Asprin, Robert Lynn – Catwoman – Tiger Hunt (With Lynn Abbey)

“My mother would thank you, but America frightens her,” he said in accented but confident English. “America is not what nay one of us expected. But home has changed so much, too. Where else can we go?” He glanced around the room, obviously looking for something else. He found it—a velvet-covered box carelessly thrown against the wall. Batman had not noticed it before, nor had the police. The youth retrieved the box and carefully fit the icon into it. He held the closed box tightly against his chest.

Things weren’t adding up. Batman’s curiosity acquired a razor edge. “You’re Russian?” he asked with exaggerated doubt. “From the Soviet Union . . . Russia?”

“This week, the Commonwealth of Independent States; yes. Last week, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Russian, yes, but Russia, no.”

Forearmed as Batman was with his library researches, this made sense. “You come from one of the other republics, then. One of the new Baltic countries? Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia . . .” If the youth had been here any length of time, he knew how Americans loved to show off their limited knowledge of events on the far side of the world. But Batman hadn’t chosen this particular block at random, and when the youth shook his head with a condescending smile, Batman knew he’d chosen correctly.

“Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic,” the youth said.

“Last week. This week the Moldovan Sovereign Republic.” Batman hoped he’d managed to convey the new spelling of the name.

He had. The youth muttered words not included in any orthodox Russian dictionary, then spat emphatically at the floor. “Stalinist pigs.”