Nickels and Nails

[Zapp]

Nickels knew the run-down. He tried his best to distract the Navy. "Murder of a Rheinland government official? But there must be some mistake, we've never been to Rheinland before, let alone killed someone there. Are you sure you've got the right ships?" He could almost feel Nails' grip tightening on his gun, and knew that fast-talk for once was going to be cut short. There were about eight men, and more likely on the way. Turning this into a brawl would likely end badly for the brothers. They needed something else, something...

An explosion rocked the landing pad on Houston, somewhere in the spaceport, and close. Another one, farther off, with billowing clouds of smoke rising. Sirens started to sound, and the brothers took advantage of the guards' momentary confusion. Nails' gun was out in a flash, and Nickels (who had to actually reach down to pull it out) was a second behind. A few short seconds later, and the guards were all on the ground, dead as a doornail. If they hadn't committed any crime yet, they just had.

Another huge explosion. They didn't stick around to find out what was going on, but slammed into their ships and took off, running back south to Hudson. It was the fastest way out, and Nickels knew this guy...

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