“I know he visited out there, Alex, when he was still with the Bureau. He was definitely on the max security unit as well as death row. He could have met Luu. It's possible. I'm afraid you never know with Kyle.”

I almost didn't want to think about the possibility that Kyle might be behind the diabolical murder scheme somehow. But it was possible. Still, it seemed so unlikely that I didn't give it much credence.

“You had any time to think about my offer? ”Burns asked.

“I still don't have an answer for you. I'm sorry. This is a big decision for me and my family. If it's any consolation, once I land I don't jump around.”

“Okay, that's fine with me. You understand I can't leave the offer on the table indefinitely?”

I nodded. “I appreciate the way you're handling this. You always this patient?”

“Whenever I can be,” Burns said, and left it at that. He picked up a couple of manila folders from the coffee table between our chairs and slid them my way.

“I have something for you, Alex. Take a look.”

Alex Cross 8 - Four Blind Mice

Chapter One Hundred and Five

More of the Bureau's resources that you want me to I see,"

I said, and smiled at Burns.

“You'll like this. It's real good stuff. I hope it's helpful. I want to see you get some closure on this Army case. We're interested in this one, too.”

I reached into one of the folders and pulled out what looked like a faded patch off of a jacket. I held it up to examine the cloth more closely. The patch was green khaki with what looked like a crossbow sewn into the fabric. There was also a straw doll on the patch. An eerie, awful straw doll. The same kind I'd first seen in Ellis Cooper's house.

“The patch came from the jacket of a sixteen-year-old gang member in New York City. The gang he belonged to is named Ghost Shadows. They use different coffee shops on Canal Street in New York as headquarters. It's called roving turf,” Burns said.

“A task force we ran with the NYPD brought the gang banger in. He decided to trade some information he thought might be valuable to them. It wasn't. But it could be valuable to you.”

“How so?”I asked.

“He says he's sent you several e-mails during the past month, Alex. He used computers at a technical high school in New York.”

“He's Foot Soldier?” I asked, and shook my head in amazement.

"No. But he may be a messenger for Foot Soldier. He's Vietnamese. The symbol of the crossbow is from a popular folktale. In the story, the crossbow could kill ten thousand men every time it was fired. The Ghost Shadows think of themselves as very powerful. They're big into symbols, myth, magic.

“As I said, this kid and his fellow gang bangers spend most of their time in the coffee shops. Playing ding lung, drinking Cafe Su Da. The gang moved to New York from Orange County in California. Over one hundred fifty thousand Viet refugees have settled in Orange County since the seventies. The gang in New York favored Vietnamese-style criminal activities. Smuggling illegal aliens called snake heads credit card fraud, software and computer parts heists. That help you?”