The Cat.
Setting herself up as Queen of Crime.
After her depressing return to America, Selina Evans returned to Britain. To London, her new home. Selina had been waiting a long time for this moment, the chance for her to become the Queen of Crime in the city. London was a rich place, full to the brim with jewellery stores, banks...rich snobs who preyed on people, but she wasn't just going to be a thief. There was plenty of room for her as a thief in the city, the only problem was finding places for her to live in, but those were trivial details she'd dealt with in the past.
If Selina had learnt one thing about that terrible night her mother had died, it was that the police were ineffective, they made promises they couldn't or simply would not keep in a million years. Selina had gone to great lengths to help and protect people who needed it, she gave money to dozens of people who needed it, spreading it as though it meant nothing to her.
Another reason was because of who her father was...Selina shuddered as she recalled how painful it was for her mother to remember that day, that hideous day she'd been kidnapped and raped. Selina knew the story, the full story, oh yes she did, and she hated the idea she was the byproduct of a rape, but that hadn't stopped her mother from raising her and loving her unconditionally, even though Selina often believed that love was forced. Her mother had taught her everything she'd known before she'd died, revealing herself as a witch. After what her father did, Selina honestly wanted nothing to do with the magical world in any country, prefering to stay alone although she often made friends in the various places she visited before moving on, but she signed them up to her email account as contacts. Unlike her sociopathic father, Selina took more after her mother. She often craved companionship, and she liked to see herself as a kind person. Sometimes she would donate large amounts of cash to those in need. Selina liked to believe that she was doing something good for the world when her father had wanted to destroy it in turn.
When Selina had learnt the truth of her parentage, she'd been horrified her father had been Lord Voldemort, the most dangerous and most evil wizard in magical history, and she'd worked hard to be a person he would not have approved of.
In the daytime, London looked like every city. It looked busy, smelly, and very, very crowded.
Selina didn't like crowds, but she did like the expression that the best place to hide something was in plain sight, and if anybody was looking for her, which was practically unlikely seeing as she'd been incredibly careful in her past not to draw attention to herself. In the night though the city sparkled, the lights shining like the stars in space. It was wonderful. It was also magical.
Selina took a sip of wine in her hotel room, sipping it and thinking it could be a little better, but there was time to build up a collection in this city, as she looked at her new home, her new domain. Selina felt like a Queen as she looked down at the lights of the city, such a big city, she could live here comfortably for years, maybe she wouldn't even leave depending on her gains, but she knew it would happen one day when she decided to move on.
That was part of her personality, the desire to explore the world but to also make something of herself. She travelled not just to make money, but to explore the world her father had wanted to dominate and destroy, and she'd also met dozens of people in her life, and she was pleased about that.
In the meantime there was much for her to do. Since she was staying in a hotel for the next few days, that would give her ample time for her to find work quickly, any kind of small work would do. She wasn't worried about anyone looking for her. Unlike other criminals, the Cat preferred not to announce her presence for all to know, and she didn't leave the same calling card at any of her crimes. The Cat, as she called herself, preferred to create various new calling cards based on cats, but as they were of different designs she wasn't worried, and the London one had already been designed.
Selina smirked as she looked over the lights of the city, vowing one day to bring this city to her will, then she marched over to the table where her laptop was sitting on and waiting for her. She looked over the information on the screen. Selina had logged onto the Jobcentre website and looked over the job vacancies in London at the moment, checking one or two of the vacanies before cancelling the search and looking on other websites. London was such an enormous city, and she appreciated the number. Sometimes Selina preferred just robbing a few places and using the money from those heists to support her, but it was nice to have a fixed income come into her bank account to be invested even if she found the work she did boring and ludicrous. Sometimes Selina would choose to work and steal to support her concurrently.
Selina suffered from a problem, when she was bored she ignored everything, and sometimes looking for work as a cleaner or a caterer was tedious even if they gave her a prefect cover and kept suspicions about her at bay. Besides Selina didn't know anything about the city yet to be an effective thief. She had enough money to stay in the hotel for a week, but she desperately needed a new place to live. She didn't have a fortune to back her up as she wanted to live on her savings as a retirement fund.
It may have been late at night, but for the internet it never slept. Selina spent hours staring at the screen at different cleaning and catering websites, checking their vacancy pages. She found one office wanting new people. Mr Gleam Ltd, and from the reviews it was one of the best in the city. She noted down the phone numbers of a dozen of these companies from both fields. She would contact them in the morning.
