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

“There must be an error somewhere, a gap in the paperwork—“

“More likely a quick coat of marine paint somewhere on the high seas. Ship A vanishes, but Ship B sails into port right on schedule.”

“A very large gap in the paperwork,” Alfred agreed.

“Ships arrive in ports like San’a in South Yemen where America doesn’t have a consulate, and no one asks questions about where a few extra barrels are going, or where they’ve been.”

“Where do they go from there?”

Bruce Wayne tapped the glass a final time. The display shrank into a single green dot, then the screen was blank. “Iran, Iraq, Syria—any place that might want to secretly develop a few chemical weapons to drop on their neighbors. The Connection’s broken the laws of no single country. A couple hundred families here in the United States have food on their tables because of this, of him—and somewhere somebody’s making chemical weapons.”

Moments passed. The computer kept time, then activated a background program that began filling the screen with random blobs of primary colors. The effect momentarily mesmerized both men.

“And those other Arabs,” Alfred began gently, “those Bess-arabs you were looking for—were you able to find them, at least?”

“Bessarabia, no Bessarabians. Somewhere around the Black Sea. It’s a place like New England or the Rust Belt—referenced by people who clearly believe it exists, but it doesn’t show up on any maps. At least not any maps in here.” Wayne thumped the console. The movement was enough to cause the screen to go blank again. “It’s been swapped back and forth between Russia and Rumania a couple of times just in this century.”