The Cold Blade

Ronald Brady comes down from the mountain and walks into a chase already under way. Ghost Order assassins are hunting Mabel Chandler, who has been poisoned. She asks him to help her. He pushes her aside and moves to leave. He trained in Death Valley. At the end of his training his teacher sent him five women as a reward, all of them killers with orders to finish him the moment he was distracted. He had already worked the softness out of himself, and when the first of them came at him he knocked her unconscious with one blow. His teacher acknowledged him for it and he was ranked the first assassin of the valley. The Ghost Order men get louder and tell him to clear off. He looks back at them, and the killing intent fills the air.