BEFORE HE COULD steady his aim, I flung my knife at him. It pierced the guard’s shoulder, and he spun toward his hurt shoulder, firing a few rounds into the ceiling before falling to the floor. As he rolled to his side and pulled at the knife in his shoulder, Kelly and her co-worker ran past me. Following them into the mall’s concourse, I glanced back and saw Ivan and another guard entering the front of the store. The second guard stopped to help his fallen partner, but Ivan leaped over the man and raced after us. Kelly and the young man ran toward a department store. But I had a better idea.
“This way!” I said, waving the two toward the sporting goods store.
I grabbed a metal-framed chair from near a kiosk station on our way to the store, and with both hands and all my might, slammed th
