A glance at the rear-view mirror showed the Bat-Pod trailing her. Irritation flashed across her face. Catwoman wasn’t supposed to be a part of this.

The voice of the driver came over the radio.

“They’re trying to force us onto Grand—”

“Pushing us to the entrance of the reactor,” she murmured. Bruce’s plan was obvious. “They’re going to try to reconnect the core.”

“Can they?” the driver asked.

Talia smiled.

Alarms blared throughout the reactor plant. Indicator lights flashed red.

Lucius raced toward an emergency ladder, praying that there was still time to escape. He reached the foot of the ladder, only to hear the beginning of a thunderous rumble. The sound grew louder and louder behind him.

He turned, fearing the worst.

Here it comes, he realized. The reactor’s last-ditch shutdown procedure, functioning precisely as designed.

Icy water, flooding in from the river above, smashed through the plant, demolishing everything in its path. It poured in from all directions, tearing apart the main reactor unit and destroying any hope of stabilizing the missing core. Lucius winced at the sight, even as a churning wall of white water rushed toward him at heart-stopping speed. Looping his arm around one of the bottom rungs of the ladder, he braced himself for the impact.

I don’t understand, he thought, still trying to make sense of it. Nobody else had the shutdown code except Bruce…and Miranda.

The flood slammed into him like a battering ram.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Your ass is mine, Catwoman thought.

Hitting the gas, she closed in on the final tumbler. With time running out, there was no point in conserving her ammo, so she let loose with everything she had.

Cannons blasted the tumbler again and again. It flipped diagonally into the path of the truck, causing the vehicle to lurch onto its side. Both hit the divider and crashed down onto the expressway below. They careened across the pavement before skidding to a stop.

Catwoman accelerated toward the crash site.

Gordon threw open the trailer doors to expose the luminous core. He jumped out of the truck in time to see a masked woman in a tight black suit pull up on what appeared to be Batman’s one-of-a-kind motorcycle. Her description matched Selina Kyle.

Catwoman. Blake had nabbed her for abducting the congressman, right before Bane took over Gotham. He wondered whose side she was on.

“Give me a hand!” he shouted. As he did, the Bat touched down on the expressway several yards away, its backdraft stirring up a cloud of dust and litter. The canopy opened and Batman emerged.

He hurried toward them, his dark cloak flapping in the wind. It occurred to Gordon that he had never before seen Batman in the daylight.

First time for everything, I guess, he mused. Then he turned.

The core was throwing off heat like a blast furnace. Gordon started toward it, hoping to haul it out of the trailer, but even the slightest touch showed that it was too hot to handle. He prayed that that it wasn’t already too late.