Under the Dome

This had brought more applause. People seemed surprisingly upbeat this morning; there had been laughter and raillery. Perhaps the best sign of the town's improved mental health was at the rear of the restaurant, where the bullshit table was back in session.

The TV over the counter - now locked on CNN - was a big part of the reason. The talking heads had little more to broadcast than rumors, but most were hopeful. Several scientists who'd been interviewed said the Cruise had a good chance of smashing through and ending the crisis. One estimated the chances of success as 'better than eighty percent.' But of course he's at MIT in Cambridge, Barbie thought. He can afford optimism.

Now, as he scraped the grill, a knock came at the door. Barbie looked around and saw Julia Shumway, with three children clustered around her. They made her look like a junior high school teacher on a field trip. Barbie went to the door, wiping his hands on his apron.

'If we let everyone in who wants to eat, we'll be out of food in no time,' Anson said irritably from where he was swabbing down tables. Rose had gone back to Food City to try and purchase more meat.

'I don't think she wants to eat,' Barbie said, and he was right about that.

'Good morning, Colonel Barbara,'Julia said with her little Mona Lisa smile. 'I keep wanting to call you Major Barbara. Like the - '

'The play, I know.' Barbie had heard this one a few times before. Like ten thousand. 'Is this your posse?'

One of the children was an extremely tall, extremely skinny boy with a mop of dark brown hair; one was a stocky young fellow wearing baggy shorts and a faded 50 Cent tee-shirt; the third was a pretty little girl with a lightning bolt on her cheek. A decal rather than a tattoo, but it still gave her a certain savoir faire. He realized if he told her she looked like the middle-school version of Joan Jett, she wouldn't know who he was talking about.

'Norrie Calvert,' Julia said, touching the riot grrl's shoulder. 'Benny Drake. And this tall drink of water is Joseph McClatchey. Yesterday's protest demonstration was his idea.'

'But I never meant anyone to get hurt,'Joe said.

'And it wasn't your fault they did,' Barbie told him. 'So rest easy on that.'

'Are you really the bull goose?' Benny asked, looking him over.

Barbie laughed. 'No,' he said. 'I'm not even going to try and be the bull goose unless I absolutely have to.'

'But you know the soldiers out there, right?' Norrie asked.

'Well, not personally. For one thing, they're Marines. I was Army'

'You're still Army, according to Colonel Cox,'Julia said. She was wearing her cool little smile, but her eyes were dancing with excitement. 'Can we talk to you? Young Mr McClatchey has had an idea, and I think it's brilliant. If it works.'

'It'll work,' Joe said. 'When it comes to computer shi- stuff, I'm the bull goose.'

'Step into my office,' Barbie said, and escorted them toward the counter.

12

It was brilliant, all right, but it was already going on ten thirty, and if they were really going to make this thing happen, they would have to move fast. He turned to Julia. 'Do you have your cell ph - '

Julia slapped it smartly into his palm before he could finish. 'Cox's number is in memory.'

'Great. Now if I knew how to access the memory.'

Joe took the phone. 'What are you, from the Dark Ages?'

'Yes!' Barbie said.'When knights were bold and ladies fair went without their underwear.'

Norrie laughed hard at that, and when she raised her fist, Barbie tapped her small fist with his big one.

Joe pushed a couple of buttons on the minuscule keypad. He listened, then handed the cell to Barbie.

Cox must still have been sitting with one hand on the phone, because he was already on when Barbie put Julia's cell to his ear.

'How's it going, Colonel?' Cox asked.

'We're basically okay.'

'And that's a start.'

Easy for you to say, Barbie thought. 'I imagine things will remain basically okay until the missile either bounces off or punches through and does gross damage to the woods and farms on our side. Which the citizens of Chester's Mill would welcome. What are your guys saying?'

'Not much. No one is making any predictions.'

'That's not what we're hearing on the TV.'

'I don't have time to keep up with the talking heads.' Barbie could hear the shrug in Cox's voice. 'We're hopeful. We think we've got a shot. To coin a phrase.'

Julia was opening and closing her hands in a Wliat gives? gesture.

'Colonel Cox, I'm sitting here with four friends. One of them is a young man named Joe McClatchey, who's had a pretty cool idea. I'm going to put him on the phone with you right now - '

Joe was shaking his head hard enough to make his hair fly. Barbie paid no attention.

'-to explain it.'

And he handed Joe the cell. 'Talk,' he said.

'But - '

'Don't argue with the bull goose, son. Talk.'

Joe did so, diffidently at first, with a lot of ahs and erms and y'knows, but as his idea took hold of him again he sped up, became articulate. Then he listened. After a little while he started to grin. A few moments later he said, 'Yessir! Thank you, sir!' and handed the phone back to Barbie. 'Check it out, they're gonna try to augment our Wi-Fi before they shoot the missile! Jesus, this is hotV Julia grabbed his arm and Joe said, 'I'm sorry, Miz Shumway, I mean jeepers!

'Never mind that, can you really work this thing?'

'You kidding? No prob.'

'Colonel Cox?' Barbie asked. 'Is this true about the Wi-Fi?'

'We can't stop anything you folks want to try to do,' Cox said. 'I think you were the one who originally pointed that out to me. So we might as well help.You'll have the fastest Internet in the world, at least for today. That's some bright kid you got there, by the way.'

'Yes, sir, that was my impression,' Barbie said, and gave Joe a thumbs-up. The kid was glowing.