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

The youth shook his head. “No money. We give the icons to the scar-faced man. Two already, this is third and last. After that. Nothing. Not for us. Finished. What the Gagauzi do, we don’t see, we don’t know. Very simple.”

A bell rang inside Batman’s head—the scar-faced man? There were undoubtedly thousands of scar-faced men in Gotham City. But lightning did strike in the same place, many times. And Batman’s heart warmed with the knowledge that he knew where to find the right scar-faced man. He curbed his enthusiasm. There was still more to be learned here.

“And the icon you’re holding? The one the Moldovans would have stolen successfully, if I had not intervened?”

The youth’s face was as rigid as Batman’s mask.

“They know it’s still here. You know that they’ll be back for it.”

The youth began shaking. “So far, what you call down payment. This—this is payment: the best, the most valuable. Somehow, the swine find out. Without I bring the icon, no payment, no exchange. The Gagauzi, they will blame us. Then it is everyone against everyone else.”

Alfred definitely had a point.

Batman needed only a few minutes to persuade the youth to tell him when and where the payment was to be made and to entrust him with the icon until that time.

“They will try to steal it from you,” the youth said when the box was out of his hands. “They will stop at nothing. They will hire your enemies and send them after you.”

Another light burned in Batman’s head. “I’ll count on it,” he said as he left.

Chapter Twelve