Coccozello could hear the noise that was still coming out of the
darkened screen. As he stepped forward, Claire got another pickup,
some distance from the one that had been knocked out. A mob of women
customers were surging away from the Chinaware Department, into
Glassware; they were running into the shopping crowd there, with
considerable disturbance. A couple of store police were trying to get
through the packed mass of humanity, and making slow going of it.
Coccozello swore and started calling on his reserves on one of the
handphones.

"Wait a moment, sergeant," Prestonby stopped him. "Don't commit any of
your reserves down there. We're going to need them to hold the
executive country, up here. This is only the start of a general riot."

"Who are you and what do you know about it?" Coccozello challenged.

"Listen to him, Guido," Claire said. "He knows what he's doing."

"Claire, you have some way of keeping a running count of the number of
customers in and out of the store, haven't you?" Prestonby asked.

"Why, yes; here." She pointed to an indicator on Chester Pelton's
desk, where constantly changing numbers danced.

"And don't you have a continuous check on sales, too? How do they
jibe?"

"They don't; look. Sales are away below any expectation from the
number of customers, even allowing for shopping habits of a