Nickels and Nails

[Zapp]

Giovanni returned about twenty agonizing, dragged-out minutes later. Time slowed down when you knew you had been hunted, and that in the near future you might be hunted again, and that any second that hunt might resume. As they heard his footsteps approach, they naturally tensed, expecting the worst. So their lot had been in the past few weeks. He simply motioned them to follow him, and then led them straight to a run-down apartment complex.

"It may not look like much," he said over his shoulder, "but it's secure. No questions asked, and you don't go on any record as boarding here."

Giovanni led the brother to the third floor of four, up rickety stairs and to a plan, unassuming door. "Here I must leave you. Good luck."

They opened the door via a key they had collected without a word at the front desk. Inside were two beds, narrow, with a bare kitchenette to their right. A door directly opposite them led to what they assumed was a bathroom.

Nickels dumped his bag on the bed closest to the door and asked the question that had been weighing on their minds this entire time.

"Now what?"

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