[pshrynk]

"Well," said Vera, "Someone certainly wants us dead!"

"That was very close!" said Bois Aussi, "We barely escaped with our very lives!"

"I'm going to have to get a new taxi," said the Taxi Boss, "It took out my garage, too."

"Man! I had some bacon left in there! This really pisses me off!" said Vivaldi.

The four of them stood on the street corner across from the hole that used to be the headwquarters. An ancient pumper cart with equally ancient firefighters was spraying a desultory stream of water onto the flames that ringed the crater.

"What the Hell?" came a voice low to the ground. "How did this happen?"

Everyone looked down at Slite, who had just wandered up. Vivaldi laid his ears back and put his tail stub as close to between his legs as he could manage. He slunk out of sight.

"Someone thinks we're getting too close to the center of things, apparently," said Vera.

"Man, you step out for one little walkies and this is what happens. Now what?"

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going to rescue my man! They tried to kill me, they've kidnapped Harv, and now they have me pissed off!"

Vera stamped off down the street.

"Well," said Bois Aussi, "I for one am much more interested in settling up with the Nazis than with preventing a war, right now!" He pushed his gallic chin forward and followed Vera.

"I gotta go get a new car, preferably one that is bomb proof," said the Taxi Boss and walked in the other direction.

"Where'd that mutt go?" said Slite and started sniffing the ground.