Under the Dome, Page 81

  Joe asked Norrie, "Where's your gramps?"

  "With Jackie and Mr. Burpee, in the van we stole from Rennie's. He'll wait outside while they go in to get Rusty and Mr. Barbara." She gave him a scared-to-death smile. "He's going to be their wheelman."

  "No fool like an old fool," Joanie Calvert remarked. Rose felt like hauling off and hitting her, and a glance at Lissa told her that Lissa felt the same. But this was no time for argument, let alone fisticuffs.

  Hang together or hang separately, Rose thought.

  "What about Julia?" Claire asked.

  "She's coming with Piper. And her dog."

  From downtown, amplified (and with the bench-sitters outside adding their own voices), came the United Choir of Chester's Mill, singing "The Star Spangled Banner."

  "Let's go," Rose said. "I'll lead the way."

  Joanie Calvert repeated, with a kind of dolorous good cheer: "At least it's warm. Come on, Norrie, copilot your old mom."

  17

  There was a delivery lane on the south side of LeClerc's Maison des Fleurs, and here the stolen phone company van was parked, nose out. Ernie, Jackie, and Rommie Burpee sat listening to the National Anthem coming from up the street. Jackie felt a sting behind her eyes and saw that she wasn't the only one who was moved; Ernie, sitting behind the wheel, had produced a handkerchief from his back pocket and was dabbing at his eyes with it.

  "Guess we won't need Linda to give us a heads-up," Rommie said. "I didn't expect them speakers. They didn't get em from me."

  "It's still good for people to see her there," Jackie said. "Got your mask, Rommie?"

  He held up Dick Cheney's visage, stamped in plastic. In spite of his extensive stock, Rommie hadn't been able to provide Jackie with an Ariel mask; she had settled for Harry Potter's chum, Hermione. Ernie's Darth Vader mask was behind the seat, but Jackie thought they'd probably be in trouble if he actually had to put it on. She had not said this aloud.

  And really, what does it matter? When we're suddenly not around town anymore, everybody's going to have a good idea why we're gone.

  But suspecting wasn't the same as knowing, and if suspicion was the best Rennie and Randolph could do, the friends and relatives they were leaving behind might be subjected to no more than harsh questioning.

  Might. Under circumstances like these, Jackie realized, that was a mighty big word.

  The anthem ended. There was more applause, and then the town's Second Selectman began to speak. Jackie checked the pistol she was carrying--it was her extra--and thought that the next few minutes were probably going to be the longest of her life.

  18

  Barbie and Rusty stood at the doors of their respective cells, listening as Big Jim launched into his speech. Thanks to the speakers outside the main doors of the Town Hall, they could hear pretty well.

  "Thank you! Thank you, one and all! Thank you for coming! And thank you for being the bravest, toughest, can-do-ingest people in these United States of America!"

  Enthusiastic applause.

  "Ladies and gentlemen ... and kiddies, too, I see a few of those in the audience...."

  Good-natured laughter.

  "We are in a terrible predicament here. This you know. Tonight I intend to tell you how we got into it. I don't know everything, but I will share what I know, because you deserve that. When I've finished putting you in the picture, we have a brief but important agenda to go through. But first and foremost, I want to tell you how PROUD I am of you, how HUMBLED I am to be the man God--and you--have chosen to be your leader at this critical juncture, and I want to ASSURE you that together we will come through this trial, together and with God's help we will emerge STRONGER and TRUER and BETTER than we ever were before! We may be Israelites in the desert now--"

  Barbie rolled his eyes and Rusty made a jacking-off gesture with his fist.

  "--but soon we will reach CANAAN and the feast of milk and honey which the Lord and our fellow Americans will surely set before us!"

  Wild applause. It sounded like a standing O. Fairly certain that even if there was a bug down here, the three or four cops upstairs would now be clustered in the PD doorway, listening to Big Jim, Barbie said: "Be ready, my friend."

  "I am," Rusty said. "Believe me, I am."

  Just as long as Linda's not one of them planning to bust in, he thought. He didn't want her killing anyone, but more than that, he didn't want her to risk being killed. Not for him. Let her stay right where she is. He may be crazy, but at least if she's with the rest of the town, she's safe.

