Ghost Warrior

What a night for a mission – dark, starless and quiet as death itself. The C-130 was flying at 20,000 feet, give or take a couple of hundred feet. Raul was a CIA assassin, or more specifically, a sniper who had been charged with assassinating “World Problems” since he was 25 years old. Raul, a full blooded Navajo Indian, was hired by the company straight out of the Marines, where he had been a government-trained sniper since the age of 17 when he had forged his grandfather’s signature on the enlistment form. Raul, at the age of 17 was running; running at full speed from possible problems with reservation police.

Raul, along with his older brother Hector, were left orphans when Raul was 9 years old. Their father, ‘the reservation drunk’, had killed himself, as well as their mother, in a horrendous automobile accident.  The idiot actually thought he could run his 1966 Chevy pickup into a bridge abutment at 85 miles an hour and walk away. Raul hated this man because he had taken his mother from him, and for this he prayed that the gods would scorn him and make him sit in shit for eternity. Hector never spoke badly about their father, but then again Hector never spoke badly about anyone because he was just a nice guy.  Raul had thought he was weak for that. Raul was a fighter ever since he could remember, and Hector was a diplomat. Raul could remember how angry he would get at Hector, because more than once he had stepped into the middle of something that Raul figured was totally under control, and stopped him from fighting. Raul used to tell him, “somebody sticks a gun in your face, and what, you’re gonna talk him to death?” “Little brother” Hector would say, “when that time comes, I’m going to order you to kill him.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”  Raul would ask, and each time Hector would get this really stupid look on his face, and say “I have no idea. Ask Grandpa”.

Grandpa was Johnny Lightfoot, and Raul was closer to him than anyone in the world. Grandpa took both Hector and Raul after the accident, and brought them into his home. He told them, “now you are my sons and nothing more will harm you.”  Johnny Lightfoot was a Navajo chief by birthright, and the tribe looked to him constantly for guidance. Grandpa had been a war hero and was one of the famous “Wind Talkers”

He felt himself drifting into a deep sleep when all of a sudden the front door of the house flew open and there was a little old man standing in the doorway. The old man was only about four feet high and looked to be every bit of a hundred years old. He was dressed in rags and his skin drooped and hung on his weathered skeleton-like frame. His head was abnormally thin and he had only a whisp of gray hair left on it. His eyes were probably the eeriest part of the encounter. They looked red and seemed to glow. “I’m looking for the blue-eyed Indian”, he said.

Raul and Ricky both stared at the man in disbelief. “How did you get in here?” Ricky asked. “How did you get past security? This is impossible - the cameras, guards, sensors….”

Raul looked at Ricky and then at the little man. “Why have you come here tonight, and who sent you?” Raul demanded.

The little old man did not respond and Ricky moved toward him. Before Raul could stop Ricky’s advance, the little old man put up his right hand with the palm facing outward. Ricky flew backward against the wall and was knocked unconscious.

“I did not come here to hurt you. You know that, don’t you?” the old man asked.

“I do”, Raul responded. “The persons responsible for the storms sent you, didn’t they?”

“She did, and you must listen to her before it is too late.”

“Her?” Raul repeated. “Listen to her, you said. It is a woman who has caused all this havoc?”

“She wants your son. She believes your son is her son and you must give him to her.  If you don’t, she has vowed to destroy Colombia. And she will. She is very powerful and you can’t fight her. She destroys or takes anything or anybody she wants. Humans are helpless to resist her. You have never fought a power such as this one. Surrender and give her what she wants. I beg you, for the people, I am your friend, and I can help you.”

“You still haven’t told me her name or where I can find her; and why should I trust you, anyway?”