'Something amusing, Ms Shumway?'
'In The Mill, folks call that one Little Bitch Road. Because in mud season, it's one little bitch.'
'Very colorful.'
'No crowds out on Little Bitch, I take it?'
'No one at all right now'
'All right.' She put the pad in her pocket and picked up the camera. Hector continued waiting patiently by the door.
'Good. When may I expect your call? Or rather, Barbie's call on your cell?'
She looked at her watch and saw it had just gone ten. How in God's name had it gotten that late so early? 'We'll be out there by ten thirty, assuming I can find him. And I think I can.'
'That's fine. Tell him Ken says hello. That's a - '
'A joke, yes, I get it. Will someone meet us?'
There was a pause. When he spoke again, she sensed reluctance. 'There will be lights, and sentries, and soldiers manning a roidblock, but they have been instructed not to speak to the residents.
'Not to - why? In God's name, why?'
'If this situation doesn't resolve, Ms Shumway, all these things will become clear to you. Most you really will figure out on your own - you sound like a very bright lady'
'Well, f**k you very much, Colonel!' she cried, stung. At the door, Hector pricked up his ears.
Cox laughed, a big unoffended laugh. 'Yes, ma'am, receiving you five-by-five. Ten thirty?'
She was tempted to tell him no, but of course there was no way she could do that.
'Ten thirty. Assuming I can hunt him up. And I call you?'
'Either you or him, but it's him I need to speak with. I'll be waiting with one hand on the phone.'
'Then give me the magic number.' She crooked the phon; against her ear and fumbled the pad out again. Of course you always wanted your pad again after you'd put it away; that was a fact of li::e when you were a reporter, which she now was. Again. The number he gave her to call somehow scared her more than anything else he'd said. The area code was 000.
'One more thing, Ms Shumway: do you have a pacemaker implant? Hearing-aid implants? Anything of that nature?'
'No. Why?'
She thought he might again decline to answer, but he didn't. 'Once you're close to the Dome, there's some kind of interference. It's not harmful to most people, they feel it as nothing more than a low-level electric shock which goes away a second or two after it comeS, but it plays hell with electronic devices. Shuts some down - most Icell phones, for instance, if they come closer than five feet or so - ^nd explodes others. If you bring a tape recorder out, it'll shut down. Bring an iPod or something sophisticated like a BlackBerry, it's apt to explode.'
'Did Chief Perkins's pacemaker explode? Is that what killed him?'
'Ten thirty. Bring Barbie, and be sure to tell him Ken says hello.'
He broke the connection, leaving Julia standing in silence beside her dog. She tried calling her sister in Lewiston.The numbers peeped... then nothing. Blank silence, as before.
The Dome, she thought. He didn't call it the barrier there at the end; he called it the Dome.
5
Barbie had taken off his shirt and was sitting on his bed to untie his sneakers when the knock came at the door, which one reached by climbing an outside flight of stairs on the side of Sanders Hometown Drug. The knock wasn't welcome. He had walked most of the day, then put on an apron and cooked for most of the evening. He was beat.
4.nd suppose it was Junior and a few of his friends, ready to throw him a welcome-back party? You could say it was unlikely, even paranoid, but the day had been a festival of unlikely. Besides, Junior and prank DeLesseps and the rest of their little band were among the few people he hadn't seen at Sweetbriar tonight. He supposed they might be out on 119 or 117, rubbernecking, but maybe somebody had told them he was back in town and they'd been making plans for later tonight. Later like now.
The knock came again. Barbie stood up and put a hand on the portable TV. Not much of a weapon, but it would do some damage if thrown at the first one who tried to cram through the door. There was a wooden closet rod, but all three rooms were small and it was too long to swing effectively. There was also his Swiss Army Knife, but he wasn't going to do any cutting. Not unless he had t -
'Mr Barbara?' It was a woman's voice. 'Barbie? Are you in there?'
He took his hand off the TV and crossed the kitchenette. 'Who is it?' But even as he asked, he recognized the voice.
'Julia Shumway. I have a message from someone who wants to speak to you. He told me to tell you that Ken says hello.'
Barbie opened the door and let her in.