The proceeding month had been very tumultuous for Felicia. The intermission from work that she promised Diana never came, much to Diana's chagrin. Felicia's continued diversion of any time to their relationship only compounded the frustration that had already been mounting in Diana. The frustration finally came to a head when the two had gotten into a severe argument, initiated by Felicia declining to go out, culminating in an aggressive exchange of diatribes. The bickering came to an end with the termination of their relationship as well as Diana's employment with Felicia's company. The latter was only initially presumed and eventually confirmed via a text when Diana hadn't shown up for work a few days later. Felicia wasn't thrilled how the relationship ended. The bicurious endeavor had created a sentiment in Felicia for Diana, but remembering the extreme invective with which Diana spoke, she emotionally shelved the experience to the back of her mind like many of her other previous relationships. The loss of her best field agent proved a temporary setback for her company, as she had to quickly adjust her own schedule to cover a few appointments that were originally scheduled for Diana. The next two weeks involved the re-experience of dealing with clients in person, mostly uneventful as the incoming catalog of clientele were largely elderly investors and scrupulous business owners. The adjustment was a minor inconvenience that she figured to resolve once she had time to hire and train a new agent.
Felicia began her day pruning through prospective clients, targets for her next heist. She sought to bury the emotional turmoil she'd been dealing with, with the thrill of another heist. Much to her dismay, her list of clients she determined not to be involved in any criminal operations. It was until she reached a certain name down the list.
"James Edwin?" Felicia stammered slightly.
A little research confirmed that it was indeed who she believed it be. To the layman individual, the name was unassuming, but to Felicia she recognized the name as one of Kingpin's former accountants, his head accountant to be exact. She figured he must of skipped town following Kingpin's arrest. Being Kingpin's former head accountant, he more than likely had access to all of Fisk's accounts, including ones unknown to the government. She had no direct interaction with James, but knew of him from her research into Fisk's operation. No doubt her existence as the "Black Cat," came to Jame's attention in the fallout of her previous heists of Fisk's properties. His departure from New York and request for a security consultation likely meant he helped himself to a generous severance package at Fisk's expense.
She didn't believe he knew her true identity, his approach would be have been more discreet, but his presence did pose a slight risk to her identity. She resolved to relieve him of whatever funds he helped himself to from Fisk's operation and effectively render any prospect of living in Chicago long term unattractive. She wrote a dismissive response to Jame's request, informing him her company would be unavailable to assist in his security request, and then got to work. She began researching into Jame's life, whether he was operating with any criminal enterprises in the vicinity or operating alone. From her research, it appeared his immediate intent was simply to escape the authorities and keep a low profile. She sighed slightly. For as smart as he would have to be, he was Fisk's former Head accountant, it disappointed her that it never occurred to him to think to pay someone to make a fake identity for him. Perhaps he knew of no one, but in any case, she dismissed the thought, realizing his slip up worked to her favor, as had he done so their reunion may had been more personal. She began staking out his property, examining its layout for potential points of entry. It was a modest two story penthouse, relative to the extravagent residences she had toured before, purchased recently and with a large terrace overlooking downtown Chicago. The terrace she figured to be her best point of entry and from the details mentioned in James' inquiry, she likely wouldn't have to worry about security detail as he hadn't yet hired one.
A slight measure of disappointment came over Felicia. She always enjoyed some adversity in her heists, but from what she had observed, the Edwin estate would likely be a walk in the park for her. She quickly dismissed her disappointment, and put her focus towards the prospect of netting several million from this heist. She hoped to net at least a million, enough to close her business temporarily and spend more time with her son. Outside of the weekends she had off, she hadn't really spent any dedicated time with Jason , even less so the weeks she conducted her heists. Her recurring absences in his life, unfortunately reminded her of her father and how he regularly was away on his " business trips." The reminder made her reflect on her previous retirement, how she did it for the sake of her son, and she wondered if it was best to hang the mantle up again for good. Jason ,however, was proving already to be an expensive child to raise. Felicia estimated she'd spent close to two million already for his care. She couldn't imagine just how much more she'd spend once he reached puberty and his spider abilities developed more. If she was to commit to a firm retirement, she'd need well over 50 million. Hopefully tonight's heist would make that goal closer to fruition. Whatever she did net, she resolved afterwards to take a long vacation with her son, especially with his third birthday coming up. Paris came to mind, as she had previously mentioned to Diana, but she figured to wait till she totaled the entire amount she would steal before deciding.
