Tom Cullen's spy instructions

Tom Cullen's spy instructions were the operational framework for the Boulder Free Zone's most unconventional intelligence mission. Devised by Nick Andros and administered by Stu Redman during a hypnotic trance, the rules turned a gentle, retarded man into a deniable agent sent to gather information on Randall Flagg's forces in the West. The instructions were a calculated gamble, leveraging Tom's simplicity as a perfect cover and his deep hypnotic susceptibility as a reliable retrieval mechanism.

Origin and Purpose

The instructions were created during a meeting at Tom's house in North Boulder on August 17, 1990, attended by Nick Andros, Stu Redman, and Ralph Brentner. Nick, who had known Tom since their meeting in May, Oklahoma, proposed the idea after discovering that Tom was an extraordinarily deep hypnotic subject. Stan Nogotny, a former amateur hypnotist, had put Tom under in about six seconds and successfully planted a post-hypnotic suggestion. Nick argued that Tom's retardation was actually an asset: Flagg would never expect the Free Zone to send a "feeb" as a spy, and Tom's simple mind would cling to a rehearsed cover story with unshakeable tenacity. The committee voted 5–2 to adopt the plan, with Fran Goldsmith and Susan Stern initially opposed.

The Hypnotic Session

Stu Redman administered the instructions while Tom was in a deep trance. Tom's voice changed during the session, taking on a quality Stu found unsettling—it was the voice of "the man forever denied." In this state, Tom revealed that he had seen Flagg's face in his dreams and described him as "the king of nowhere" who could "call the wolves and live in the crows." He also stated that Mother Abagail was still alive but "not right with God yet," and that she would "die on the wrong side of the river." The session left the three men deeply shaken.

The Travel Rules

The core instructions were simple and repetitive, designed to be memorized by a man who could not read. Tom was told to travel only at night and sleep during the day. He was to stay on the big four-lane highway, Interstate 70, heading always west, toward where the sun went down. If anyone asked why he was there, his cover story was that the people in the Free Zone had driven him out because he was feebleminded and they were afraid he would father idiot children. The story was designed to be believable and to generate sympathy rather than suspicion.

The Kill-or-Flee Directive

The most troubling part of the instructions was the kill-or-flee rule. Tom was told that if he was seen by a single person, he was to kill him. If he was seen by more than one person, he was to run. Stu later admitted that when he gave this order, a frown crossed Tom's sleeping face, as if he were thinking, "I'll make up my own mind on that when the time comes." This raised the question of whether a hypnotic subject could be made to violate his own moral code. The committee hoped Tom's natural gentleness would prevent him from actually killing, but the instruction was left in place as a desperate measure.

The Return Trigger

The return mechanism was tied to the lunar cycle. Tom was given a post-hypnotic suggestion that when he saw the full moon—not the half-moon or the fingernail moon—he would come back east, walking at night and sleeping in the day, trying not to be seen. The full moon of September 1990 became his deadline. This timing was chosen to give him roughly three weeks in the West before the return signal activated.

Outcome and Significance

Tom successfully infiltrated Las Vegas, where he was given a job on the clean-up crew and accepted as a harmless simpleton. He was there when Dayna Jurgens arrived and when Judge Farris was killed. He saw the execution cages being built and sensed the growing fear in Flagg's followers. When the full moon rose on the night of September 12–13, he left Las Vegas on his bicycle, heading east. Flagg, who had been unable to detect Tom because his mind was "different," woke briefly and sensed something was wrong but could not pinpoint the threat. Tom escaped, and his return journey eventually intersected with Stu Redman's, saving Stu's life. The information Tom carried—that Flagg's regime was cracking, that people were deserting, that the helicopters had been sabotaged—was never formally debriefed because the nuclear explosion in Las Vegas rendered it moot, but Tom's survival and return became a symbol of the Free Zone's resilience.