“But when I came back, I got the shock of my life. The old plantation was back in business. Not just as a farm, but as an actual plantation. Crops in the ground and slaves in the field, but this time, unlike the 1800s, the slaves were white.”
“What did you do?” Jones wondered as he watched for unwanted company.
“I tried to leave. I wanted to tell somebody what I saw out here, but before I could get my boat out of the swamps, a big man named Octavian Holmes blocked my passage and demanded information from me at gunpoint. I didn’t want to tell him the truth, obviously. If he knew that I had been digging around, he would’ve killed me. So I decided to play dumb. At that moment, I became a buckwheat by the name of Bennie Blount.”
“Go on,” Payne said.
“I convinced Master Holmes that I’d be useful around here. I could cook, clean, and show him around the local swamps. One thing led to another, and he decided to hire me. I figured it was perfect. I could roam around the Plantation while I got to the bottom of things.”
“Did you?”
Blount nodded. “Up until recently, the Posse was bringing random groups of people onto the island, mostly homeless people. They’d beat them, train them, then ship them overseas for big money. It’s a lucrative business. But all of that changed with this last group of slaves. The people that were selected were no longer random. These people were brought here for a reason. They were brought here for revenge.”
“What kind of revenge?”
“Revenge for the black race. Theo Webster, the brains behind the operation, traced the roots of the Plantation’s four founders and determined their family origins. Three of the men came from slave backgrounds, but Levon Greene didn’t. His family came to America after slavery had been abolished. Anyway, Webster determined the names of the slave owners that had once owned the ancestors of the other three men. Then, tracing their family trees to the present day, he located the modern-day relatives of those slave owners.”
“And the people that were kidnapped were the relatives?”
Blount nodded. “Ariane and her sister are distant relatives of Mr. Delacroix, my great-great-great-great-grandfather. That’s why they were brought here, and that’s why I’m related. I realize it doesn’t make her my first cousin, but she is my relative. I even have the data to back it up.”
Payne shook his head. “Don’t worry. I actually believe you.”
“Great,” muttered a relieved Jones. “Now that this Ebony and Ivory reunion is over, do you mind if we get out of here? We got some people to save and not much time to do it.”
Payne lowered his gun from Blount’s chin. He was finally convinced that Bennie was on his side to stay. “Mr. Blount, would you please show us the way inside the house?”
Bennie grinned. It was the first time in his life that a white man had ever called him mister.
CHAPTER 51
WHEN the truck arrived at the western dock, Harris Jackson breathed a sigh of relief. Even though he realized he wasn’t safe until Payne and Jones were caught, he felt a lot better with Holmes and Greene by his side.
“Hey, Harris,” Holmes called, “where’s Theo? I thought he was supposed to meet us here.”
“He’ll be here any minute. He said he had to go to the house for something.”
Holmes nodded as he searched the dock for a trace of the missing boat. There were no clues except for a number of dead guards that littered the ground.
“These guys are good,” he admitted.
“So, what are we gonna do?” Jackson wondered. “The boat’s gone, half the slaves have escaped, and Payne and Jones are still running around killing our men. Is there any way we can salvage this?”
Greene gave Holmes a quick smile before speaking. “Sure we can. Remember, that’s the reason we wore our masks at all times. None of the slaves can identify our faces, so they won’t be able to give the cops our description. Once we leave this place, we’re home free.”
A flash of panic crossed Jackson’s mind. He had revealed his face to Ariane Walker and Susan Ross when he tied them up inside the house.
Holmes noticed the tension in Jackson’s eyes. “What’s wrong? You look upset.”
“I took my mask off in the bedrooms, and two of the whores saw my face.”
“You idiot!” Greene blurted. “Thinking with your wrong head again, huh?”
Annoyed, Jackson took a step toward Greene. Even though