🚀 go-pugleaf

   Three O'clock in the afternoon, the businesses in the starport were
prospering well, and the guard were usually more lenient here than in
other places.
    It might have resembled a village square from medieval times.
   Here in Barothians Square, traders traded morning, noon and late into
the night, selling all manner of goods that one could healthily imagine.
They could get you a gun, if you needed it. They could get you a bottle
of Kzintine brandy, the addictive alcholic psychadelic drink that was
banned on most planets. Information was often worth a lot.
    The Square was most certainly one of the most prosperous areas on
this asteroid.

    Vimes was one such merchant. He didn't hold with selling anything
too far above the law.
    Drugs and slaves were risky business. No, Vimes sold odds and ends
off the backs of star freighters, and had a good few contacts. Vimes was
a well connected man, mean in appearance like any other good merchant.
  Vimes also managed one of the most profitable one-hour hotels in the
city, but it was said that he treated his girls well enough, ensuring
their medical health.

    Booom!!

   An explosion rocked the Square and people dived for cover. Guards
suddenly got good firing positions, ready to "deal" with any any
trouble. There was no trouble, only smoke.
   The trade stand of Vimes had exploded.
   Vimes himself was quite dead on the ground in front of his stall.
 In his hand was a small card, with the words Order of the Cobra on it.

   High above, an assassin named Belios looked down from a rooftop. He
was dressed in Camoflage gear from the Ar'kthan system. Belios turned
away.

--
 Haggis: Haggis is a black pudding eaten by the Scots and considered not
only a delicacy, but fit for human consumtion.The minced heart, liver
and lungs of a sheep are mixed with oatmeal and boiled in the sheep's
stomach before ...Excuse me a minute... [Mithrandir/tkelly@unix2.tcd.ie]