Even the deadliest gangs in Chicagoland fear the Cross Crew, and carefully avoid their cinderblock bunker headquarters: Red 71 is well known as the last place you'd want to go . . . unless you re willing to risk it being the last place you "ever" go. The Crew is notorious for its ruthless efficiency and cold-blooded cunning. Why, then, would anyone be foolhardy enough to threaten them and even more dangerously, their loved ones?
As Cross catches the scent of a far-reaching conspiracy, he realizes that it all connects to an unexplained event in his past: a massacre from which he emerged inexplicably unscathed, save for the blue mark on his face that pulses when danger is near. That scar has been throbbing more frequently of late.... If he's reading the signs accurately, Cross might find himself again facing a terrible menace that is not altogether human.
*
MEMO
FROM: Captain Nathan Lancaster, Chief, Gang Surveillance Unit
TO: All Precincts, Focus Near-North
ALERT: Incoming Threats to Cross Crew, SituationHighly Unstable
DETAILS: Cross and known associatesclearly organizingresponse to perceived pattern of threats.Gang Intelligenceindicates high probabilityof pre-emptive strikes. Report any suspicious and/or unusual activity in Badlands area immediately, gang violence alert level RED."