  That was what he thought before the gunfire started.

  19

  Big Jim was exultant. He had them exactly where he wanted them: in the palm of his hand. Hundreds of people, those who had voted for him and those who hadn't. He had never seen so many in this hall, not even when school prayer or the school budget was under discussion. They sat thigh to thigh and shoulder to shoulder, outside as well as in, and they were doing more than listening to him. With Sanders AWOL and Grinnell sitting in the audience (that red dress in the third row was hard to miss), he owned this crowd. Their eyes begged him to take care of them. To save them. What completed his exultancy was having his bodyguard beside him and seeing the lines of cops--his cops--ranged along both sides of the hall. Not all of them were kitted out in uniforms yet, but all were armed. At least a hundred more in the audience were wearing blue armbands. It was like having his own private army.

  "My fellow townspeople, most of you know that we have arrested a man named Dale Barbara--"

  A storm of boos and hisses arose. Big Jim waited for it to subside, outwardly grave, inwardly grinning.

  "--for the murders of Brenda Perkins, Lester Coggins, and two lovely girls we all knew and loved: Angie McCain and Dodee Sanders."

  More boos, interspersed with cries of "Hang him!" and "Terrorist!" The terrorist-shouter sounded like Velma Winter, the day manager at Brownie's Store.

  "What you do not know," Big Jim continued, "is that the Dome is the result of a conspiracy perpetrated by an elite group of rogue scientists and covertly funded by a government splinter group. We are guinea pigs in an experiment, my fellow townspeople, and Dale Barbara was the man designated to chart and guide that experiment's course from the inside! "

  Stunned silence greeted this. Then there was a roar of outrage.

  When it had quieted, Big Jim continued, hands planted on either side of the podium, his large face shining with sincerity (and, perhaps, hypertension). His speech lay in front of him, but it was still folded. There was no need to look at it. God was using his vocal cords and moving his tongue.

  "When I speak of covert funding, you may wonder what I mean. The answer is horrifying but simple. Dale Barbara, aided by an as yet unknown number of townspeople, set up a drug-manufacturing facility which has been supplying huge quantities of crystal methamphetamine to drug lords, some with CIA connections, all up and down the Eastern Seaboard. And although he hasn't given us the names of all his co-conspirators yet, one of them--it breaks my heart to tell you this--appears to be Andy Sanders."

  Hubbub and cries of wonder from the audience. Big Jim saw Andi Grinnell start to rise from her seat, then settle back. That's right, he thought, just sit there. If you're reckless enough to question me, I'll eat you alive. Or point my finger at you and accuse you. Then they'll eat you alive.

  And in truth, he felt as if he could do that.

  "Barbara's boss--his control--is a man you have all seen on the news. He claims to be a colonel in the U.S. Army, but in fact he is high in the councils of the scientists and government officials responsible for this Satanic experiment. I have Barbara's confession to this much right here." He tapped his sportcoat, whose inner pocket contained his wallet and a digest-sized New Testament with the words of Christ printed in red.

  Meanwhile, more cries of "Hang him!" had arisen. Big Jim lifted one hand, head lowered, face grave, and the cries eventually stilled.

  "We will vote on Barbara's punishment as a town--
one unified body dedicated to the cause of freedom. It's in your hands, ladies and gentlemen. If you vote to execute, he will be executed. But there will be no hanging while I am your leader. He will be executed by police firing squad--"

  Wild applause interrupted him, and most of the assembly rose to its feet. Big Jim leaned into the microphone.

  "--but only after we get every bit of information which is still hidden in his MISERABLE TRAITOR'S HEART !"

  Now almost all of them were up. Not Andi, though; she sat in the third row next to the center aisle, looking up at him with eyes that should have been soft and hazy and confused but were not. Look at me all you want, he thought. Just as long as you sit there like a good little girl.

  Meanwhile, he basked in the applause.

  20

  "Now?" Rommie asked. "What you t'ink, Jackie?"

  "Wait a little longer," she said.

  It was instinct, nothing else, and usually her instincts were dependable.

  Later she would wonder how many lives might have been saved if she had told Rommie okay, let's roll.

