"It is," Chef agreed moodily, and took the bong (which Andy now thought of as the Smokeum Peace Pipe) back. "It's the longest of long glass, the purest of the pure, and what is it, Sanders?"
"A medicine for melancholy!" Andy returned smartly.
"And what is that?" Pointing at the new black mark on the Dome.
"A sign! From God!"
"Yes," Chef said, mollified. "That's exactly what it is. We're on a God-trip now, Sanders. Do you know what happened when God opened the seventh seal? Have you read Revelation?"
Andy had a memory, from the Christian camp he'd attended as a teenager, of angels popping out of that seventh seal like clowns from the little car at the circus, but he didn't want to say it that way. Chef might consider it blasphemous. So he just shook his head.
"Thought not," Chef said. "You might have gotten preaching at Holy Redeemer, but preaching is not education. Preaching is not the true visionary shit. Do you understand that?"
What Andy understood was that he wanted another hit, but he nodded his head.
"When the seventh seal was opened, seven angels appeared with seven trumpets. And each time one blew the boogie, a plague smote down on the earth. Here, toke this shit, it'll help your concentration."
How long had they been out here smoking? It seemed like hours. Had they really seen a plane crash? Andy thought so, but now he wasn't completely sure. It seemed awfully farfetched. Maybe he should take a nap. On the other hand, it was wonderful to the point of ecstasy just to be out here with Chef, getting stoned and educated. "I almost killed myself, but God saved me," he told Chef. The thought was so wonderful that tears filled his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, that's obvious. This other stuff isn't. So listen."
"I am."
"First angel blew and hailed down blood on the earth. Second angel blew and a mountain of fire was cast into the sea. That's your volcanoes and shit."
"Yes!" Andy shouted, and inadvertently squeezed the trigger of the AK-47 lying across his lap.
"You want to watch that," Chef said. "If the safety hadn't been on, you would have blown my tickle-stick into yonder pine tree. Hit on this shit." He handed Andy the bong. Andy couldn't even remember giving it back to him, but he must have done. And what time was it? It looked like midafternoon, but how could that be? He hadn't gotten hungry for lunch and he always got hungry for lunch, it was his best meal.
"Now listen, Sanders, because this is the important part."
Chef was able to quote from memory because he had made quite a study of the book of Revelations since moving out here to the radio station; he read and reread it obsessively, sometimes until dawn streaked the horizon. " 'And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven! Burning as if it were a lamp!' "
"We just saw that!"
Chef nodded. His eyes were fixed on the black smutch where Air Ireland 179 had met her end. " 'And the name of the star is called Wormwood, and many men died because they were made bitter.' Are you bitter, Sanders?"
"No!" Andy assured him.
"No. We're mellow. But now that Star Wormwood has blazed in the sky, bitter men will come. God has told me this, Sanders, and it's no bullshit. Check me out and you find I'm all about zero bullshit. They're gonna try to take all this away from us. Rennie and his bullshit cronies."
"No way!" Andy cried. A sudden and horribly intense paranoia swept over him. They could be here already! Bullshit cronies creeping through those trees! Bullshit cronies driving down Little Bitch Road in a line of trucks! Now that Chef had brought it up, he even saw why Rennie would want to do it. He'd call it "getting rid of the evidence."
"Chef!" He gripped his new friend's shoulder.
"Let up a little, Sanders. That hurts."
He let up a little. "Big Jim's already talked about coming up and getting the propane tanks--that's the first step !"
Chef nodded. "They've already been here once. Took two tanks. I let em." He paused, then patted the grenades. "I won't let em again. Are you down with that?"
Andy thought of the pounds of dope inside the building they were leaning against, and gave the answer Chef had expected. "My brother," he said, and embraced Chef.
Chef was hot and stinky, but Andy hugged with enthusiasm. Tears were rolling down his face, which he had neglected to shave on a weekday for the first time in over twenty years. This was great. This was ... was ...
Bonding!
"My brother," he sobbed into Chef's ear.
Chef thrust him back and looked at him solemnly. "We are agents of the Lord," he said.
And Andy Sanders--now all alone in the world except for the scrawny prophet beside him--said amen.
