First off, I have to warn you all
that this is an alternate reality story. The sailor senshi do not exist. Also
not all characters from the series will be in the story. I'll probably have
little "cameos" for most of them though. I apologize in advance if your
favourite character does not make it into the story. So please don't flame me
about that. All comments, suggestions, opinions and even flames (except for
what mentioned) are welcome at ladysnow@did-you-know.co.uk
.
I do not own any of the characters
from Sailormoon. Naoko Takeuchi, Kodasha, DiC and other people do. But I do own all of the original characters
found in the story.
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To Catch A Thief
Part 1
First you must learn about the thief…
Serena Cross walked out onto the balcony of her Greek hotel room. She leaned the irony railing ad looked out on the Mediterranean. A gush of warm wind made her shoulder length, golden blond hair twirl around her ivory face. The sound of the phone ringing made her snap out of her daze. She went back into her room and went over to the small glass table and answered it.
"Cross," she said coldly into the phone, "Tell her I'll be right down."
She hung up the phone and went into the bedroom part of her hotel suite. The room was decorated in very neutral white tones. Serena went over her suite case and was still packed; she opened it and took out a simple white blouse and dark blue flare demin jeans. She quickly took off the tank top and boxers she had been wearing and pulled on her jeans, she put on her blouse and buttoned it leaving the first three buttons free. Serena went back in to the living room pick up her keys, sunglasses and purse off the table near her door and left her room making the sure the door was well locked behind her.
She walked across the marble entrance the hotel over to the front desk. As she did so, she noticed the glances of several men at her. She could help but chuckle at the idea that guys would still check her out even when she looked horrible.
"I'm Ms Cross in Penthouse 2, there is someone who is waiting for me," she said to the young woman who was behind the counter.
"You're guest is waiting for you in the hotel's bar, Ms Cross," the clerk answered in a heavily accented English.
"Thank you," Serena said as she walked towards the other side of the lobby where the entrance to the bar was located.
She pushed the large glass doors and looked around until she spotted a familiar face. She went over to a table in the corner of the bar. At it was sitting another blond; she was 29, about 5 years older then Serena. Her hair was much lighter then Serena's and was shorter, she was wearing a simple black dress that had a low v-neck. Her eyes were hidden behind big black sunglass. As Serena approached the table, the blond at the table noticed her, took off her sunglass and got up to greet her friend.
"Serena! It has been such a long time since I saw you last. It's so good to see you," the blond exclaimed with a slight French accent, giving Serena a kiss on each cheek.
"Too long, Mina!" Serena answered, sitting down at the table with her.
Mina made a slight movement of the hand, gesturing for the waiter to come and take their order. He quickly came over to the table and asked what the ladies wanted to drink.
"I'll have a 'screw driver' please and my friend will have…" Mina told the waiter.
"Just a coffee, black, no sugar." The waiter nodded and walked away to get their orders.
"Mina Beauchamp! it's barely noon and you're already having a drink!" Serena said half mockingly.
"Yes well, after spending almost 20 hours in a plane, I needed something strong to get me going!" she answered laughingly, "But seriously, I need to talk with you. Is this place safe?"
"Don't worry, an old friend of my family owns the restaurant, the walls here definitely do not have ears."
"Good, when I got your invitation and I realised it would be the best time to tell you about this. It's a very urgent matter…"
Mina stopped was the waiter came back to the table. He placed the respective drinks in front of Mina and Serene along with a folded piece of paper and went to back to the bar.
Mina took the piece of paper and read the message in it. A look of urgency flashed in her eyes but as quickly disappeared. But no fast enough for Serena not to notice.
"What is it? Is there something wrong?" she questioned her friend.
"Well yes, it has to do with the matter I wanted to discuss with you. It only confirms what I already suspected. You see Sere, we have a serious problem; the Company might be at risk." Mina said solemnly.
"What? That can't be possible. At our last meeting, everything was fine. What could have possibly changed in the past few months?"
"It seems as though a lot has changed. We had a meeting last night in Sydney to discuss the matter at hand. You see there is a group posing as you and us. We have had reports of someone leaving your mark at burglarized sites."
"You must be kidding! How can that be? Aside from you and the other members, nobody knows who I am and what I look like! And why wasn't I informed before? I might work for you but that doesn't mean…"
"Calm down Serena! You're making a scene!" Mina told her friend, trying to clam her down, " The information was only confirmed now in the paper I just received. Look, as far as we can tell, whoever is posing as you, does not know who you actually are. Now I guess you know what I'm going to ask of you. There is nobody I trust more them you aside from Kunzite. And since it seems have been personally targeted I think you are the best to make sure the situation is handle. All our resources are at your disposal. And we didn't tell you before because you were out on a job and we couldn't reach you to tell you about the meeting. We didn't want to risk telling you via phone or by sat phone*. Speaking of which, how did the job go?"
"It went well. I got all the requested data," Serena answered as she pulled out an envelop from her purse, "I have the documents and mini disk. It's all in here." She handed over the envelop to Mina.
"Great, our clients in the Spanish government will be very pleased. At least some things are still going well," she said with a sigh, "The money has been transferred to your account." Mina looked at her watch. "Well unfortunately I have to go. My flight to Spain is leaving soon. I hope next time we meet it will be a social call."
"Me too Mina. Now you take care! Be sure to say hi to Kunzite for me. I'll call you when I decided what move to make about the whole situation. I a few ideas brewing already…" she said with a mischievous grin.
