Under the Dome

Big Jim discovered he didn’t want to argue the point. Arguing with fools was counterproductive. Randolph had no idea what sort of weapons might be stockpiled at the radio station. In truth, neither did Big Jim himself (there was no telling what Bushey might have put on the corporate tab), but at least he could imagine the worst, a mental feat of which this uniformed gasbag seemed incapable. And if something should happen to Randolph… well, hadn’t he already decided that Carter would be a more than adequate replacement?

“All right, Pete,” he said. “Far be it for me to stand between you and your duty. You’re the new OIC, with Fred Denton as your second. That satisfy you?”

“You’re gosh-damn right it does!” Randolph puffed his chest. He looked like a fat rooster about to crow. Big Jim, although not renowned for his sense of humor, had to stifle a laugh.

“Then get down there to the PD and start putting together your crew. Town trucks, remember.”

“Correct! We strike at noon!” He shook a fist in the air.

“Go in through the woods.”

“Now, Jim, I wanted to talk to you about that. It seems a little complicated. Those woods behind the station are pretty snarly… there’ll be poison ivy… and poison oak, which is even w—”

“There’s an access road,” Big Jim said. He was reaching the end of his patience. “I want you to use it. Hit them on their blind side.”

“But—”

“A bullet in the head would be much worse than poison ivy. Nice talking to you, Pete. Glad to see you’re so…” But what was he so? Pompous? Ridiculous? Idiotic?

“So totally gung-ho,” Carter said.

“Thank you, Carter, my thought exactly. Pete, tell Henry Morrison he’s now in charge of crowd control out on 119. And use the access road. ”

“I really think—”

“Carter, get the door for him.”

5

“Oh my God,” Linda said, and swerved the van to the left. It bumped up over the curb not a hundred yards from where Main and Highland intersected. All three girls laughed at the bump, but poor little Aidan only looked scared, and grabbed the longsuffering Audrey’s head once more.

“What?” Thurse snapped. “What?”

She parked on someone’s lawn, behind a tree. It was a good-sized oak, but the van was big, too, and the oak had lost most of its listless leaves. She wanted to believe they were hidden but couldn’t.

“That’s Jim Rennie’s Hummer sitting in the middle of the goddam intersection.”

“You swore big,” Judy said. “Two quarters in the swear-jar.” Thurse craned. “Are you sure?”

“Do you think anybody else in town has a vehicle that humongous?”

“Oh Jesus,” Thurston said.

“Swear-jar!” This time Judy and Jannie said it together.

Linda felt her mouth dry up, and her tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. Thibodeau was emerging from the Hummer’s passenger side, and if he looked this way…

If he sees us, I’m going to run him down, she thought. The idea brought a certain perverse calm.

Thibodeau opened the back door of the Hummer. Peter Randolph got out.

“That man is picking his seat,” Alice Appleton informed the company at large. “My mother says that means you’re going to the movies.”

Thurston Marshall burst out laughing, and Linda, who would have said she didn’t have a laugh anywhere in her, joined him. Soon they were all laughing, even Aidan, who certainly didn’t know what they were laughing about. Linda wasn’t sure she did, either.

Randolph headed down the hill on foot, still yanking at the seat of his uniform trousers. There was no reason for it to be as funny, and that made it funnier.

Not wanting to be left out, Audrey began to bark.

6

Somewhere a dog was barking.

Big Jim heard it, but didn’t bother turning around. Watching Peter Randolph stride down the hill suffused him with well-being.

“Look at him picking his pants out of his butt,” Carter remarked. “My father used to say that meant you were going to the movies.”

“The only place he’s going is out to WCIK,” Big Jim said, “and if he’s bullheaded about making a frontal assault, it’s likely to be the last place he ever goes. Let’s go down to the Town Hall and watch this carnival on TV for awhile. When that becomes tiresome, I want you to find the hippy doctor and tell him if he tries to scoot off somewhere, we’ll run him down and throw him in jail.”

“Yes, sir.” This was duty he didn’t mind. Maybe he could take another run at ex-officer Everett, this time get her pants off.

Big Jim put the Hummer in gear and rolled slowly down the hill, honking at people who didn’t get out of his way quickly enough.

As soon as he had turned into the Town Hall driveway, the Odyssey van rolled through the intersection and headed out of town. There was no foot traffic on Upper Highland Street, and Linda accelerated rapidly. Thurse Marshall began singing “The Wheels on the Bus,” and soon all the kids were singing with him.

Linda, who felt a little more terror leave her with each tenth of a mile the odometer turned, soon began to sing along.

7