23
Jackie found Ernie Calvert behind his house, weeding his garden. She was a little worried about approaching him in spite of what she'd told Piper, but she needn't have been. He gripped her shoulders with hands that were surprisingly strong for such a portly little man. His eyes shone.
"Thank God someone sees what that windbag's up to!" He dropped his hands. "Sorry. I smudged your blouse."
"That's all right."
"He's dangerous, Officer Wettington. You know that, don't you?"
"Yes."
"And clever. He set up that damned food riot the way a terrorist would plant a bomb."
"I have no doubt of it."
"But he's also stupid. Clever and stupid is a terrible combination. You can persuade people to go with you, you see. All the way to hell. Look at that fellow Jim Jones, remember him?"
"The one who got all his followers to drink poison. So you'll come to the meeting?"
"You bet. And mum's the word. Unless you want me to talk to Lissa Jamieson, that is. Glad to do it."
Before Jackie could answer, her cell phone rang. It was her personal; she had turned in the one issued to her by the PD along with her badge and gun.
"Hello, this is Jackie."
"Mihi portatoe vulneratos, Sergeant Wettington," an unfamiliar voice said.
The motto of her old unit in Wurzburg--bring us your wounded--and Jackie responded without even thinking: "On stretchers, crutches, or in bags, we put em together with spit and rags. Who the hell is this?"
"Colonel James Cox, Sergeant."
Jackie moved the phone away from her mouth. "Give me a minute, Ernie?"
He nodded and went back to his garden. Jackie strolled toward the shakepole fence at the foot of the yard. "What can I do for you, Colonel? And is this line secure?"
"Sergeant, if your man Rennie can tap cell phone calls made from beyond the Dome, we're in a world of hurt."
"He's not my man."
"Good to know."
"And I'm no longer in the Army. The Sixty-seventh isn't even in my rearview mirror these days, sir."
"Well, that's not exactly true, Sarge. By order of the President of the United States, you've been stop-lossed. Welcome back."
"Sir, I don't know whether to say thank you or fuck you very much."
Cox laughed without much humor. "Jack Reacher says hello."
"Is that where you got this number?"
"That and a recommendation. A recommendation from Reacher goes a long way. You asked what you can do for me. The answer is twofold, both parts simple. One, get Dale Barbara out of the mess he's in. Unless you think he's guilty of the charges?"
"No, sir. I'm sure he's not. That is to say, we are. There are several of us."
"Good. Very good." There was no mistaking the relief in the man's voice. "Number two, you can knock that bastard Rennie off his perch."
"That would be Barbie's job. If ... you're positive this line's secure?"
"Positive."
"If we can get him out."
"That's in work, is it?"
"Yes, sir, I believe so."
"Excellent. How many brownshirts does Rennie have?"
"Currently about thirty, but he's still hiring. And here in The Mill they're blueshirts, but I take your meaning. Don't sell him short, Colonel. He's got most of this t
own in his pocket. We're going to try to get Barbie out, and you better hope we succeed, because I can't do much about Big Jim on my own. Toppling dictators with no help from the outside world is about six miles above my pay grade. And just FYI, my own days on the Chester's Mill PD are over. Rennie shitcanned me."
"Keep me informed when and as you can. Spring Barbara and turn your resistance operation over to him. We'll see who ends up getting shitcanned."
"Sir, you sort of wish you were in here, don't you?"
"With all my heart." No hesitation. "I'd dewheel that sonofabitch's little red wagon in about twelve hours."
Jackie doubted that, actually; things were different under the Dome. Outsiders couldn't understand. Even time was different. Five days ago, everything had been normal. Now look.
"One other thing," Colonel Cox said. "Take some time out of your busy schedule to look at the TV. We're going to do our level best to make Rennie's life uncomfortable."
Jackie said goodbye and broke the connection. Then she walked back to where Ernie was gardening. "Got a generator?" she asked.
"Died last night," he said with sour good cheer.
"Well, let's go someplace where there's a working TV. My friend says we should check out the news."
They headed for Sweetbriar Rose. On their way they met Julia Shumway and brought her along.
