Leverage Characters, Nate's Apartment and John McRory's are owned by Dean Devlin, Electric Entertainment and TNT. Everything else (including the new characters) are owned by me.
Chapter Two
Ten Years Earlier
Her father Miguel Balteras was the President of Costa Fuerez, a tiny country off the coast of central America. Her life revolved around the grounds of the Presidential Palace, which she rarely left. Katharina Sosa had lived a charmed life surrounded by wealth and opulence. Kitty Kat as her father called her, never wanted for anything. She grew up playing with the other children of the Presidential Staff who lived on the grounds. It was idyllic and isolated from the rest of the world.
Katharina idolised her father, Papa. She adored him, she would guiltily admit to herself that she loved her father more than her downtrodden bitter mother. Miguel was charming and intelligent and always encouraged her education with reading and learning more about the world.
Little did Katharina know that she was living in a gilded cage. Her country was on the brink of starvation and the people were brutalised and marginalised under her father's authority. President Miguel Balteras ruled their country with an iron fist and was vicious in his execution of his job. He was called The Executioner by his own people.
Kat was not aware of any of this growing up but that changed when she went to college in America. She remembered the day she was walking through the University and came upon protestors. It was the placards that had caught her attention first "Free Political Prisoners of Costa Fuerez". The Protestors were going to march through the city and end their demonstration outside one of the Senator's Offices. With trepidation she walked over to the protestors, several leaflets were pushed into her hands. She felt sick, she was about to defend her father, tell them he was a loving leader, who did the best for his country but something held her back.
It was like something had finally slotted into place. Her intuition told her to move away from this crowd in case someone recognised her. She knew it was impossible she had never been allowed leave the grounds at home, if she did leave she would wear a scarf over her head with a team of security surrounding her. Her father never permitted photographs to be taken of her. He had told her he was fearful of kidnappers, evil people sometimes targeted a leaders children, so he had to keep her safe.
Her father wanted to keep her out of the public eye sowhen she was eighteen she was sent to the US where she knew nobody. She was happy to be fee and elected to study a Bachelorof Arts in Art History. It was a passion she had shared with her father and she had always wanted to work in a museum and had picked this degree as a way forward.
Kat had just completed her third semester when she decided to change her subject major. After reading the leaflets, she had felt sickened, she had googled everything on her father and felt appalled that she was not only associated but related to this sick and brutal man. She felt ashamed that she had lived with this man and not known what he was capable of . She composed herself, she would do something about this, but first she had to use her brains to get her through the next couple of years. She changed her major to law and began studying it with gusto, when her father queried her change of heart, she had explained in the lightest tones that she wanted to make a career for herself in America, and corporate lawyers made a lot of money. At the time Miguel was surprised that she had dropped her passion so abruptly but felt relief flood him when he realised his baby girl wanted to stay in America. At least there she would be safe, she would not have to hide.
At the time of her birth, her mother had insisted that Katharina take her grandfather's surname rather than his, he had fought against it. His wife was bitter but pragmatic, she wanted to keep their daughter safe and for the first and last time in their marriage he conceded to her wishes.
At college, Kat had kept to herself, as she was naturally shy. She had a couple of close friends but shied away from larger groups. She was extremely pretty but tended to hide behind her glasses and long hair. She had preferred to merge into the background and that need to be behind the scenes rather than crave attention would serve her well now. She quietly joined an activist group in the University, when anyone asked her where she was from, she would tell them she was from a small town in Mexico, she said it with such quiet determination that nobody ever questioned it or tried to check it up.
In the activist meetings she began to come across information about what happened to the prisoners in her country. Her father had always referred to them as common criminals but now it looked as if these people were not prisoners at all, but ordinary people who had had the force of will to stand up against her father. She winced when she saw the pictures of bloodied prisoners beaten and tortured into submission. There were pictures of women and children also brutally beaten and tortured, in numerous cases the women had been gang raped as a form of torture. How could her father have condoned something like this, the same man who had bounced her on his knee when she was a little girl and brought her fishing and horseriding, who had held her hand so gently when they went for walks in their beautiful manicured gardens at home. Katharina felt her world turn upside down, she just did not understand who this man was. She could not determine who or what he really was
While Kat was trying to process this information her mother came to visit. Isabella Sosa had been a beautiful woman but the years of living with her husband had caused her to age prematurely. There was lines around her mouth and her eyes had dark circles, her lips always seemed to be parched. Isabella travelled with two security man, she was quiet and unassuming, she always stayed in the best hotels. Sheused her maiden name, too ashamed to use her married name. People assumed she was a wealthy widow not the wife of a mass murderer.
Isabella was aware of the protests at the university and did not want to draw attention to her daughter, Kat's safety was paramount to her. In the five star hotel, with it's beautiful views and classic elegance, Katharina felt suffocated, she did not want to be anywhere near this woman, but she had to know, she had to find out the truth about her father and what he had done.
Kat could barely look at her mother, she felt disgust, her mother sat there elegantly dressed like she had not a care in the world. She must have known all along and everyone had kept this from her. Everyone had lied to her, how could her mother have deceived her like that, how could her mother have married her father and conceived a child with him knowing what he was like.
Kat eventually looked at the woman in front of her, "Mama, how could you not tell me?".
Isabella looked into her daughter's eyes, for once Katharina saw the pain behind the bitterness in them "What did you want me to tell you?".
"About my father and what he is doing and has done to our people", Katharina felt her voice rise and the tears threatened to spill out of her eyes.
Isabella smiled wanly, she had no more fight left in her, "I did not want to worry you, that is why I pushed you to come to America".
"How could you have married such a man".
"Katharina, I had no choice, he threatened to kill my father if I did not agree to be his wife", it was finally out, Isabella had expected to feel some relief but none came, that heavy weight over her shoulders still felt like she was drowning.
Kat laughed hysterically "Grandpapa has been dead for thirteen years, you could have left him".
Isabella barely reacted, her voice was quiet "but you were still here, my daughter, the only thing in the world that I loved more than my own father".
Katharina felt like she was struck, she felt ill, it cannot be true, it just could not be "are you saying that father threatened to kill me if you left?".
Isabella nodded and she started to sob uncontrollably.