In the next three months, Selina had moved from an imigrant into an inhabitant of London, but the population of the city was masssive, and one more person and mouth to feed meant nothing to the city. Working for a cleaning company 20 hours a week was enough for her to buy a flat in London, and scrounge around for others in the city as she slowly drew her plans for her new heists.
Selina looked around her riverside apartment, a dustsheet to stop paint dripping on the ground, standing ontop of a stepladder with a paint can and brush, classical music playing softly in the background. She'd paid for her new home by money she'd stolen via her hacking ability into the bank accounts of a corrupt businessman. Selina had stumbled onto a list of shady businesses, prostitution, drug smuggling, weapons testing, and she'd arranged for his death, but also the complete theft of his fortune, which she placed in bank accounts under different names, but she'd also donated to charities. It seemed fitting, money used to hurt and squander human lives being used to help starving people in Africa.
Selina had no real idea why, why she'd bought this apartment, why she was going to the trouble of decorating it, but in truth she'd become accustomed to life in the city. Selina had no real plan in mind for what she would do in another few years. Returning to that cold house in San Francisco held no attraction for her, even though it was home it wasn't because her mother was dead.
Selina let out a sigh. Thoughts of her mother were depressing for her. Lily Evans had suffered more than anyone could imagine, but she wasn't the only person in the world to be raped and becoming pregnant, history was littered with people like that. It was the years Lily had raised her that made Selina so umcomfortable. Until she'd learnt about her father, Selina had been convinced that her father and mother had been together for a long time, that her parents had been happily married, that somehow it was her fault her parents weren't together.
As a result Selina had tried hard to fit in at school, something she found difficult. After an hour of learning a subject, say history or maths, she would become a genius at it, but the work and teachers bored her beyond any kind of belief. But she'd kept her head down, fighting the urges to become a delinquent, bringing back report cards showing her hard work and efforts. Lily had been delighted in her daughter, but Selina could tell she was worried.
Her studies in magic were practically non existent until she was old enough to keep her mouth shut about it. Lily had been cautious about teaching her magic, afraid if she did start practicing again her daughter might become an even bigger monster than her father. Selina shared her mother's belief, especially when she was told the truth. Looking at the wall and not feeling up to decorating anymore, Selina got off the ladder and went to make something to eat and drink before popping to the couch in front of the television. As she ate her sandwich, Selina thought about the numerous things she needed to be doing besides committing heists.
There was another reason she was here in London. To find the magical world, and to discover what had been happening since her mother had been raped. She wasn't looking forward to it either. Lily had told her about Diagon Alley and how to get there, but the fact she resembled Lily Evans was something Selina wanted to avoid since she had no idea how Lily had been perceived in the last twenty years. Her mother had told her about James Potter, Alice Prewitt, and Albus Dumbledore.
Those three names of people she had heard of but never met in the flesh filled her with forboding since they would want to know what had happened to Lily. Selina also didn't like the idea of telling them the story of how Lily had been raped and she was the byproduct of said rape. The fact her father had been Lord Voldemort was another matter. How would the magical world react?
Selina sighed. Her natural curiosity was a weakness of hers, it had been a matter of time before she'd learnt the truth of her magical heritage. She'd known she would've reached this stage anyway. The good news was she'd been living in London for a while and she really hadn't thought of the magical world since her arrival. Part of her wanted to visit the community of wizards, but the other part was nervous. Suppose her mother was widely known as the person whom defeated Voldemort? The minute she stepped into the Leaky cauldon pub she would be recognised, something she wasn't used to since she kept her business and pleasures separate. The fact her daughter not only resembled her but was the daughter of a monster and had definitely inherited part of him was another worry.
Drawing in a breath Selina resolved to cross that bridge when she came to it, and continued to eat her sandwich.
It didn't do anything to alleviate her worries.
One of the many beauties about working as a cleaner was that you could work as many hours as you wanted, giving ample time to work on other projects. Selina took full advantage of this. Working four hours in the morning, five days a week, and two in the evening from 5.30 to 7.30 gave her plenty of time to sort out her afairs and projects.
Selina spent her time gathering intelligence on the numerous museums, jewellery stores, and other places she would and probably could rob without much difficulty. The internet and the phone books she had access to were godsends. As she visited each place on separate days, using the tube and bus services to get to said places, she also catalogued in her mind the routes she could use to reach her target and escape. She was tempted to go and buy a bicycle, but considering the amount of bad blood between motorist and cyclist, the swearing, the violence, Selina really didn't need to give the police the excuse to spy on her life.
The hours she had to herself were spent either decorating her home, going to the gym, or just simply exploring the city. Quickly joining a martial arts, fencing, gym, to keep herself fit and healthy, Selina was finding ways of keeping herself busy.
