Barbie—just the straw men he’s set up.”
“He’ll also want to make sure his tender ass is well protected,” Julia said.
There was some laughter at this, but Joe’s mother looked deeply troubled. “There’ll be
“They won’t,” Jackie said. “We’ll have them locked in their own cells before they know what’s happening.”
“But if they do?”
“Then we’ll try not to kill them.” Linda’s voice was calm, but her eyes were those of a creature who has screwed its courage up in some final desperate effort to save itself. “There’s probably going to be killing anyway if the Dome stays up much longer. The execution of Barbie and my husband in War Memorial Plaza will only be the start of it.”
“Let’s say you get them out,” Julia said. “Where will you take them? Here?”
“No way,” Piper said, and touched her still-swollen mouth. “I’m already on Rennie’s shit list. Not to mention that guy who’s now his personal bodyguard. Thibodeau. My dog bit him.”
“Anywhere near the center of town’s not a great idea,” Rose said. “They could do a house-to-house. God knows they’ve got enough cops.”
“Plus all the people wearing the blue armbands,” Rommie added.
“What about one of the summer cabins out at Chester Pond?” Julia asked.
“Possible,” Ernie said, “but they could think of that, too.”
“It still might be the best bet,” Lissa said.
“Mr. Burpee?” Joe asked. “Have you got any more of that lead roll?”
“Sure, tons. And make it Rommie.”
“If Mr. Calvert can steal a van tomorrow, could you sneak it behind your store and put a bunch of precut pieces of lead roll in the back? Ones big enough to cover the windows?”
“I guess so….”
Joe looked at Jackie. “And could you get hold of this Colonel Cox, if you had to?”
“Yes.” Jackie and Julia answered together, then looked at each other in surprise.
Light was dawning on Rommie’s face. “You’re thinking about the old McCoy place, aren’t you? Up on Black Ridge. Where the box is.”
“Yeah. It might be a bad idea, but if we all had to run… if we were all up there… we could defend the box. I know that sounds crazy, since it’s the thing causing all the problems, but we can’t let Rennie get it.”
“I hope it don’t come to refighting the Alamo in an apple orchard,” Rommie said, “but I see your point.”
“There’s something else we could do, too,” Joe said. “It’s a little risky, and it might not work, but…”
“Spill it,” Julia said. She was looking at Joe McClatchey with a kind of bemused awe.
“Well… is the Geiger counter still in your van, Rommie?”
“I t’ink so, yeah.”
“Maybe someone could put it back in the fallout shelter where it came from.” Joe turned to Jackie and Linda. “Could either of you get in there? I mean, I know you got fired.”
“Al Timmons would let us in, I think,” Linda said. “And he’d let Stacey Moggin in for sure. She’s with us. The only reason she’s not here right now is because she’s got the duty. Why risk it, Joe?”
“Because…” He was speaking with uncharacteristic slowness, feeling his way. “Well… there’s radiation out there, see?
Jackie was frowning. “It’s a cool idea, kiddo, but I don’t like the idea of pointing Rennie right at where we’re going. That doesn’t fit with my idea of a safe house.”
“It wouldn’t have to be like that,” Joe said. He was still speaking slowly, testing for weak spots. “Not exactly, anyway. One of you could get in touch with Cox, see? Tell him to call Rennie and say they’re picking up spot radiation. Cox can say something like, ‘We can’t exactly pinpoint it because it comes and goes, but it’s pretty high, maybe even lethal, so watch out. You don’t happen to have a Geiger counter, do you?’”
There was a long silence as they considered this. Then Rommie said, “We take Barbara and Rusty out to the McCoy farm. We go there ourselves if we have to… which we probably will. And if
“They get a radiation spike on the Geiger counter that sends them running back to town with their hands over their worthless gonads,” Ernie rasped. “Claire McClatchey, you got a genius there.”
Claire hugged Joe tight, this time with both arms. “Now if I could only get him to pick up his room,” she said.
20
Horace lay on the rug in Andrea Grinnell’s living room with his snout on one paw and his eye on the woman his mistress had left him with. Ordinarily Julia took him everywhere; he was quiet and never caused trouble even if there were cats, which he didn’t care for because of their stinkweed smell. Tonight, however, it had occurred to Julia that seeing Horace alive when her own dog was dead might cause Piper Libby pain. She had also noticed that Andi liked Horace, and thought that the Corgi might take Andi’s mind off her withdrawal symptoms, which had abated but not disappeared.
For a while it worked. Andi found a rubber ball in the toybox she still kept for her one grandchild (who was now well past the toybox stage of life). Horace chased the ball obediently and brought it back as was required, although there wasn’t much challenge in it; he preferred balls that could be caught on the fly. But a job was a job, and he continued until Andi started shivering as if she were cold.
“Oh. Oh fuck, here it comes again.”
She lay down on the couch, shaking all over. She clutched one of the sofa-pillows against her chest and stared at the ceiling. Pretty soon her teeth started to clatter—a very annoying sound, in Horace’s opinion.
He brought her the ball, hoping to distract her, but she pushed him away. “No, honey, not now. Let me get through this.”
Horace took the ball back in front of the blank TV and lay down. The woman’s shaking moderated, and the sick-smell moderated along with it. The arms clutching the pillow loosened as she first began to drift and then to snore.
Which meant it was chowtime.
Horace slipped under the table again, walking over the manila envelope containing the VADER file. Beyond it was popcorn Nirvana. O lucky dog!
Horace was still snarking, his tailless rear end wagging with pleasure that was close to ecstasy (the scattered kernels were incredibly
But he couldn’t. His mistress was gone.
The deadvoice brooked no refusal, and the popcorn was almost gone, anyway. Horace marked the few remaining blossoms for later attention, then backed up until the envelope was in front of him. For a moment he forgot what he was supposed to do. Then he remembered and picked it up in his mouth.
21