It was a few minutes before 8pm, and Felicia was perched at the roof's edge of an adjacent building overlooking the residence. She paid her nanny to stay late so there would be no issue of time. After staking out Jame's residence for over a week, she had gotten down his regular schedule. He'd routinely leave around 8pm for dinner, his restaurant of choice being one of the many steakhouses near the West Loop. He'd return usually after 9:30pm, more than enough time to break and enter for Felicia. She was peering through the scope of a camera she had brought with her for the heist.
"Come on, come on," Felicia muttered as she observed James leaving the building of his residence. She observed him arguing with a valet over an unknown matter before seeing him getting into his vehicle and driving off.
"Finally," Felicia sighed as she stood up and raised her grappling gun. She launched a line over and swung across, landing on the roof of the penthouse. She pulled out her tablet and started scanning for the penthouse's security system. To her surprise, she found a rudimentary security system, with no external relays to worry about. Felicia shut the system down, setting a generous timer of 30 minutes before the system rebooted. She swung down towards the terrace and made her way to the entrance. As Felicia entered the residence, coming into the living room she could see strewn across the floor were shredded bits of paper, the contents of which were indeterminate as the paper had been cross cut. In the corner of the room was a brand new commercial size paper shredder, its box resting beside it, repurposed as a bin to hold shredded paper. She walked through the residence, examining the furnishings, most of which she determined was already included prior to the property's purchase. It seemed James hadn't time to stylize his home to his liking, his priority elsewhere likely involving the contents of the papers he was shredding.
Felicia made her way down the hall, peeking into each room she passed by but determining nothing of value within. When she reached the end, she found a set of large double doors, which she figured to be the master bedroom. Inside, however was a large glass office overlooking the city. It had a stairwell that led to a second floor and appeared to be the only room personalized by James himself. There was a large mahogany desk furnished with a trio of desktop screens. Plastered across the wall was a number of flat screen tvs positioned in a grid-like pattern with a couch stationed across from them. She guessed with his financial background, James likely continued in his financial pursuits by keeping himself apprised of the financial outlooks in the stock market. As she made her way towards the desk, she could see a large stack of boxes that were resting beside the desk. Atop the desk was a computer connected to a large scanner with a number of papers still lodged in its drawer, ready to be scanned. She pulled off one of the sheets and went over its contents. She recognized a financial document with a number of transactions logged and accompanying account numbers. Accounts she figured to be unknown but to Fisk and a few of his workers and involved numerous transactions in the amounts of tens of thousands of dollars. She peered inside the number of boxes and found them largely empty save for a few documents detailing more transactions with the same account numbers she saw over and over again. She estimated from the amounts detailed on each sheet and the sheer quantity of them that would have filled those boxes, that the total of the accounts involved well over a hundred million.
"That's one hell of a severance package," Felicia muttered.
On the other side of the desk was a small shredder jammed with a number of sheets sticking out its mouth, thus explaining the presence of the much larger shredder in the living room. She figured James severance involved helping himself to number of Fisk's financial documents which he was now in the process of committing to digital memory, but where was he storing it? She opened the computer, bypassing its login and determined it to be largely empty save for a number of applications loaded onto it . She looked again at the computer and saw an external usb port that was stationed beside the computer's mouse. It occurred to her that the he must have stored the contents on a flash drive. She glanced around the room before the site of a wall safe caught her attention.
"Bingo," Felicia said as she walked towards the safe. It was a standard dial safe, a security Felicia knew she could bypass with her eyes closed. She unlocked it easily enough and found a small lockbox inside. It was fortunately unlocked, and inside was a small thumb drive nestled between safety cushions. She pulled out her tablet and plugged the usb in, opening the files within. Inside she found a collection of folders ,designated by account number, each containing hundreds of scans of financial documents. Felicia's hand trembled slightly. Though she knew it'd take sometime to go over the documents, this was easily her biggest score to date and with impeccable timing. Before she could relish her victory, the sounds of a violent entry caught her attention; someone was coming. Felicia tucked the thumb drive onto her belt side before racing towards the safe and shutting the door. She hurriedly looked around for an escape, the windows overlooking the city were sealed shut, there were no skylights and the only other exit was the way she came in. The railing of the second floor caught her and she quickly drew out her grappling gun and launched a line towards the rail. The line hooked and she pulled herself immediately, but to her disappointment there was no visible exit. The area above was a small study that overlooked the office underneath. Before she could she could figure out her next move, the doors of the room barged open suddenly.
