Underground - Softcover

Chapter One

Tuesday, August 26. Stillson Beach, VA. 4:26 p.m.

It began with a word: six letters plucked from the Roman alphabet-two vowels, three consonants, one used twice- that, when combined just so, spelled war.

Justin Van Slyke squinted through gargoyle shades at the heat shimmering off the parking lot as a groundskeeper arrived and quickly prepped roller and pan to erase the vandal's taunt from the neat wooden sign. The word shone black against a field of purest white, jarring graffito under the elegant script that announced WELCOME TO CUSTIS MANOR, and in smaller serif, COURTESY OF THE HISTORICAL PRESERVATION SOCIETY. Justin watched as the offending letters were masked by the first pass of the roller, only to bleed back ghostly gray. The word lingered stubbornly, like it just didn't want to go away.

A lawnmower droned somewhere beyond the treelined drive at the edge of the lot where the shuttle tram waited; a faint breeze wafted, bringing the smell of freshcut grass, mixed with the barest hint of magnolia and dogwood, on the thick summer air. It was heart-attack hot, even for August: the kind of sodden, surly weather that promised thunder but delivered only stinging sweat.

Justin checked his watch. 4:29. It was time to go. As he picked up his pace, he cast one glance back at the workman laboring so diligently. The word was gone. The word was Nigger.

The tour guide looked all of twenty. She was perfectly blond, perfectly Southern and genteel, with perfect teeth, perfect skin, and a perfect aquiline nose. She radiated helpful wholesomeness. A little yellow name tag on her navy blazer read hi, my name is BAMBI!

Of course it is, Justin thought, doubting that an imperfect thought had ever creased her smooth suburban brow. The tram got under way, quiet electric motor carrying it effortlessly past the wrought-iron gates that marked the entrance to the estate grounds. Justin hunched his sixfoot frame into the last row of seats, keeping very much to himself: seeing everything, trying not to be seen, doubting that either was likely. "I'd like to welcome y'all to our last tour of the day," Bambi said with practiced cheerfulness, clutching her mike like a game-show hostess, her voice slightly tinny through the tram's speakers. "Custis Manor is a fine historic landmark and one of the few completely restored antebellum plantations left in this part of the country."

The other tourists nodded and craned necks and autofocus zoom lenses, snapping pictures of the outbuildings coming into view on either side of the drive. The group was a random assortment of blue-haired matrons and Hawaiian-shirted retirees, a sunburnt midwestern family, some Yankee hipster yuppie honeymooners, a gaggle of Japanese exchange students with T-shirts emblazoned Old Dominion University . . . and three young black men, whose somber presence seemed to set Bambi a wee bit on edge.

Justin was not surprised. He knew that the truth about 4 craig spector this place wasn't anywhere in the history books, but with the approach of Greek Week, the tour guide's unease was hardly unwarranted. For years, students from black fraternities across the nation had descended on Stillson Beach to party away the Labor Day weekend. In the last several years, though, this influx of rowdy youth had led to violent clashes between police and partiers, this last year edging into full-scale riot and virtual martial law. Now, in the wake of budget-slashing, social program-gutting measures proposed by Senator Elijah J. "Eli" Custis-and the rabblerousing rhetoric of his eldest son, independent gubernatorial hopeful Daniel "Duke" Custis-things were edgier than ever. Duke's bid to unseat the black incumbent, Governor Raymond Langley, was exceeding all expectations, both in the polls and in mudslinging negative campaigning. Many feared that last year's riots were just a pregame warm-up for the weekend about to unfold. Bambi pressed on, extolling the virtues of the painstaking restoration of this archetypal microcosm of early nineteenth-century Southern life: kitchens, dairies, washhouses, henhouses, smokehouses, gristmills, and drying racks for the tobacco that was once its staple crop. The whitewashed wood structures presented an idyllic 3-D still life and, as Bambi assured all, were second only to Colonial Williamsburg in historical accuracy. With one somewhat glaring omission, Justin thought, as he fingered the long and jagged scar that ran across his cheek. Still, it had changed greatly since the last time he was here. In a way, it was deeply ironic-the very years that had etched their cruel mark into his rugged features had resurrected this place; the two decades that had been sucked into a seemingly inexorable downward spiral of state pens, back rooms, and dank alleys had here rendered new that which was once crumbling and rotted. The last time he was here, it was the darkest of nights.

But now, the sun was shining. Everything was pristine and sanitized.

And no one was screaming.

"And here we are," Bambi said. A collective murmur sounded as the tram rounded the last bend and rolled into a wide traffic circle. Three flagpoles dominated the center of the circle: the center pole reserved for Old Glory, flanked by smaller poles from which hung the rich blue state flag of Virginia, two Confederate regimental battle flags, and that ubiquitous blood red Confederate icon, the Southern Cross. They fluttered lazily in the breeze. A cardinal perched atop the center pole, regarding the tram with quizzical indifference, then flew away.

The big house was stately and serene, tall white Doric columns punctuating a broad-beamed front porch suited to sipping iced tea and surveying domain. The tram hissed to a stop and Bambi ushered the group up the wide stairs. As Justin ascended, he caught a glimpse of the charred stubble of a massive barn at the distant fringe of the estate: the one part of Custis Manor left neglected. In the shadow of the manor, its scorched timbers and roughhewn stone foundation were strangely haunting.

Then they were inside, with the splendid staircases and balustrades that dominated the sprawling entrance. To the left, a magnificent mirrored ballroom. To the right, a voluminous sitting room and library. And directly before them, the great hall, in which the portraits of the family patriarchs hung. There was Senator Elijah, nearest and most recent. There was Elijah's father, Vance, another important statesman, dead now some twenty years. There was Vance's great-grandfather, Emmanuel, the noted Confederate colonel who steered the family fortune through the turbulence of the Civil War and Reconstruction to the Gilded Age at the dawn of the last century.

And at the end of the line, the portrait of Silas Custis: true and founding father of the lineage. It was he who built the manor and the family fortune upon which his heirs had relied. It was his distinctive countenance-high, arching brow, deep-set eyes, gaunt and severe features-that the rest of the clan had genetically replicated. He had been dead for over one hundred and fifty years. But not nearly dead enough.

I'm back, motherfucker, Justin hissed under his breath, staring up at the portrait. The portrait stared back, impassive and imperious. Justin glanced at the three black youths, exchanged a terse nod.

Suddenly, the men sprang into action: two whipping out spray-paint cans and defacing the paintings while the third launched into a fiery tirade. "THIS HOUSE WAS BUILT ON A FOUNDATION OF LIES!" the black man roared, addressing the horrified crowd. "BUILT ON THE BLLOD OF THOUSANDS OF AFRICAN BROTHERS AND SISTERS WHO WERE PLACED IN BONDAGE AND SET HERE TO BE SLAUGHTERED!"

Bambi screamed for Security as the chaos mounted. Two more paintings bit the dust. The black youths continued to rage as a pair of blazered goons entered...