"I knew I could count on you. Now you be careful Serena. We don't know who we are dealing with but whoever they are, they are no friends of us which means…" Mina stated very seriously.
"Yes I know. Now go on, I don't want to be the reason you miss your flight. Like I said, I'll contact you when I figure out my plan of action."
Mina and Serena said there goodbyes and Mina rushed out of the bar. Serena sat at the table for a little awhile looking at the two untouched drinks. She took sip of her coffee that was now cold, left some money on the table and also left the hotel bar. She exited the hotel and went up to the valet outside the hotel's main entrance. The valet immediately recognised her and shouted a few word in Greek to another valet.
"You're car should be here in no time, Madam Cross," the young valet told her, " You know Madame, if you want to see the city, I could show you around, maybe we could have dinner after…" he told her as the other valet arrived with her car.
"That's very sweet but I'll have to take a rain cheek," she told the handsome valet, "maybe when you're a bit older," she said, winking at him. She got into her silver Mercedes convertible and blew a kiss to the valet. She adjusted the rear view mirror and in it she could see the young valet blush.
She pulled out her sunglasses from her purse, put them on, threw her purse on the passenger seat beside her and speed off into the city. "I need to clear my head a bit."
She speed down the small and narrow streets of the city until she arrived at her destination, a small and private beach. She turned off the ignition and locked the car. She walked a bit and reached the beach. She pulled off her shows and walked barefoot and the warm white sand. She went near the shore and sat down. For the first time in many days, Serena Cross was finally able to completely relax.
Serena has been working for the Company for about three years now. The Company was involved in the business of retrieval of sensitive material and data. In others other words, they would steal secret information for whoever had enough money to pay for it. She actually loved her job and she couldn't imagine doing anything else. Of course, the fact that she had grown up in that world probably made her biased. Her father had been part of the original founders of the Company and had work there since she could remember. Thanks to that involvement, Serena had grown up in a world of luxury. She had grown up attending the best schools in America and spending her summers traveling around the world. She had always had everything she needed. Of course to the outside world, she was the daughter of a very rich import/export businessman.
Her father had told her about the business when she was 17, he had said that if she wanted she could join in the business but that the decision was up to her. Serena had always been very adventurous and jumped on the idea. She had started her training almost immediately. Now more then 7 years later, she was one of the top agents at the Company. She could speak 5 languages, had a black belt in karate and judo and was training in the use of numerous vehicles, firearms and explosive materials. Serena smiled at the thought of how proud her father would have been of her. She couldn't believe it already made two years since he had passed away.
Serena had inherited the family business, Moonlight Import/Export, when her father had passed away. The company had been the front for the Company during the past years. She used the business for legitimate transaction most of the time but she still used it sometimes to launder some of the money she would get from her jobs or to import the goods she had stolen. The company was also the front issued for all the traveling she did. As far as the outside world has concerned, she was just one of the company's buyer. On no official document was her name ever mentioned as the owner. Serena made sure to keep a very low profile. The last thing she wanted was to attract and unwanted amount of attention to her allowing someone to be able to trace her.
But now someone was going around pretending to be her, well her thief alter ego. Serena knew the Company had its enemies but they were just other agencies in the same line of business as them. There were only three in the world and there was enough business for all of them so it probably wasn't one of them. "But who!" she though. Serena let out a grown of frustration. It had to be someone good enough to able to pull off jobs as easily as she did. And as for the calling card, it wasn't an object per say but more of how she committed her robberies. She had gotten the nickname Fox because she was as quick and cunning as one. So how could someone be using her calling card?
Serena was pulled out of thoughts by the sound of her cell phone ringing. She pulled out the small phone from her bag and answered it.
"Cross" she said in a blank tone.
"Serena, it's Ami. I have some news for you," Ami said with urgency. Serena knew it had to be something big. Ami was in charged of surveying police activity.
"I just got a report from one of my sources and it says that the FBI is mounting a joint task force with Interpol and few other agencies. Their goal is to crack down on the world of "retrieval of sensitive material and data". Their first target is the Company and you or at least the person who is posing as you. Whoever she is and whatever she stole, it really got the feds all worked up," Ami informed Serena.
"Are you sure? Is your source reliable?" asked Serena
"Yes. Oh and my source said that they even have a lead on the Fox. I checked it out and it's actually a lead on the person who is impersonating you and not actually you."
"Oh yeah? Interesting… So this task force, it's composed of many agents for all over the world right?" asked Serena.
"From what I could gather they have two FBI agents, a few Interpol detectives and 5 agents from Europe, Asia and Australia. But they have a huge resource team; I'm actually quite impressed…" informed Ami.
"Do you think you would be able to get me into the task force? If the resource team was able to impress you then maybe it's just what I need to get my lead to find out whom trying to bring down the Company. What do you say Ami? Can you get me in?"
"Please! Do you remember whom you are talking to? Give me an hour. I'll call you back with all the details."
"Perfect. Talk to you later," Serena said and hung up the phone.
She quickly picked up all her things and went back to her car. She turned on the ignition and drove away in the direction of her hotel. Serena knew she had many things to prepare of she wanted everything to fall into place. But one thing was for sure in her mind, she was going to catch however was trying to impersonate her.
To be continued….
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Well that's it for the first chapter. Hope you all liked it. Please leaves your comments or review. I love feedback.
Lady Snow.
*sat phone = satellite phone, I heard the term on a TV show and I though it was cool.