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

Dread spiked but, interestingly, hope did not diminish. In human beings, emotions were not zero-sum phenomena.

“The sheepherders struck out, boss. They showed, but they didn’t give it over.”

“They refused to give you the package?” The Connection tapped a switch with his foot. The laser beams ceased. The holograph was on auto-mimic as the Connection’s fingers raced over a keyboard. “Tell me what went wrong?” He initiated a subtle strobe sequence. Tiger would not consciously perceive the flashes, but he would feel the cumulative effect as stress and anxiety.

“Almost everything, before I got there. The sheepherders got hit by a drive-by. They drove up fast and blind, jumped out, and started firing, then jumped back in and drove off again. Maybe one of the southside gangs—who knows—I didn’t recognize their colors, but they knew what they were looking for and they hit hard. I was too far away to make a difference—” Tiger shuddered as if he’d just received a mild electric shock, which he had.

“Do you intend to tell me that a handful of punk thugs has my icon?” The mimicry circuits kept the holograph’s bland features calm and reposed, but the Connection’s lips had twisted into a sneer. He had only agreed to this risky, hare-brained deal because of the icon. None of the players, especially the hopelessly naive and fractious Bessarabians, understood the true value of the articles they offered to trade for arms.

There was sweat on Tiger’s upper lip and moving along the ridges of his scarred face. “No.” Another shudder. “No, I don’t know. I couldn’t see what happened to the box. I was too far away.”