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Shaw, wearing a borrowed firefighter coat over his Kevlar vest, waved his flashlight in front of the people departing from the Cosmic Pizza parlor on North Street.

“That’s right. This way, folks,” he said in his soft yet insistent voice of authority as he herded the idiot sheep back toward the post office.

Azar and Shahu were inside doing the sheep-dogging while the other team, Carpenter and Tejada, were spread out in the shadow across the street behind him hanging back, backing them up.

“That’s it. Thank you. Here we go,” Shaw said to the oblivious crowd.

“What is this, anyway? Where are we supposed to go?” said a rather rotund woman with green-and-purple hair, clutching at a toddler.

“You will all be relocated to the high school, ma’am. Probably only for a short time. It’s for your safety.”

“But my daughter has asthma and we left her inhaler back at our apartment,” she said, irritated.

Sounds like a personal problem, porky , Shaw resisted saying.

“If you just head on over to the post office, ma’am, they can help you there,” he said instead.

“That the last of them in there?” he said to Azar, who suddenly appeared at the pizza place door.

Azar nodded.

“Checked the back? The kitchen?”

He nodded.

“Okay, c’mon. Now we do the bar.”

Shaw looked back at Carpenter, who gave him a flicker from his vest light from the shadows before they continued down the street.

Half a block down North Street most of the patrons of the Pinewood were already outside on the sidewalk.

Shaw hit them in the face with his high-beam light, searching quickly.

They were all men. Nine in total. No raven-haired babe, no older blonde.

“Hey, cut that light, buddy,” one of them said. “You’re blinding us.”

“Sorry,” Shaw said, pointing it down a little. “Listen up, guys. We got a situation here. A tanker truck of some nasty industrial chemicals hit a power line up Route 4 here. We have to get everybody out of the village as a precaution until we get it cleaned up. Anybody else in there?”

“Yeah, the owner, Big Joe. He’s in there,” someone said.

“Thanks,” Shaw said. “Just head that way toward the post office. School busses will take you to the high school where they’re setting up a shelter. We need to get everybody out of here. At least for a few hours.”

“But my wife and kids. Shouldn’t I get them?” a voice said. “I live just right down the block.”

“No worries, friend,” Shaw said, patting the idiot on the shoulder. “You let us handle it. We’ll get them. You’ll all be together in a minute. Just head on out. That’s it.”

Shaw watched the man immediately follow his instructions to the letter.

These people , Shaw thought. Look at them, at how easy it was to control them. A badge and an authoritative tone of voice literally hypnotized them. Made them completely hand over all higher brain function, their human agency, their freedom. With ease.

He could have told the dummy to cartwheel to the post office and he would have done it.

I love my job , Shaw thought as he watched them go.