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

Catwoman stepped aside. Her mask was no better at hiding things than that guileless shrug and smile. Bonnie was, after all, the young woman who had spliced a black panther into a forest of pine trees and sugar maples.

“I’m ready if you are,” Bonnie called from the window.

Catwoman led the way. She had to help her companion in the more difficult passages, but Bonnie understood—without being told—that this was a time for obedience, not conversation. She carried the heavy backpack without complaining, she did exactly what she was told to do, and she didn’t say a word until Selina had them inside Eddie’s apartment.

“You?” she asked, pointed at the gouges in the door and frame.

With a quick nod of her head, Catwoman bent down and went to work on the lock. It was a delicate chore; she’d damaged the mechanism on her previous visit. Hadn’t Eddie been back since then? Finally the tumblers fell into place and the bolt could be drawn. She flipped the light switch and, despite knowing what was there, her heart skipped a beat. Everything was as she remembered it. In the pit of her heart, she believed that no one had been in the room since she’d left it.

“Omygod. Omygod.” Bonnie hesitated before crossing the threshold. “Omygod. They won’t believe it. Wide-angle won’t be enough. I should’ve brought the camcorder. This needs movement, a slow pan across the entire room to make the eye see everything that’s here. And slow freezes starting there . . . or there . . . or . . . Omygod. I don’t know where to start.”