"Asprin, Robert - Catwoman 02 - Tiger Hunt (txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asprin Robert)

Catwoman
Tiger Hunt
Lynn Abbey and Robert Asprin
Chapter One
The biggest problem with money was that somebody else always had it
when you needed it. Selina Kyle had little interest in money, except that she
needed it to pay the rent, feed herself and her cats, and purchase those few
essentials of modern life that could not be scrounged from the streets. Since
arriving in Gotham City on her own at the age of sixteen, she had acquired
money in a variety of ways, none of which was entirely legal or recognized
as a career by the census bureau.
Selina took risks.
She'd woken up in a hospital more times than she cared to remember and,
after one particularly brutal assault, she'd finally understood that in the East
End, the grimy neighborhood she called home, only the predators survived.
So Selina Kyle became a predator---the Catwoman.
As Gotham City's colorful predators were measured, Catwoman was small
time. On those rare occasions when the police or media took note of her
exploits, they usually credited them to someone else. This lack of
recognition neither displeased not disappointed her. Felines were as aloof as
they were fierce and independent, and cats---the plain ordinary alley cats
from whom she took her name---survived by staying out of the way of the
larger beasts whose environment they shared.
As Catwoman, Selina prowled her East End neighborhood, keeping it free
of the lesser sorts of human vermin and earning the tolerance of her
neighbors much as a prehistoric cat gained a warm, dry place by the fire in
exchange for keeping the family cave free of mice and rats.
Selina and Catwoman shared a predictable life that left Selina as close to
happy as she could imagine. Indeed, Selina's life fell short of purring bliss
in just one small way---
Every so often, she needed money.
Every so often, Selina left her familiar territory---her neighbors never had
the cash she needed, even if she had been willing to steal from them---and,
dressed in inconspicuous mufti, stalked more affluent prey.
Every wilderness had water holes where a predator could lie in wait for its
next meal. There were two types of water holes in the cityscape beyond the
East End. The first type were freshly renovated buildings where slumlordsturned-
renovators prepared traps for young, upwardly mobile professionals,
naive newcomers who surrounded themselves with the best their money
could buy, and knew precious little about security. On occasion Catwoman entered their porous domains to remove undefended jewelry and other small
objects. Unfortunately, everything she took had to be fenced---a process that
rarely produced more than ten cents cash for every dollar of swag, and
exposed Selina to scrutiny from both sides of the law. All in all, she
preferred to eliminate the middleman and steal cash.
Cash, in great abundance, was readily available at the second type of water
hole: abandoned buildings where semi-nomadic drug gangs plied their trade.
Selina roamed the sidewalks for several hours before she found the gutted,
grafittied brownstone that would be this month's stalking ground.
A customized crimson 4 ╫ 4---the current vehicle-of-choice among
Gotham's appearance-conscious gang members---was parked in front of the