  21

  Looking through his crack in the sidewall of the Peace Bridge, Junior saw that even the people on the benches outside had risen to their feet, and the same instinct that told Jackie to stay a little longer told him it was time to move. He limped from beneath the bridge on the Town Common side and cut across to the sidewalk. When the creature who had sired him resumed speaking, he started toward the Police Department. The dark spot on the left side of his field of vision had expanded again, but his mind was clear.

  I'm coming, Baaarbie. I'm coming for you right now.

  22

  "These people are masters of disinformation," Big Jim continued, "and when you go out to the Dome to visit with your loved ones, the campaign against me will kick into high gear. Cox and his surrogates will stop at nothing to blacken me. They'll call me a liar and a thief, they may even say I ran their drug operation myself--"

  "You did," a clear, carrying voice said.

  It was Andrea Grinnell. Every eye fixed upon her as she rose, a human exclamation point in her bright red dress. She looked at Big Jim for a moment with an expression of cool contempt, then turned to face the people who had elected her Third Selectwoman when old Billy Cale, Jack Cale's father, had died of a stroke four years ago.

  "You people need to put your fears aside for a moment," she said. "When you do, you'll see that the story he's telling is ludicrous. Jim Rennie thinks you can be stampeded like cattle in a thunderstorm. I've lived with you all my life, and I think he's wrong."

  Big Jim waited for cries of protest. There were none. Not that the townspeople necessarily believed her; they were just stunned by this sudden turn of events. Alice and Aidan Appleton had turned all the way around and were kneeling on their benches, goggling at the lady in red. Caro was equally stunned.

  "A secret experiment? What bullshit! Our government has gotten up to some pretty lousy stuff over the last fifty years or so, and I'd be the first to admit it, but holding a whole town prisoner with some sort of force field? Just to see what we'll do? It's idiotic. Only terrified people would believe it. Rennie knows that, so he's been orchestrating the terror."

  Big Jim had been momentarily knocked off his stride, but now he found his voice again. And, of course, he had the microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen, Andrea Grinnell is a fine woman, but she's not herself tonight. She's as shocked as the rest of us, of course, but in addition, I'm sorry to say that she herself has a serious drug-dependency problem, as a result of a fall and her consequent use of an extremely addictive drug called--"

  "I haven't had anything stronger than aspirin for days now," Andrea said in a clear, carrying voice. "And I have come into possession of papers which show--"

  "Melvin Searles?" Big Jim boomed. "Will you and several of your fellow officers gently but firmly remove Selectwoman Grinnell from the room and escort her home? Or perhaps to the hospital for observation. She's not herself."

  There were some approving murmurs, but not the clamor of approbation he'd expected. And Mel Searles had taken only a single step forward when Henry Morrison swept a hand into Mel's chest and sent him back against the wall with an audible thump.

  "Let's let her finish," Henry said. "She's a town official too, so let her finish."

  Mel looked up at Big Jim, but Big Jim was watching Andi, almost hypnotized, as she drew a brown manila envelope from her big bag. He knew what it was the instant he saw it. Brenda Perkins, he thought. Oh, what a bitch. Even dead, her bitchery continues.

  As Andi held the envelope up, it began to waver back and forth.

  The shakes were coming back, the fucking shakes. They couldn't have picked a worse time, but she wasn't surprised; in fact, she might have expected it. It was the stress.

  "The papers in this envelope came to me from Brenda Perkins," she said, and at least her voice was steady. "They were compiled by her husband and the State Attorney General. Duke Perkins was investigating James Rennie for a laundry list of high crimes and misdemeanors."

  Mel looked at his friend Carter for guidance. And Carter was looking back, his gaze bright and sharp and almost amused. He pointed at Andrea, then held the side of his hand against his throat: Shut her up. This time when Mel started forward, Henry Morrison didn't stop him--like almost everyone else in the room, Henry was gaping at Andrea Grinnell.

  Marty Arsenault and Freddy Denton joined Mel as he hurried along the front of the stage, bent over like a man running in front of a movie screen. From the other side of the Town Hall, Todd Wendlestat and Lauren Conree were also in motion. Wendlestat's hand was on a sawed-off piece of hickory cane he was carrying as a nightstick; Conree's was on the butt of her gun.

