“You have led a sheltered life,” Austin said. “The War of Northern Aggression is still alive and well. Holler the name of Robert E. Lee out the window and you'll recruit enough Rebel volunteers to reenact the Battle of Gettysburg.”

Austin followed the traffic to a parking lot adjoining a large open field of a dozen or so acres. After parking the NUMA car, they joined the throng of spectators and Civil War reenactors streaming toward the field. Signs along the way announced that the military demonstration and steam car parade were being held to raise money for the Friends of the Manassas National Battlefield.

Austin stopped a bearded man dressed in the butternut gray of an officer in Lee's army to ask directions.

“Stonewall Jackson at your service,” the man said with a courtly bow.

“Nice to meet you, General. You're looking well, considering. I wonder if you might know where the antique steam cars are gathered,” Austin said.

Jackson squinted into the distance, tugging thoughtfully at his beard. “Technically speakin', cars weren't invented in 1861, so I don't know what you're talking about, suh. But if I did, I'd suggest that you might find what you're looking for near the Porta Pottis, which we didn't have back in my day.”

“Thank you, General Jackson. Hope you enjoy the battle.”

“My pleasure,” he said, tipping his hat at Karla.

As she watched Jackson melt into the crowd, she said, “He really takes the part seriously, doesn't he?”

Austin smiled. “Manassas was the first big battle of the Civil War. The Feds thought they were going to walk over the Rebels. People even came down from Washington with their picnic baskets to watch the battle, pretty much the same as they're doing today. The Confederates caught the breaks that day, but the Union eventually rallied.”

“Why aren't we at the actual battlefield?” Karla said.

“They tried a reenactment there some years ago. Things got kind of crazy, so they're holding it on private land.”

Karla looked around. “I see what you mean about 'crazy.'”

Austin grinned.

“As old Stonewall might say, 'Save your blood. The South will rise again.' ”

THE SIX MEN who pulled their motorcycles up to the parked van looked as if they had been cloned in a lab. They all wore goatees, and their widow's peaks had been trimmed to arrow-sharp points.

Lucifer's Legion was an extreme group of neo-anarchists who felt that violence in advancing their cause was not only justified but necessary. Like their wild-eyed, bomb-tossing predecessors, they were the fringe of the mostly nonviolent anarchist movement, which wanted nothing to do with them. They traveled from city to city on their motorcycles, leaving a trail of chaos in their wake.