He sighed tiredly. 'I don't know.'
She sat down on the couch next to him. 'There's going to be no one left in this town pretty soon.'
'Except Store employees.'
She did not respond.
'Maybe we should move,' he said. 'Get out while we can.'
She was silent for a moment. 'Maybe we should,' she said finally.
After dinner, while Ginny did the dishes, he snuck back into his office and checked his E-mail.
There was a message from Street.
It was what he'd been hoping for, and he excitedly called it up.
A message appeared in the center of the screen:. 'Pages 1 and 2 of this message have been deleted.'
Shit!
He scrolled forward, to the end, saw only half a page of text: '. . . So that's what happened. I know The Store owns this shitty little online service.
So I'm not sure if they'll even let this through. But I had to contact you and tell you what went down. I won't be able to do it again, and it may be some time before I see you, so I just wanted to tell you to keep fighting the good fight.
I'll miss you, good buddy. You're one of the true. To quote the mighty C. W. McCall, 'We gone. Bye bye.' '
He stared at the screen, unmoving, and it was not until Ginny came into the office, calling his name, that he realized he was crying.
TWENTY-NINE
1
Shannon arrived early for work. She walked into the locker room to change into her uniform and saw on the bulletin board a new notice:
KEEP OUR STREETS CLEAN!
VOLUNTEER CREWS NEEDED
FOR SATURDAY MORNING SWEEPS.
PARTICIPATION MANDATORY.
SIGN UP IN PERSONNEL.
She stared at the sign as she pulled down her pants and slipped off her panties. Above the row of lockers, she heard the click-hum of the security camera as it adjusted to her movements. She quickly put on the leather Store underwear, covering what she could. She pulled on the tight pants of her uniform, sucking in her stomach so she could fasten the snap.
She wondered if Jake was the one monitoring the cameras that videotaped her dressing.
She wondered if he was the one who monitored the cameras in the bathroom.
As quickly as she could, she took off her blouse and bra and slipped on the leather Store bra and uniform top. She glanced again at the notice on the bulletin board as she sat on the bench and pulled on her boots.
_Morning sweeps_.
She didn't like the sound of that. And the fact that participation was mandatory for a 'volunteer' crew didn't set well with her, either. Of course, it could be totally innocent. Maybe The Store was promoting environmentalism. Maybe these cleanup crews would simply walk along the highway and the roads, picking up the trash and debris that ignorant drivers tossed out of their vehicles.
Maybe the vigilante overtones she was reading into the notice weren't really there.
Maybe.
But she didn't think so.
Putting on her Store hat, she walked out of the locker room and onto the floor.
Shannon showed up early for the sweep. Holly was there already. So was Francine. And Ed Robbins. The three of them stood in the parking lot at the designated meeting place, trying to keep warm. Summer was winding down, and the mornings and evenings had started to get chilly, a foreshadowing of fall.
'Should've made us some coffee,' Holly said. She smiled at Shannon. 'Or hot chocolate.'
'And brought some doughnuts,' Ed said.
Francine rubbed her arms. 'Anything sounds good to me.'
They kept their conversation light, trivial, purposely avoiding the reason they were gathered here this morning.
It was exactly what Shannon had feared. They'd had training on Wednesday evening, from a policeman, and he'd shown them how to work in teams of two to subdue a person, how to load a recalcitrant subject into a police van, how to manacle an individual if necessary.
They would be 'sweeping' Juniper of the homeless.
They would be keeping the streets 'clean' by removing people who were unemployed, whom The Store had rendered jobless.
'We got a lot of them with the curfew,' the policeman had told them. 'But there are still quite a few out there. Hopefully, you'll be able to clean them up.' Clean them up.
She hadn't told her parents about the sweeps, although she wasn't sure why. Embarrassment, she supposed. Shame at taking part in anything this inhumane -- even if her involvement was coerced.
More people were arriving now, and soon there were a dozen of them waiting for their sweep leader.
Jake.
She didn't know until he announced it that he would be in charge of the sweep, didn't know until she saw him that he would even be here.
Her heart was pounding in her chest as she stood next to Holly, watching him. Even after all this time, he still had an effect on her. She didn't often see him in The Store -- like most of Security, he remained in the monitoring room, invisible -- but she was always aware of his presence, he was always there in the back of her mind.
She wasn't sure if she hated him or still loved him, but he definitely provoked an emotional response within her. Her hands were sweaty, her heart pounding, and she felt nervous even being this close to him.
His eyes met hers, and she quickly looked away.
'Okay!' Jake announced. 'Teams!'
He read off a list of pairings and told each team where they were to conduct their sweeps. Shannon was to work with Ed, and the two of them were supposed to round up derelicts at the park. They would be provided with batons and handcuffs, if necessary.
Shannon talked with Ed for a moment. She didn't want to do this, and she made that clear to him, but he was a gung ho member of The Store Corps, and he considered her attitude treasonous.
'But it don't matter,' he said proudly. 'I don't need your help anyway. I can do it by myself.'
'Whatever,' she said.
They were driven into town in three vans and dropped off at their assigned locations. The vans were parked equidistantly from each team, providing easy access.
Shannon and Ed walked slowly onto the grass of the park. Behind them came a loud scream, and Shannon turned to see one of the other teams -- Rob and Arn beat a homeless man across the back with their batons and force him into the van behind them.
She felt sick. It was not the same as it had been at the training session.
It was nothing like that. The man was neither hostile nor belligerent. Instead, he seemed confused, hurt, and though he was not uncooperative, they hit him anyway, intentionally hurting him, inflicting pain, and he cried out as he stumbled into the back of the van.
'There's one,' Ed said excitedly.
She followed his pointing finger, saw a bearded man in a long coat who looked like the guy on one of her dad's old Jethro Tull albums.
'He's mine,' Ed announced.
She stood, watching, as he ran across the lawn and tackled the man. He had no baton, but he began beating the surprised derelict with his fists, shouting joyfully while the man bellowed in pain and vainly tried to ward off blows.
This was wrong. She didn't know whether or not it was legal, but it was wrong, morally and ethically over the
