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

“We’re real,” Bruce Wayne replied honestly enough. “They don’t turn the gadgets on until the gallery closes, or you’d have tripped every alarm leaning over the ropes like that.”

“They got a foolproof system, huh?”

“No system’s foolproof—” Bruce said significantly, then he smiled. “Say, what’s your name, anyway? I like you.”

Tiger returned the smile. He liked the guard, too. He had a gut-level sense of compatibility and a confidence that they could do business together. Tiger didn’t usually feel empathy toward strangers. He felt a heartbeat of doubt, which he shunted aside. The tigers were testing him. It was time to follow his hunches. “Just call me The Tiger. You wouldn’t be thinking that maybe you could tell me some more about how it ain’t foolproof? I could make it very much worth your while.” The guard hesitated; that was good, Tiger thought, the guy shouldn’t be too eager. “I’m looking at a lot of business comin’ my way soon. I could use someone like you who knows about security and shit.”

Bruce Wayne made himself look and feel nervous. He glanced around like a man with something to hide. “Not here,” he whispered. “I gotta think about it, Tiger. Maybe later.”

“Opportunity like this doesn’t wait ’til later. You want in now, I let you in now. I don’t want guys who gotta think.”

“Then I’m in. I’m your man,” Batman said with no further hesitation.

Chapter Sixteen

Bruce Wayne retreated to the guard’s locker room in the basement of the museum. He made certain no one was watching, then used the customized radio to tell Alfred that the bait had been taken and he was going incommunicado. Alfred would handle everything for Bruce Wayne and Batman, even take care of Commissioner Gordon if the Batsignal went up. He would also be alert for any other, less conventional message Batman might need to send.