It took three strikes with a large hammer to break the lock. Some were too impatient to wait and they pushed against the door with all their might—once, twice, thrice. Even before the lock broke, the hinges on the left had given way. The door fell flat and the horde surged in. Four hands grabbed the guard’s chair. It was flung against the wall. Its wooden leg broke on impact and boomeranged onto a young boy’s head. The boy pressed his palm to his bleeding scalp. He did not feel any pain. A neighbour removed his own turban and wrapped it around the boy’s head as they walked up the stairs. On the first floor, they turned in different directions. Six entered Thompson’s room. One pocketed a pen lying on the table. Another took the maps. The globe was heavy and needed two people to lift it. Destruction required the impulse of one, distribution—the patience of all. They lifted the globe with little effort and flung it out of the window. It shattered on the mill worker’s head. The African continent broke into a hundred pieces. The Middle East was the first to slither into a black hole. Slowly but steadily the rest of the globe found itself in the open sewer floating towards an unknown destination. India stuck on the trident of an unsuspecting rioter and served its role in burning down the company. On the second floor, some smashed the portraits of men in stylized wigs. One fourteen-year-old decided that it was apt to deface them first. Finding nothing but kerosene and matches, he poured the fluid charitably. The oil paintings immediately caught fire. The flames spread to the curtains and the carpet. In the filing room, the files were systematically torn through the middle. The thicker ones required someone to remove the papers first. A fellow was put on the job. He sat in the filing room, alone, thinking at periodic intervals. Whose office was this? What is chewing gum? Why do cows like to eat chewing gum? Why don’t we like chewing gum-eating cows? While removing the papers from one of the older files, he cut his finger. Why did I miss work when all I’m doing now is sitting in a filing room and simplifying its organization? Why is this paper smelling like smoke? There is smoke! He realized that there was a fire outside. That rattled him. If they intended to burn the place down, why had he been asked to tear up these files—an hour has passed? He went to the kitchen and began battering the utensils out of shape. This cheered him up a little and distracted him from his melancholy. As the floor went up in flames, the police arrived in large numbers. Within a few hours, fifty-six rioters were arrested.