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

Smiling wanly, Batman reached for the water pitcher on the corner of Gordon’s desk and poured himself a glass. He hadn’t expected to be inside tonight—especially not inside City Hall where the flow of political hot air kept the place overheated and stale. “I’ll research it,” he said after the water cooled his throat.

“I’ve got a staff of college-educated rookies camped out at the library. By tomorrow morning I’ll know what Bessarabian grandmothers eat for breakfast. What I don’t know is why they’ve come to Gotham City, where they’re hiding, and what they mean to do before they leave.”

“You want me to find out?”

The answer was obvious, but the Commissioner hesitated before nodding his head. There wasn’t a law-enforcement agency in the world that didn’t own a debt to one or another of the eccentric, sometimes inhuman, champions of justice. Gordon was privately grateful that Batman was simply eccentric—a human being beneath the polymer and dedication, who could still play a practical joke like coming through the window instead of the door. Even so, a few of Gordon’s muscles always resisted admitting that a man in a costume could do things a man in a policeman’s blue uniform could not.

“Track them down. Tell me where they are—then I’m going to put some of my best men on the job. I want this thing busted by Gotham’s own.” He stared intently at his fingertips. “You understand, don’t you? Having you pull our bacon out of the fire time and time again . . . It’s bad for morale. It’s bad in the media—and this is going to get a lot of media. I can feel it in my gut.”