Already converting two of the rooms in her flat into an office and an art studio, Selina planned to make an extra living as an artist and a story writer, and she'd already signed up for subscriptions to a couple of magazines. Selina hadn't really done something on this level before, but the beauty of London was it was a city and diverse, and Selina Evans planned to make her stay in London a long and prosperous one.
Taking her mobile with her, Selina went to one of the jewellery stores and spent over twenty minutes looking through the polished glass cases at the exquisite treasures that were inside them. Diamonds glinted like stars in space, and it was lucky she was wearing a pair of sunglasses otherwise she would be dazzled by the amount of light. One of the shop assistants came over to her. " Can I help you?"
Selina looked up at her, " Hmm? Oh," she said in realisation. " No. Thank you. I'm fine. Thank you for asking. I'm just browsing."
Making sure no one could see what was really on her mobile, Selina looked as though she were checking her texts. In reality she was studying the alarm system of the store. The phone was modified to act as a sonar device that went through everything, using other mobile phones to help study the jewellery store and its security system. The technology had been developed years ago by a scientist who'd wanted to use mobile phones to ensure security in public places. Selina had stolen it, and she'd modified it to help her with her heists.
Later that night after her two hours, Selina was working on a sheet of A3 paper, drawing out and calculating the plan of the store, putting in the various aspects of the security system on the paper. When she was finished, she frowned. There had to be a decent way in without anyone even noticing she was there. Checking her watch Selina decided to call it a night, she would visit the place again tomorrow.
Dressed in her work clothes on her way home from working in the evening, Selina went round the back of the jewellery store. Putting on a pair of gloves she'd put in her pocket for this moment, Selina gathered her magic and leapt to the very top of the building. Setting her mobile to emit a jamming signal that stopped any cameras working up here, Selina got to work. When she reached the top she looked around for cameras and stairs. She found both. The camera was directly above a flight of metal stairs that lead to the ground. Selina frowned before deciding against the stairs. There was no telling where the camera would send its footage, whether to an office on site or somewhere else. The less the authorities knew of her, the better.
She found an air vent bending down into the store. Putting her mobile close to the opening, she pressed a button before tapping the sides of the metal with a coin she'd taken from her pocket. The sonic wave mapped out the entire ventilation network for her, and with a bit of work on her mobile she superimposed the image taken from the last time she was in the jewellery shop with the new one. Good. The vent went all the way along the store, and the slide down was actually gentle. It would not be difficult for her to go down there.
Satisfied with her discoveries, she left.
The plan was ready. Selina waited until she was home from her shift before she put on a simple shirt and jeans. Donning her backpack, Selina locked the door to her flat. She didn't know when she would be back, but she didn't anticipate any troubles. No one bothered questioning her on where she was going. Selina often went out at times like this, either to the gym or to some class or something like that. The reality was different.
The trip to the jewellery shop which was targetted didn't take her long. Sneaking into a back alley, Selina leapt up to the top of the building, and in the shadows she changed her outfit, her mobile preventing any camera from seeing her. When she quietly stepped out of the shadows, it was a black clad woman wearing a backpack and a balaclava on her face. Fixing a rope to the top of the vent, Selina slid down the vent into the shop. Using a screwdriver to carefully pry open the vent before she removed a small skateboard from her pack, Selina started to open the vent before switching on the jammer she'd brought with her, the immobiliser paralysing the security system.
Dropping into the shop, leaving her pack in the shaft, Selina worked quietly and quickly, opening various cases and tipping the contents carefully into a sack from her pack. Using the skateboard to travel from one part of the store to another, using the height to her advantage, Selina used a pick to open each case without resorting to smashing them open.
Selina had mapped the place mentally, and she used a grid to work on patiently moving in a circle around the shop. When she had moved off, she made sure to keep an eye out for passers by. It would take one look, just one look for someone to notice she was there, and Selina didn't want her first heist to end so badly.
Fortunately when she was finished, the plan had gone accordingly. Grabbing her skateboard, Selina gingerly stood up, preparing herself for the leap back into the vent. When she was inside, instead of simply turning off the immobiliser, she tore it off. The phone had been attached to the metal of the vent to provide an aerial and conduction element. If it had been turned off safely then no one would have noticed the burglary, but since it had been ripped off, the alarms which had been blarring since the moment Selina had entered, sounded. Pulling herself up, Selina grabbed her things and went to the shadows, the jamming signal still on.
A few minutes later and Selina Evans was skateboarding back home, dressed as she'd come.
The first heist was done and finished, it was the age of a new era.