10,000 people jam the corridors of America's largest shopping mall. 9,988 of them have come to shop. The other 12 have come to kill. Stephen Hunter's hyperdrive, eighth-gear thriller chronicles the day when the unthinkable happens: terrorists descend upon the heartland, opening fire in a Minneapolis supermall and executing innocent victims one by one. Those on the upper floors, including retired Marine sniper Ray Cruz, take cover any way they can, but within minutes the gunmen have rounded up more than a thousand hostages. As it so often does, the story comes down to one man with a gun. Except Ray doesn't have a gun.