  Andi saw them coming, but didn't stop. "The proof is in this envelope, and I believe it's proof--" ... that Brenda Perkins died for, she intended to finish, but at that moment her shaking, sweat-slicked left hand lost her grip on the drawstring top of her bag. It fell into the aisle, and the barrel of her home protection.38 slid from the bag's puckered mouth like a periscope.

  Clearly, heard by everyone in the now silent hall, Aidan Appleton said: "Wow! That lady has a gun!"

  Another instant of thunderstruck silence followed. Then Carter Thibodeau leaped from his seat and ran in front of his boss, screaming "Gun! Gun! GUN!"

  Aidan slipped into the aisle to investigate more closely. "No, Ade!" Caro shouted, and bent over to grab him just as Mel fired the first shot.

  It put a hole in the polished wood floor right in front of Carolyn Sturges's nose. Splinters flew up. One struck her just below the right eye and blood began to pour down her face. She was vaguely aware that everyone was screaming now. She knelt in the aisle, grabbed Aidan by the shoulders, and hiked him between her thighs like a football. He flew back into the row where they'd been sitting, surprised but unhurt.

  "GUN! SHE'S GOT A GUN!" Freddy Denton shouted, and swept Mel out of his way. Later he would swear that the young woman was reaching for it, and that he had only meant to wound her, anyway.

  23

  Thanks to the speakers, the three people in the stolen van heard the change in the festivities at the town hall. Big Jim's speech and the accompanying applause were interrupted by some woman who was talking loudly but standing too far from the mike for them to make out the words. Her voice was drowned in a general uproar punctuated by screams. Then there was a gunshot.

  "What the hell ?" Rommie said.

  More gunshots. Two, perhaps three. And screams.

  "Doesn't matter," Jackie said. "Drive, Ernie, and fast. If we're going to do this, and we have to do it now."

  24

  "No!" Linda cried, leaping to her feet. "No shooting! There are children! THERE ARE CHILDREN!"

  The Town Hall erupted in pandemonium. Maybe for a moment or two they hadn't been cattle, but now they were. The stampede for the front doors was on. The first few got out, then the crowd jammed up. A few souls who had retained a scrap of common sense
beat feet down the side and center aisles toward the exit doors which flanked the stage, but they were a minority.

  Linda reached for Carolyn Sturges, meaning to pull her back to the relative safety of the benches, when Toby Manning, sprinting down the center aisle, ran into her. His knee connected with the back of Linda's head and she fell forward, dazed.

  "Caro!" Alice Appleton was screaming from somewhere far away. "Caro, get up! Caro, get up! Caro, get up!"

  Carolyn started getting to her feet and that was when Freddy Denton shot her squarely between the eyes, killing her instantly. The children began to shriek. Their faces were freckled with her blood.

  Linda was vaguely aware of being kicked and stepped on. She got to her hands and knees (standing was currently out of the question) and crawled into the aisle opposite the one she'd been sitting in. Her hand squelched in more of Carolyn's blood.

  Alice and Aidan were trying to get to Caro. Knowing they might be seriously hurt if they made it into the aisle (and not wanting them to see what had become of the woman she assumed was their mother), Andi reached over the bench just ahead of her to grab them. She had dropped the VADER envelope.

  Carter Thibodeau had been waiting for this. He was still standing in front of Rennie, shielding him with his body, but he had drawn his gun and laid it over his forearm. Now he squeezed the trigger, and the troublesome woman in the red dress--the one who had caused this ruckus--went flying backward.

  The Town Hall was in chaos, but Carter ignored it. He descended the stairs and walked steadily to where the woman in the red dress had fallen. When people came running down the center aisle, he threw them out of his way, first left and then right. The little girl, crying, tried to cling to his leg and Carter kicked her aside without looking at her.

  He didn't see the envelope at first. Then he did. It was lying beside one of the Grinnell woman's outstretched hands. A large foot-track printed in blood had been stamped across the word VADER. Still calm in the chaos, Carter glanced around and saw that Rennie was staring at the shambles of his audience, his face shocked and unbelieving. Good.