[pshrynk]

Vivaldi bakced up away from the huge dog advancing on him. His butt hit the wall and he gulped.

Slite came up to three feet away and stopped. "Christ! Did you have to make it this hard to catch up with you? What are you? On vacation?"

Vivaldi, thoroughly expecting the contents of his throat to be brought out for his inspection, said, "Wait... What?"

"Come on! We've got work to do! Running off to carouse witht he Chihuhua Cartel is wasting our time."

Vivaldi dribbled. He hated it when that happened. "You aren't going to kill me?"

"Now why would I do that?"

"I don't know. Because you're a Nazi spy?"

Slite rolled his eyes. "Why would you think that?"

"You smelled of TNT! you showed up right after the Taxi Stand blew up! You growled at me!"

"I growl at everyone. Yes, I smell of TNT. I was busy preparing a decoy blast that was going to throw the Nazis off the trail so we could move in on them. Too bad that the Street Vendors got to the Taxi Stand before I did."

"Street Vendors?"

"Rival political faction. They want to take over the transportation system from Taxi Boss. Who knew they were ready to make their move?"

"But the smell!"

"Think about it. The keg in the Taxi Stand was?"

"Black powder."

"And I smelled of..."

"TNT... Oh! So you're not a Nazi spy?"

"Got it in one. I'm MI6."