(JaiChai) "Codename: Ms. Isa"

Ms. Isa was born in Manila.

Unlike other children from rich families, she spent four years in the Philippine Military.

During her enlistment, she became one of only two females in military history to pass the rigorous Recon Marine course.

Philippine Recon Marine training is fashioned after the U.S. Navy SEAL BUDs course, but with a distinctly Filipino addition: The course culminates with actual combat in Zamboanga against Muslim rebels.

After her honorable discharge, Ms. Isa attended the National Police Academy and then served four years on the Metro Manila Vice Squad.

Months before being eligible for promotion to Detective, she received multiple gunshot wounds during a drug sting gone bad.

Because of the doctor's bleak prognosis and a "slim to no chance of full recovery", the Police Department offered her an administrative job or the option to leave the force with a small medical pension.

She declined both.

Coming from a wealthy family, money was never a motivator for her.

In fact, until now, she'd never used a peso from the Trust Fund her father started when she was born.

The generous monthly stipends sat in her bank account, accruing interest since she was 18 y/o.

She withdrew enough money to pay for 24 months of extensive physical rehabilitation in the United States.

Half-way through her rehab, she realized how fascinating physical therapy actually was and decided a career in Physical Therapy was something worthwhile.

Ms. Isa enrolled in the prestigious Physical Therapy program at the University of Southern California; eagerly immersing herself in both the program studies and the college life.

All was going well and Ms. Isa was happy to be working towards an important life goal again.

But as luck would have it (or not), her life was about to drastically change - again.

While picking up her bank manager friend for lunch, three masked gunmen stormed into the bank.

Ms. Isa could hardly believe it. She was in the midst of a bank heist!

To her, it felt more like a movie than real life.

One robber spray painted the CCTV cameras.

The second one located the bank manager and ushered him to the back where the vault and lock boxes were located.

The third gunman shouted, "Everyone on the floor now! Cellphones out and in this bag! You three there behind the desks, hands where I can see them and fuck*n' join the rest on the floor! Now! Do as I say and no one gets hurt."

Old habits die hard.

Ms. Isa's past training instantly took over.

Still seated in her friend's cubicle, Ms. Isa immediately took on the demeanor of a panicked, hyperventilating young woman.

To use as a makeshift rebreathing device, "spray paint guy" emptied a waste basket on the floor, turned the plastic bag inside out and walked towards Ms. Isa.

When he bent down to give it to her, she quickly jumped up and ballistically buried the top of her head squarely into the robber's face.

Spray paint guy went down like a sack of potatoes.

With a slight grin, Ms. Isa whispered, "Lights out. Nighty-night spray paint guy."

Pulling him out of sight from the "shout guy" in the lobby, she stuffed spray paint guy into the leg space of her friend's desk.

Wondering where his unresponding, fellow thief had gone, shout guy edged his way towards the bank manager's office.

Keeping his automatic weapon trained on the face-down, prone customers, he slowly walked backwards towards the bank manager's cubicle and the desk where Ms. Isa was crouching behind.

As shout guy came closer, Ms Isa quietly took off her necklace and opened its latch.

Her necklace looked just like a piece of ordinary women's jewelry - pretty, shiny and fragile.

But in reality, it was made of polished tungsten carbide.

If you didn't know, tungsten has the highest tensile strength of any pure metal – up to 500,000 psi at room temperature and resists melting, even under extremely high heat.

When shout guy was close enough, Ms. Isa sprung up behind him, wrapped her "necklace cum tungsten garrote" around his neck and delivered a savage knee thrust into his kidney area.

"Nice. Shout guy is now out of commission." she said to herself.

Pausing for a moment, she admitted, "Hell yeah! I kinda missed sh*t like this!"

The silence made the last thief begin to suspect things had gone tits-up and made his way back towards the front.

He used the bank manager as both cover and hostage.

Shout guy emerged with his arm around the bank manager's neck and his gun poking into the small of the manager's back.

Ms. Isa was waiting beside the doorway when shout guy and her friend came through.

With a well-placed, upward kick, shout guy's weapon went sailing towards the ceiling.

Then Ms. Isa immediately used her necklace like a mini-whip. Swiping back and forth, she delivered several vicious lashes to shout guy's face.

Shout guy screamed in anguish and reflexively covered his bloody face with his hands.

That's when Ms. Isa punted shout guy's testicles for a winning field goal.

The cops arrived to see all the bank robbers on the lobby floor.

They had been tied up with their own shoelaces and were being guarded by Ms. Isa and her friend.

The attractive and rather diminutive Filipina and the small, nerdy bank manager were each holding a gun taken from the thieves.

One thief had a bloody face and neck, was moaning incoherently and twitching in a fetal position.

The other two were unconscious.

Funny thing.

One of the unconscious criminals looked like he was strangled with a piano wire?

After the foiled bank heist, two things made Ms. Isa quit the Physical Therapy program:

1. The persistent intrusions into her privacy by the media.

2. Raymond Kohl's offer of employment in his Personal Security Detail.

The Security Detail - known as "The Pool" to its members and insiders, is an elite group of highly trained and fiercely loyal bodyguards, combat survival instructors and covert operatives - all under the guise of being an ordinary Executive Secretary.

Ms. Isa has never regretted joining The Pool...

[Submitted for your entertainment. Enjoy the Original Art.]

May you and yours be well and loving life today.

In Lak'ech, JaiChai