Pages 143 - 156, part of Prayers: Barbie Gets Goin'

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Not much time to read today -- don't ask -- but what little I got through is chock full of ominous-ness.

What happened? Barbie, with Editor Shumway in tow, goes to a quiet part of the Dome barrier and sees the whole damn place surrounded by Special Forces soldier-types who won't even look him in the eye.  He has his long talk with Colonel Cox, who assures him -- half-believably -- that nobody knows WHAT the hell this thing is, it's not a government conspiracy (uh-HUH), and it's not really a Dome at all: it's a barrier that goes up about five miles and down probably just as far; that it lets in a little water and most air, but nothin' else, and that it exactly conforms to the entirely man-made City Limits of Chester's Mill.  And since Barbie -- who, it turns out, is a recently resigned Special Forces Search-and-Destroy Black Ops kind'a guy -- is their 'inside man,' it's up to him to find the possible 'generator' of the field ... somewhere in the Mill.

Interesting character, Barbie, and not exactly like the normal SK "normal man thrust into heroism" that we've seen in the other Big Books.  This guy is prepared, and though he seems weary of all the intrigue and challenge, he's not entirely reluctant.  And there's no question is capable.

Lot of exposition here, a lot of scene-setting, and done, as usual, swiftly and elegantly.  DAMN, I wish I could write like this...