Under the Dome

'Sam and the others like him will just have to suffer once their current supplies of beer and coffee brandy are gone. We can't have half the town getting drunk like it was New Year's Eve.'

'Why not?'Andrea asked.'They'll use up the supplies and that'll be the end of it.'

'And if they riot in the meantime?'

Andrea was silent. She couldn't see what people would have to riot about— not if they had food—but arguing with Jim Re

'I'll send a couple of the guys out to talk to them,' Randolph said.

'Talk to Tommy and Willow Anderson personally!'The Andersons ran pipper's. 'They can be troublesome.' He lowered his voice. 'Wingnuts.'

Randolph nodded. 'Left- wingnuts. Got a picture of Uncle Barack over the bar.'

'That's it exactly' And, he didn't need to say, Duke Perkins let those two hippy cotton-pickers get a foothold with their dancing and loud rock 4nd roll and drinking until one in the morning. Protected them. And look at the trouble it led to for my son and his friends. He turned to Andy Sanders. 'Also, you've got to put all the prescription drugs under lock and key. Oh, not Nasonex or Lyrica, that sort of thing. You know the stuff I mean.'

'Anything people might use to get high,' Andy said, 'is already under lock and key' He seemed uneasy at this turn of the conversation. Re

'Better take extra precautions, just the same.'

Andrea was looking alarmed.Andy patted her hand.'Don't worry,' he said, '-we always have enough to take care of those in real need.'

Andrea smiled at him.

'Bottom line is, this town is going to stay sober until the crisis ends,'! Big Jim said.'Are we in agreement? Show of hands.'

The hands went up.

'Now,' Re

'We need to recognize that people are apt to be scared. And when people are scared, they can get up to dickens, booze or no booze.'

Andrea looked at the console to Big Jim's right: switches that controlled the TV, the AM/FM radio, and the built-in taping system, an i

'I see no need.'

The darned taping system (shades of Richard Nixon) had been the idea of a meddling medico named Eric Everett, a thirtysome-thing pain in the buttinsky who was known around town as Rusty. Everejtt had sprung the taping system idiocy at town meeting two years before, presenting it as a great leap forward. The proposal came as an unwelcome surprise to Re

Big Jim had objected that the cost would be prohibitive. This tactic usually worked with thrifty Yankees, but not that time; Everett had presented figures, possibly supplied by Duke Perkins, showing that the federal government would pay eighty percent. Some Disaster Assistance Whatever; a leftover from the free-spending Clinton years. Re

It wasn't a thing that happened often, and he didn't like it, but he had been in politics for many more years than Eric 'Rusty' Everett had been tickling prostates, and he knew there was a big difference between losing a battle and losing the war.

'Or at least someone should take notes?' Andrea asked timidly.

'I think it might be best to keep this informal, for the time being,' Big Jim said. 'Just among the four of us.'

'Well… if you think so…'

'Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead,'Andy said dreamily.

'That's right, pal,' Re

'Damn straight!' Randolph said smartly.

'Now, I'm sure Chief Perkins is looking down on is from Above—'

'With my wife,' Andy said. 'With Claudie.' He produced a snot-clogged honk that Big Jim could have done without. Nonetheless, he patted Andy's free hand.

'That's right, Andy, the two of them together, bathed in Jesus's glory. But for us here on earth… Pete, what kind of force can you muster?'

Big Jim knew the answer. He knew the answers to most of his own questions. Life was easier that way. There were eighteen officers on the Chester's Mill police payroll, twelve full-timers and s:x part-timers (the latter all past sixty, which made their services entrancingly cheap). Of those eighteen, he was quite sure five of the full-timers were out of town; they had either gone to that day's high school football game with their wives and families or to the controlled burn in Castle Rock. A sixth, Chief Perkins, was dead. And while Re

'I'll tell you what, folks,' Randolph said,'it's not that good.There's Henry Morrison and Jackie Wettington, both of whom responded with me to the initial Code Three. There's also Rupe Libby, Fred Denton, and George Frederick—although his asthmas so bad I don't know how much use he'll be. He was pla

'Poor old George,' Andy said. 'He just about lives on Advair.'

'And as you know, Marty Arsenault and Toby Whelan aren't up to much these days. The only part-timer I'd call really able-bodied is Linda Everett. Between that damned firefighting exercise and the football game, this couldn't have happened at a worse time.'

'Linda Everett?' Andrea asked, a little interested. 'Rusty's wife?'

'Pshaw!' Big Jim often said pshaw when he was irritated. 'She's just a jumped-up crossing guard.'

'Yes, sir,' Randolph said, 'but she qualified on the county range over in The Rock last year and she has a sidearm. No reason she can't carry it and go on duty. Maybe not full-time, the Everetts have got aj couple of kids, but she can pull her weight. After all, it 15 a crisis.'

"No doubt, no doubt.' But Re