Under the Dome

And this was what Re

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Bizarre.

'You people get back from there!' he shouted. He had a good voice for giving orders, big and confident. 'That's an accident site!'

Ernie Calvert—another idiot, the town was full of them, Re

'The who? The what? What are you talking about?'

'The Air National Guard!'

Worse and worse. People playing games, and this fool calling the—

'Ernie, why would you call them, for gosh sakes?'

'Because he said… the guy said…' But Ernie couldn't remember exactly what Barbie had said, so he moved on. 'Well anyway, the colonel at the ANG listened to what I was telling him, then co

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But he didn't joke now. 'Homeland Security! What in the cotton-picking devil for?' Cotton-picking was by far Re

'Because the young guy said there's somethin across the road. And there is, Jim! Somethin you can't see! People can lean on it! See? They're doin it now. Or… if you throw a stone against it, it bounces back! Look!' Ernie picked up a stone and threw it. Re

'Slow down. What guy exactly are we talking about?'

'He's a young guy,' Rory Dinsmore said.'He cooks at Sweetbriar Rose. If you ask for a hamburg medium, that's how you get it. My dad says you can hardly ever get medium, because nobody knows how to cook it, but this guy does.' His face broke into a smile of extraordinary sweetness. 'I know his name.'

'Shut up, Roar,' his brother warned. Mr Re

Rory, however, paid no mind.'It's a girl's name! It's Baaarbara.'

Just when I think I've seen the last of him, that cotton-picker pops up again, Re

He turned to Ernie Calvert. The police were almost here, but Re

'Ernie,' he said, 'you've been misinformed.'

Alden Dinsmore stepped forward. 'Mr Re

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'Hush,' Calvert said, holding up a hand. 'I got someone.'

Big Jim Re

A voice from the cell phone said, 'To whom am I speaking?' Less than half a dozen words, but they were enough to tell Re

'This is James Re

'Donald Wozniak, Homeland Security. I understand vou have some sort of problem out there on Highway 119. An interdiction of some kind.'

Interdiction? Interdiction? What kind of Fedspeak was that?

'You have been misinformed, sir,' Re

'Mister Re

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Meanwhile, the man from Homeland Security—did they have the nerve to call themselves agents?—was still jabbering away.

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'Jim, I don't think that was wise.'

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