OFFICE.
The home-welded bars start FALLING AWAY from the cell door one by one, almost like falling leaves. ROBBIE and HENRY watch, numb with terror. The bars fall faster and faster, creating a man-shaped hole. When it's complete, LINOGE steps easily through. He looks at the two COWERING MEN, then turns and raises his cane toward the door leading to the market.
191 INTERIOR: THE MARKET SIDE OF THE DOOR.
HATCH is raising the hatchet for another blow when the door suddenly OPENS ON ITS OWN. BRIGHT BLUISH SILVER LIGHT streams out.
LINOGE (voice) Hatch.
HATCH steps into that FLOOD OF LIGHT. JACK grabs at him.
JACK Hatch, no!
HATCH ignores him. He goes into the light, the hatchet slipping from his fingers as he does.
192 EXTERIOR: THE MARKET NIGHT.
The Island Services four-wheel drive turns into the front parking area. The storm shutters are down over the market's display windows, but we can see BRILLIANT BLUE LIGHT shining through the door.
193 INTERIOR: THE ISLAND SERVICES VEHICLE.
It's crammed with BEEFY GUYS. MIKE is at the wheel.
r
STORM OF THE CENTURY 221
What in the hell is that?
JOHNNY
(awed)
MIKE doesn't bother answering, but he's out of the truck almost before it has stopped moving. The others follow, but MIKE is first up the steps.
194 INTERIOR: THE CONSTABLE'S OFFICE.
HATCH sleepwalks into that BRILLIANT LIGHT, heedless of the objects floating and swirling in the air. The PowerBook bumps his head. HATCH bats it aside and it floats away like something underwater. He reaches LINOGE, who is almost blindingly bright.
LINOGE is in reality an old man, we see, with ragged white hair falling almost to his shoulders. His cheeks and brow are carved with lines, and his lips are sunken, but it's a strong face, all the same . . . and dominated by the eyes, which SWIRL WITH BLACK AND RED. His ordinary clothes are gone; he is wearing a dark robe that gleams with SHIFTING SILVER PATTERNS. He continues to hold his STAFF UP with one hand (there is still a SILVER WOLF'S HEAD at one end, but now we see the shaft is carved with magical runes and symbols) and grips HATCH'S shoulder with the other . . . only it's not really a hand at all, but a talon full of claws.
222 STEPHEN KING
LINOGE brings his face down until his brow is almost touching HATCH'S. His lips part, revealing his pointed teeth. During all of this, HATCH stares at him with wide, blank eyes.
LINOGE Give me what I want and I'll go away. Tell them. Give me
what I want. . . and I'll go away.
He turns, the hem of his robe flaring, and strides toward the door that leads to the loading dock.
195 INTERIOR: THE MARKET, LOOKING TOWARD THE MAIN DOORS NIGHT.
They burst open, and MIKE runs in, followed by his posse. He moves up the center aisle, jumping the overturned card table, and grabs KIRK FREEMAN.
MIKE What happened? Where's Hatch?
KIRK points numbly into the constable's office. He is beyond words. MIKE plunges through the doorway . . . then stops.
196 INTERIOR: THE CONSTABLE'S OFFICE, FROM MIKE'S POINT OF VIEW.
Looks like a cyclone struck it. Papers and office supplies are strewn everywhere, fluttering in the draft from the open loading-dock door. HATCH'S PowerBook lies shattered on the floor. The jail cell is empty. A litter of bars lies in front of the door, which is still locked but gaping wide, all the same. The hole is vaguely man-shaped.
ROBBIE and HENRY stand against the wall, their arms around each other, like small children who are lost in the dark. HATCH stands in the center of the floor with his back to MIKE and his head lowered.
MIKE approaches cautiously. The other men clog the door to the market, watching with big eyes and solemn faces.
MIKE Hatch? What happened?
STORM OF THE CENTURY 223 HATCH doesn't respond until MIKE actually touches his shoulder.
MIKE
What happened?
HATCH turns. His face has been changed in some fundamental way by his close encounter with LINOGE stamped by a terror that may never leave him, even if he survives the Storm of the Century.
MIKE (reacts) Hatch . . . my God . . . what . . . ?
HATCH
We have to give him what he wants. If we do that, he'll go away. He'll leave us alone. If we don't . . .
HATCH looks toward the open loading-dock door, where SNOW is SWIRLING IN. ROBBIE joins them, walking slowly, like an old man.
Where did he go?
ROBBIE
HATCH
Out there. Into the storm. Now they all look toward the door.
197 EXTERIOR: DOWNTOWN, LOOKING