Under the Dome

In the police station, the WCIK raiding party is watching with the same silent fascination as everyone else. Randolph lets them; there is a little time yet. He checks the names off on his clipboard, then motions Freddy Denton to join him on the front steps. He has expected grief from Freddy for taking over the head honcho role (Peter Randolph has been judging others by himself his whole life), but there is none.This is a far bigger deal than rousting scuzzy old drunks out of convenience stores, and Freddy is delighted to hand off the responsibility. He wouldn't mind taking credit if things went well, but suppose they don't? P^andolph has no such qualms. One unemployed troublemaker and a mild-mannered druggist who wouldn't say shit if it was in his cereal? What can possibly go wrong?

And Freddy discovers, as they stand on the steps Piper Libby tumbled down not so long ago, that he isn't going to be able to duck the leadership role completely. Randolph hands him a slip of paper. On it are seven names. One is Freddy's.The other six are Mel Searles, George Frederick, Marty Arsenault, Aubrey Towle, Stubby Norman, and Lauren Conree.

'You will take this party down the access road,' Randolph says. 'You know the one?'

'Yep, busts off from Little Bitch this side of town. Sloppy Sam's father laid that little piece of roa - '

'I don't care who laid it,' Randolph says, 'just drive to the end of it. At noon, you take your men through the belt of woods there. You'll come out in back of the radio station. Noon, Freddy. That doesn't mean a minute before or a minute after.'

'I thought we were all supposed to go in that way, Pete.'

'Plans have changed.'

'Does Big Jim know they've changed?'

'Big Jim is a selectman, Freddy. I'm the Police Chief, I'm also your superior, so would you kindly shut up and listen?'

'Soh-ree,' Freddy says, and cups his hands to his ears in a way that is impudent, to say the least.

'I'll be parked down the road that runs past the front of the station. I'll have Stewart and Fern with me. Also Roger Killian. If Bushey and Sanders are foolish enough to engage you - if we hear shooting from behind the station, in other words - the three of us will swoop in and take them from behind. Have you got it?'

'Yeah.' It actually sounds like a pretty good plan to Freddy.

'All right, let's synchronize watches.'

'Uh... sorry?'

Randolph sighs. 'We have to make sure they're the same, so noon comes at the same time for both of us.'

Freddy still looks puzzled, but he complies.

From inside the station, someone - it sounds like Stubby - shouts: 'Whoop, another one bites the dust! The fainters're stacked up behind them cruisers like cordwoodFThis is greeted by laughter and applause.They are pumped up, excited to have pulled what Melvin Searles calls 'possible shootin duty.'

'We saddle up at eleven fifteen,' Randolph tells Freddy. 'That gives us almost forty-five minutes to watch the show on TV

'Want popcorn?' Freddy asks. 'We got a whole mess of it in the cupboard over the microwave.'

'Might as well, I guess.'

Out at the Dome, Henry Morrison goes to his car and helps himself to a cool drink. His uniform is soaked through with sweat and he can't recall ever feeling so tired (he thinks a lot of that is down to bad air - he can't seem to completely catch his breath), but on the whole he is satisfied with himself and his men. They have managed to avoid a mass crushing at the Dome, nobody has died on this side - yet - and folks are settling down. Half a dozen TV cameramen race to and fro on the Motton side, recording as many heartwarming reunion vignettes as possible. Henry knows it's an invasion of privacy, but he supposes America and the world beyond may have a right to see this. And on the whole, people don't seem to mind. Some even like it; they are getting their fifteen minutes. Henry has time to search for his own mother and father, although he's not surprised when he doesn't see them; they live all the way to hell and gone up in Derry, and they're getting on in years now. He doubts if they even put their names in the visitor lottery.

A new helicopter is beating in from the west, and although Henry doesn't know it, Colonel James Cox is inside. Cox is also not entirely displeased with the way Visitors Day has gone so far. He has been told no one on the Chester's Mill side seems to be preparing for a press conference, but this doesn't surprise or discommode him. Based on the extensive files he has been accumulating, he would have been more surprised if Rennie had put in an appearance. Cox has saluted a lot of men over the years, and he can smell a bully-pulpit coward a mile away.

Then Cox sees the long line of visitors and the trapped townspeople facing them. The sight drives James Rennie from his mind. 'Isn't that the damndest thing,' he murmurs. 'Isn't that just the damndest thing anyone ever saw.'

On the Dome side, Special Deputy Toby Manning shouts: 'Here comes the bus!' Although the civilians barely notice - they are either raptlyi engaged with their relatives or still searching for them - the cops raise a cheer.

Henry walks to the back of his cruiser, and sure enough, a big yellow schoolbus is just passing Jim Rennie's Used Cars. Pamela Chen may not weigh more than a hundred and five pounds soaking wet, but she's come through bigtime, and with a big bus.

Henry checks his watch and sees that it's twenty minutes past eleven. We're going to get through this, he thinks. We're going to get through this just fine.

On Main Street, three big orange trucks are rolling up Town Common Hill. In the third one, Peter Randolph is crammed in with Stew, Fern, and Roger (redolent of chickens). As they head out 119 northbound toward Little Bitch Road and the radio station, Randolph is struck by a thought, and barely restrains himself from smacking his palm against his forehead.

iThey have plenty of firepower, but they have forgotten the helmets and Kevlar vests.