BUSTED
1
Sweetbriar was closed until 5 PM, at which time Rose planned to offer a light supper, mostly leftovers. She was making potato salad and keeping an eye on the TV over the counter when the knocking on the door started. It was Jackie Wettington, Ernie Calvert, and Julia Shumway. Rose crossed the empty restaurant, wiping her hands on her apron, and unlocked the door. Horace the Corgi trotted at Julia's heel, ears up, grinning companionably. Rose made sure the CLOSED sign was still in place, then relocked the door behind them.
"Thanks," Jackie said.
"Not at all," Rose replied. "I wanted to see you anyway."
"We came for that," Jackie said, and pointed to the TV. "I was at Ernie's, and we met Julia on our way here. She was sitting across the street from her place, mooning at the wreckage."
"I was not mooning," Julia said. "Horace and I were trying to figure how we're going to get a paper out after the town meeting. It'll have to be small--probably just two pages--but there will be a paper. My heart is set on it."
Rose glanced back at the TV. On it, a pretty young woman was doing a stand-up. Beneath her was a banner reading EARLIER TODAY COURTESY ABC. All at once there was a bang and a fire-ball bloomed in the sky. The reporter flinched, cried out, wheeled around. By that point her cameraman was already zooming her out of the picture, homing in on the earthbound fragments of the Air Ireland jet.
"There's nothing but reruns of the plane-crash footage," Rose said. "If you haven't seen it before, be my guest. Jackie, I saw Barbie late this morning--I took him some sandwiches and they let me go downstairs to where the cells are. I had Melvin Searles as my chaperone."
"Lucky you," Jackie said.
"How is he?" Julia asked. "Is he okay?"
"He looks like the wrath of God, but I think so, yes. He said ... maybe I should tell you privately, Jackie."
"Whatever it is, I think you can say it in front of Ernie and Julia." Rose considered this, but only for a moment. If Ernie Calvert and Julia Shumway weren't all right, nobody was. "He said I was supposed to talk to you. Make up with you, as if we'd had a fight. He said to tell you that I'm all right."
Jackie turned to Ernie and Julia. It seemed to Rose that a question was asked and answered. "If Barbie says you are, then you are," Jackie said, and Ernie nodded emphatically. "Hon, we're putting together a little meeting tonight. At the Congo parsonage. It's kind of a secret--"
"Not kind of, it is, " Julia said. "And given the way things are in town right now, the secret better not get out."
"If it's about what I think it's about, I'm in." Then Rose lowered her voice. "But not Anson. He's wearing one of those goddam armbands."
Just then the CNN BREAKING NEWS logo came on the TV screen, accompanied by the annoying minor-key disaster music the network was now playing with each new Dome story. Rose expected either Anderson Cooper or her beloved Wolfie--both were now based in Castle Rock--but it was Barbara Starr, the network's Pentagon correspondent. She was standing outside the tent-and-trailer village serving as the Army's forward base in Harlow.
"Don, Kyra--Colonel James O. Cox, the Pentagon's point man since the mammoth mystery known as the Dome came into being last Saturday, is about to speak to the press for only the second time since this crisis began. The subject was announced to reporters just moments ago, and it's sure to galvanize the tens of thousands of Americans with loved ones in the beleaguered town of Chester's Mill. We were told--" She listened to something in her earpiece. "Here's Colonel Cox."
The four in the restaurant sat on stools at the counter, watching as the picture switched to the inside of a large tent. There were perhaps forty reporters seated in folding chairs, and more standing in the back. They were murmuring among themselves. A makeshift stage had been set up at one end of the tent. On it was a podium festooned with microphones and flanked by American flags. There was a white screen behind it.
"Pretty professional, for an on-the-fly operation," Ernie said.
"Oh, I think this has been in the works," Jackie said. She was recalling her conversation with Cox. We're going to do our level best to make Rennie's life uncomfortable, he'd said.
A flap opened to the left side of the tent, and a short, fit-looking man with graying hair strode briskly to the makeshift stage. No one had thought to put down a couple of stairs or even a box to stand on, but this presented no problem to the featured speaker; he hopped up easily, not even breaking stride. He was dressed in plain khaki BDUs. If he had medals, they weren't in evidence. There was nothing on his shirt but a strip reading COL. J. COX. He held no notes. The reporters quieted immediately, and Cox gave them a little smile.
