Corona kept walking deeper into the mall and didn't even glance over her shoulder, but she could spin around and plant the blade right between his eyes as soon as she heard the gun come out of its holster.

The cop seemed to figure it out and took his hand off his gun. He continued glaring at Corona but kept his mouth shut.

Jack released a long breath and left his gun holstered. He nodded at Taura and they hurried to catch up with Corona, both of them glancing over their shoulders every few seconds.

"There it is." Jack pointed at one of the store spaces up ahead. The photo lab's name glowed on an LED sign above the door. A pair of uniformed cops stood on either side of the door. They scowled when they spotted Taura and the others approaching.

Here we go again. She nodded at the restroom across from the photo lab. "We can step in there for a moment so I can use my gadget." Her holographic computer wasn't exactly common technology -- she was beta-testing it for the cyberware dealer who'd built Jack's eyes -- and she didn't like to let just anyone see it in action if she could avoid it.

Jack and Corona followed her through the door and into a short hallway leading to the restrooms. Taura pushed open the nearer door, which happened to be the men's room. She ducked through the doorway and pointed a thumb over her shoulder.

"Take a hike," she snapped at the three guys in the room. One of them stood at the first urinal, the second was washing his hands, and the third was stepping into one of the stalls. All three turned to glare at her, then froze after their eyes took in her height and huge muscles.

Jack held his badge up. "You heard the lady."

The guys glanced at him, then at Corona and back to Taura, and shuffled past them. Corona chuckled and leaned against the door, bracing it shut.

Taura folded down the diaper-changing table, grabbed some paper towels, and spread them on the surface before taking her computer out and putting it on the table. She activated it by tracing a finger along the surface.

A holographic display and a keyboard with big buttons for her oversized fingers appeared in the air above the table. Taura entered a command and a set of icons appeared. She reached into the holofield, touched one, and accessed the mall's floorplan.

"There. That's the photo lab. There's an entrance inside the mall, just as you guessed, Jack." She opened another window, touched several icons and worked her way into the building's security camera system. An image appeared in the window, a downshot from one of the lab's cameras on the ceiling, showing a middle-aged man with short, graying hair pacing around the room, yelling and waving a gun around.

"There's our guy," Jack muttered. "Can you find any info on him? Like, whether he has a history of mental instability or an arrest record?"

"Not a problem." Taura could've slipped into the city police network without the level of access their new job had given her, but now it wouldn't take nearly as long. Got to admit, working for Machiko does have its perks. She pushed the current window aside and opened another, then logged into the NCPD net. She read the info that came up and nodded. "He's never been given a psych evaluation, but he's had a number of complaints filed against him regarding his explosive temper and unreasonable attitude. He's been banned from several grocery stores and other businesses. The police have talked to him several times about it, but that was as far as it ever went."

"Typical." Jack shook his head. "They never do anything but 'talk' to a guy like this -- until he flips out and butchers someone."

"At least he hasn't killed any of those people," Corona said, her glowing red eyes flicking around, checking the condition of each hostage.

"Yet." Jack stuck his hands into his pockets and watched the image for a moment. "Can you show us footage of the assault? I'd like to see how this mess got started."

"Sure." Taura opened a new window, brought up the camera footage and ran it back to a point just before the assault. She touched the playback icon and crossed her arms over her chest. At this point, there had been only one guy working in the lab, running frantically from the film processors to the printers and back again. A few customers were checking out the cameras and accessories on display and Givens stood at the counter, glaring at the employee, his eyes tracking the poor kid's every movement.

"What a dick," Jack said. "I used to get that crap all the time at the pizza place. It's like people think that glaring at you will make their order come out faster."

"I'm beginning to understand why you were so antisocial before you met us." Corona shook her head.

"Yeah. When most of the people you meet every day go out of their way to make you miserable, you find it's much easier on your blood pressure to just stay home on your days off."

"Well, maybe now you'll have a chance to show one of 'em what it feels like." She winked at him, then pointed at the processors. "What's the guy putting in that, anyway?"

"He's developing film. I don't know why anybody still uses it, or why people don't just print their pictures out at home."

Corona cocked her head. "What's film?"

Before Jack could reply, Taura nodded at her display. "I think it's about to start."

In the holofield, Givens shook his head, huffed and sighed, and leaned on the counter. "What's taking so long? I've been waiting an hour and a half!"

"Sir," the lab tech said, obviously trying to keep himself under control, "We're extremely short-handed right now. I'm the only one here this afternoon, and there's a couple dozen orders ahead of yours."

Givens leaned forward and bellowed, "I don't care! You guarantee pictures in an hour!"

"We guarantee rolls of film in an hour. Digital orders are done as volume permits."

Givens drew in a deep breath and screamed even louder. "One! Hour! Period!"

The tech glared back at him, walked over to the stack of envelopes on the counter beside the printers, and carried one of them over to Givens. He pointed at the label. "It says right here, 'Digital orders done as volume permits.' There's a bunch of orders ahead of yours, some of the digital ones are for several hundred prints, and yours is for almost six hundred. That many prints will take longer than normal."

"You know what? I'm gonna talk to your manager and tell him how incompetent you are!"

The tech shook his head, threw his hands up and walked back into the lab. He tossed the envelope back onto the stack and reached out to pick up a batch of photos that had just come out of the nearest printer.

"Don't get pissy!" Givens snapped.

"The fucking nerve of that guy," Jack growled through clenched teeth.

"Excuse me?" The tech turned and stared slack-jawed at Givens.

"I said, don't get pissy! That's my job!"

The tech finally lost it. He stomped up to the counter and yelled back at Givens. "Like hell it is! The printers can only work so fast. I don't have any control over it. Don't yell at me over something I can't control!"

"Hey, shut the fuck up, you punk bitch! Just print out my pictures now!"

By this point the rest of the customers were staring in shock at both of them. One glared at Givens and shook her head. Two others began inching toward the front door.

The tech pointed at the door and screamed, "Get the hell out of here before I call security and have you thrown out!"

Givens glared at him, trembling -- then he cocked his fist back and punched the tech in the face.

Corona's muzzle dropped open. "Seriously?" She glanced at the realtime feed from the lab's camera to be sure nothing was happening yet, then kept watching the recent footage.

The tech took a swing of his own, connecting with Givens's jaw, then leaped over the counter, grabbed him and tried to drag him to the door. Givens pummeled him and then pulled a gun from under his jacket. He shoved it into the tech's face and the kid froze.

The other customers screamed and ran for the door.

Givens grabbed the tech and pressed the gun to his head, turned and shouted at everyone else. "Get back here! Anybody who tries to run gets a bullet in the head!"

"I've seen enough." Jack turned to the door. "Let's go take this piece of shit down."