Glass shattered, sending shards flying everywhere.
The screams and curses instantly rose an octave. The crowd began to surge forward, and the police line looked as if it were about to collapse.
This was the very predicament Ron Smith had deliberately engineered.
In the Mayor's Office on the second floor of City Hall.
Ron Smith stood in the gap between the curtains, watching the raging crowd below.
A long column of ash clung to the cigarette between his fingers.
His secretary cowered behind the door, trembling. "Mayor, the back door is ready. The car's in the alley, and the chief of police is advising that you evacuate immediately..."
"Evacuate?"
Smith turned, threw the cigarette to the floor, and viciously crushed it out with the toe of his shoe.
"Evacuate where? Home? They'll tear my house down too."
"And besides, why should I run?"
Smith straightened his suit.
"Get me a megaphone."
Smith said to his secretary.
"I'm going out."
