The Stand

question of how to deal with this force known as the dark man, the Adversary, or Randall Flagg? Glen Bateman seconded the motion, adding that from time to time there might be other business—such as the real reason for the Burial Committee—that we should keep close to the vest. The motion carried, 7–0.

Nick then made his original motion, that we keep Mother Abagail informed of all public and private business transacted by the committee.

That motion was passed, 7–0.

Having disposed of the Mother Abagail business for the time being, the committee then moved on to the question of the dark man himself at Nick’s request. He proposed that we send three volunteers west to join the dark man’s people, the purpose being to gain intelligence about what’s really going on over there.

Sue Stern immediately volunteered. After some hot discussion of that, Glen Bateman was recognized by Stu and put this motion on the floor: Resolved, that no one from our ad hoc committee or from the permanent committee be eligible to volunteer for this reconnaissance. Sue Stern wanted to know why not.

Glen: “Everyone respects your honest desire to help, Susan, but the fact is, we simply don’t know if the people we send will ever come back, or when, or in what shape. In the meantime, we have the not-so-inconsiderable job of getting things in Boulder back on a paying basis, if you’ll pardon the slang. If you go, we’ll have to fill your seat with someone new who would have to be briefed on the ground we’ve already covered. I just don’t think we can afford all that lost time.”

Sue: “I suppose you’re right… or at least being sensible… but I do wonder sometimes if those two things are always the same. Or even usually the same. What you’re really saying is that we can’t send anyone from the committee because we’re all so fucking inexpendable. So we just… just… I don’t know…”

Stu: “Lay back in the buckwheat?”

Sue: “Yes. Thank you. That’s just what I mean. We lay back in the buckwheat and send somebody over there, maybe to get crucified on a telephone pole, maybe something even worse.”

Ralph: “What the hell could be worse?”

Sue: “I don’t know, but if anyone does know, it will be Flagg. I just hate it.”

Glen: “You may hate it, but you’ve stated our position very succinctly. We’re politicians here. The first politicians of the new age. We just have to hope that our cause is more just than some of the causes for which politicians have sent people into life-or-death situations before this.”

Sue: “I never thought I’d be a politician.”

Larry: “Welcome to the club.”

Glen’s motion that no one from the ad hoc committee should be one of the scouts was carried—gloomily—by a 7–0 vote. Fran Goldsmith then asked Nick what sort of qualifications we should look for in prospective undercover agents, and what we should expect them to find out.

Nick: “We won’t know what there is to be learned until they come back. If they do come back. The point is, we have absolutely no idea what he’s up to over there. We’re more or less like fishermen using human bait.”

Stu said he thought the committee should pick the people it wanted to ask, and there was general agreement on this. By committee vote, most of the discussion from this point on has been transcribed into these excerpts verbatim from the audio tapes. It seemed important to have a permanent record of our deliberations on the matter of the scouts (or spies), because it turned out to be so delicate and so troubling.

Larry: “I’ve got a name I’d like to put into nomination, if I could. I suppose it’ll sound off the wall to those of you who don’t know him, but it might be a really good idea. I’d like to send Judge Farris.”

Sue: “What, that old man? Larry, you must be nuts!”

Larry: “He’s the sharpest old guy I’ve ever met. He’s only seventy, for the record. Ronald Reagan was serving as President at an older age than that.”

Fran: “That’s not what I’d call a very strong recommendation.”

Larry: “But he’s hale and hearty. And I think the dark man might not suspect we’d send an old crock like Farris to spy on him… and we have to take his suspicions into account, you know. He’s got to, be looking for a move like this, and I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if he had border guards checking people coming in over there against a potential ‘spy profile.’ And—this will sound brutal, I know, especially to Fran—but if we lose him, we haven’t lost somebody with fifty good years in front of him.”

Fran: “You’re right. It sounds brutal.”

Larry: “All I want to add is that I know the Judge would say okay. He really wants to help. And I really think he could carry it off.”

Glen: “A point well taken. What does anybody else think?”

Ralph: “I’ll go either way, because I don’t know the gentleman. But I don’t think we should throw the guy out just because he’s old. After all, look who’s in charge of this place—an old lady who’s well over a hundred.”

Glen: “Another point well taken.”

Stu: “You sound like a tennis ref, baldy.”

Sue: “Listen, Larry. What if he fools the dark man and then drops dead of a heart attack while he’s busting his hump to get back here?”

Stu: “That could happen to just about anyone. Or an accident.”

Sue: “I agree… but with an old man, the odds go way up.”

Larry: “That’s true, but you don’t know the Judge, Sue. If you did, you’d see that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. He’s really smart. Defense rests.”

Stu: “I think Larry’s right. It’s the sort of thing Flagg might not expect. I second the motion. Those in favor?”

Committee voted aye, 7–0.

Sue: “Well, I went along with yours, Larry—maybe you’ll go along with mine.”

Larry: “Yeah, this is politics, all right. note 8 Who is it?”

Sue: “Dayna.”

Ralph: “Dayna who?”

Sue: “Dayna Jurgens. She’s got more guts than any woman I ever knew. Of course, I know she isn’t seventy, but I think if we put the idea to her, she’d go along.”

Fran: “Yes—if we really have to do this, I think she’d be good. I second the nomination.”

Stu: “Okay—it’s been moved and seconded that we ask Dayna Jurgens along for the ride. Those in favor?”

Committee voted aye, 7–0.

Glen: “Okay—who’s number three?”

Nick (read by Ralph): “If Fran disliked Larry’s, I’m afraid she’s really going to dislike mine. I nominate—”

Ralph: “Nick, you’re crazy! You don’t mean it!”

Stu: “Come on, Ralph, just read it.”

Ralph: “Well… it says here he wants to nominate… Tom Cullen.”

Uproar from the committee.

Stu: “Okay. Nick has the floor. He’s been writin like a bastard, so you better read it, Ralph.”

Nick: “First of all, I know Tom just as well as Larry knows the Judge, and probably better. He loves Mother Abagail. He’d do anything for her, including roasting over a slow fire. I really mean that—no hype. He’d set himself on fire for her, if she asked him to.”

Fran: “Oh, Nick, nobody’s arguing that, but Tom is—”

Stu: “Let it go, Fran—Nick’s got the floor.”

Nick: “My second point is the same one Larry made about the Judge. The Adversary is not going to expect us to send a retarded person as a spy. Your combined reactions to the idea are maybe the best argument in favor of the idea.

“My third—and last—point is that, while Tom may be retarded, he is not a halfwit. He saved my life once when a tornado came, and he reacted much faster than anyone else I know would have done. Tom is childish, but even a child can learn to do certain things if he is drilled and taught and then drilled some more. I see no problem at all in giving Tom a very simple story to memorize. In the end, they’ll likely assume