Book excerpt: There are secrets that must remain buried . . . Nine people have been slain in New York City—nine strangers with nothing in common—the apparent victims of a frighteningly elusive serial killer. Only one thing links the dead: postcards they received, mailed from Las Vegas, announcing the day they would die. Assigned to the case is a legendary FBI profiler with a troubled past, a drinking problem, and nothing left to lose . . . Abandoned to a monastery is an unwanted son born under a curse on the seventh day of the seventh month of the year 777 . . . Unprepared for a momentous discovery is a post-World War II expedition into the crypts of a clandestine medieval society . . . . . . but all lead to a secret embroiled in destiny, history, evil, faith, and corruption . . . and one terrifying truth that no one must ever know . . .