal maniacs seem like gentle Sunday school teachers. Kids however, had often ribbed him throughout his school years about his predilection for goody-goody movies, novels and TV shows, but they rarely went too far as they had learnt very early on, that in spite of having overwhelming numbers on their side, they never, ever, stood a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning a fight with him. They had tried and had learnt that lesson all too well. Ryan often wondered himself if his very nature was his own, or whether perhaps he had just become a reflection of the countless Edgar Rice Burroughs novels he had digested during his formative years. The jury was still deliberating on that point…

******

‘Step on it’ was the command directed at the driver from the leader in the back seat of the limousine. ‘The fool saw that little episode. Better put some distance between us and him just in case. We are too close now to have anyone follow us.’

The driver nodded and complied, gradually putting his foot further down on the accelerator as the car picked up speed.

******

Oh well, this bears closer investigation I reckon. I just can’t take the chance that she doesn’t need help Ryan thought, as gritting his teeth he strode over to a nearby garbage bin to fling in his drink can. As he got back to his bike Ryan bent down and adjusted the straps on his shin guards, tightening them before quickly reaching for his helmet and gloves. Removing his shades temporarily, Ryan put on his helmet and replaced his sunglasses before slipping on his gloves, throwing his right leg over the bike as he did. Pulling down the visor halfway, Ryan looked around to his right to check that the road was clear before kicking up the side-stand and turning the key in the ignition. The bike grunted into life and with a smooth twist of the throttle Ryan took off in pursuit, chirping dust and gravel in his wake as the bike left the dirt on the side of the road to climb on to the