"This guy should have been holding press conferences all along," Julia said. "He looks good. "
"Hush, Julia," Rose said.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming," Cox said. "I'll be brief, and then I'll take a few questions. The situation as regards Chester's Mill and what we're all now calling the Dome is as it was: the town continues to be cut off, we still have no idea about what is causing this situation or what brought it about, and we have as yet had no success in breaching the barrier. You would know, of course, if we had. The best scientists in America--the best in the entire world--are on the case, however, and we're considering a number of options. Do not ask me about these, because you'll get no answers at this time."
The reporters murmured discontentedly. Cox let them. Below him, the CNN super switched to NO ANSWERS AT THIS TIME. When the murmuring died, Cox went on.
"As you're aware, we have established a no-go zone around the Dome, initially of a mile, expanded to two on Sunday and four on Tuesday. There were a number of reasons for this, the most important being that the Dome is dangerous to people with certain implants, such as pacemakers. A second reason is that we were concerned the field generating the Dome might have other harmful effects which would be less clearly recognized."
"Are you talking about radiation, Colonel?" someone called.
Cox froze him with a glance, and when he seemed to consider the reporter properly chastised (not Wolfie, Rose was pleased to see, but that half-bald no-spin yapper from FOX News), he went on.
"We now believe that there are no harmful effects, at least in the short term, and so we have designated Friday, October twenty-seventh--the day after tomorrow--as Visitors Day at the Dome."
A perfect fury of thrown questions went up at this. Cox waited it out, and when the audience had quieted down, he took a remote from the shelf under the podium and pressed a button. A high-resolution photograph (much too good to have been downloaded from Google Earth, in Julia's estimation) popped up on the white scree
n. It showed The Mill and both towns to the south, Motton and Castle Rock. Cox put down the controller and produced a laser-pointer.
The super at the bottom of the screen now read FRIDAY DESIGNATED VISATORS DAY AT THE DOME. Julia smiled. Colonel Cox had caught CNN with its spell-checker down.
"We believe we can process and accommodate twelve hundred visitors," Cox said crisply. "These will be limited to close relatives, at least this time ... and all of us hope and pray there will never have to be a next time. Rally points will be here, at the Castle Rock Fairgrounds, and here, at Oxford Plains Speedway." He highlighted both locations. "We will lay on two dozen buses, twelve at each location. These will be provided by six surrounding school districts, which are canceling classes that day to help in this effort, and we offer them our greatest thanks. A twenty-fifth bus will be available for press at Shiner's Bait and Tackle in Motton." Dryly: "Since Shiner's is also an agency liquor store, I'm sure most of you know it. There will also be one, I repeat, one, video truck allowed on this trip. You'll arrange pool coverage, ladies and gentlemen, the coverage provider to be chosen by lottery."
A groan went up at this, but it was perfunctory.
"There are forty-eight seats on the press bus, and obviously there are hundreds of press representatives here, from all over the world--"
"Thousands!" a gray-haired man shouted, and there was general laughter.
"Boy, I'm glad someone's havin fun," Ernie Calvert said bitterly.
Cox allowed himself a smile. "I stand corrected, Mr. Gregory. Seats will be allocated according to your news organization--TV networks, Reuters, Tass, AP, and so on--and it's up to those organizations to pick their representatives."
"Better be Wolfie from CNN, that's all I can say," Rose announced.
The reporters were babbling excitedly.
"May I go on?" Cox asked. "And those of you sending text messages, kindly stop."
"Ooo," Jackie said. "I love a forceful man."
"Surely you folks recall that you're not the story here? Would you behave this way if it was a mine cave-in, or people trapped under collapsed buildings after an earthquake?"
Silence greeted this, the kind that falls over a fourth-grade class after the teacher finally loses his temper. He really was forceful, Julia thought, and for a moment wished with all her heart that Cox were here under the Dome, and in charge. But of course, if pigs had wings, bacon would be airborne.