"It's here! It's here I promise!" A voice frighteningly yelled.
"Get the shit already, we aint got time!" Another voice barked back.
Felicia crouched down and drew near the railing, peeking at who the sudden occupants were. She got close enough to make out the figure of James, who was disheveled and had a bruised face. Beside him were two large men, wearing dark jackets and one holding a pistol towards James's back. James was trepid, quivering as he walked towards his desk.
"Huh, you really thought you could skip town and Hammerhead wouldn't find out!?" The man holding the pistol yelled.
James turned slightly, too frightened to look at the man directly.
"Hammerhead can take all the money, okay? I-I'm already enough deep shit if Kingpin finds out!" He managed to muster as he drew near the safe.
As he turned the dial, Felicia grabbed her side suddenly, the revelation dawning on her: the thumb drive.
"Oh shit…" she thought as James turned the dial on the last digit.
James pulled out the lockbox and handed it to one of the men.
"Everything's inside the drive okay?"
The man opened the box to find nothing of value inside.
"The hell is this? Where's the money!?" The man yelled as he pointed the empty box towards James.
"What!? It was right there! I sweat to God!" He cried as he tried to understand why the box was empty. The man with the pistol gritted his teeth as he shook his head disapprovingly, his patience had worn out.
"Screw this! This guy's fucking with us," he said coldly as he raised his pistol.
"No, no, no!" The words shrieked out of him before a bullet threw his body against the floor.
"No!" Felicia shouted as she stood up suddenly.
"Who the hell!?" The man pistol yelled as he turned his aim towards Felicia. It then dawned on her that she had exposed herself and the attention of the two men were now suddenly on her. She leapt from the railing as the man got off two shots, barely missing Felicia. She looked towards the two men, the armed man turning his aim towards Felicia's new position. Felicia pulled her grappling gun from her waist and fired a line towards the man, the hook hitting the gun and dislodging it from the man's grip. The gun flew to the back of the room as she recoiled the line back into her gun. The two men then sprinted towards Felicia, who oriented herself towards the terrace and raced towards the entrance. It was when she passed through the two large double doors, that she realized to her horror that the two men weren't the only ones in the building. A group of four men had been waiting outside the room, likely in support of the two other men, and were taken by surprise by Felicia's sudden appearance.
"What the hell!?" One of the men shouted as they all turned their attention to Felicia. Unfortunately for Felicia, she wasn't as equipped as she was when she was the Black Cat. This amount of men would've normally been dispatched with one of specially made flash grenades, which she presently did not have. The solution to get through these men would have been much more physical in this case. As more of the men drew near, she pulled out her taser and stung the nearest man approaching her. He recoiled back in shock, hitting the wall before shaking violently on the floor. One of his comrades managed to get near Felicia and punch the taser away from her left hand. Felicia responded with a right hook, the tips of titanium tipped knuckles digging into his face. The man drew his hands to his face, giving Felicia an opening for a kick in the groin. The man fell to his knees, his mouth aghast as Felicia turned her attention to the other men drawing near. Felicia drew her grappling gun and shot the chest of the nearest man coming towards her, the force sending him hard against the wall. Unfortunately, his comrade managed to get close enough to catch Felicia in the face with a hard left hook. Her mask managed to absorb the blow, but her orientation had been wildly thrown off. As she stepped back suddenly, trying to reorient herself, the man she had previously kicked had recovered enough to lunge at her left leg.
"Gotcha!" He shouted as he wrapped his arms tight around her leg. Felicia drew her right leg forward into the man's face, putting him back on the ground, but allowing his two other racing comrades to finally catch up with Felicia and shove her to the ground. Her body would be firmly anchored there with a flurry of violent kicks coming from every direction. She grit her teeth as every kick landed against her ribs and back. The assault only worsened as the previous men Felicia dispatched recovered and took part in the beating. As she struggled to breathe, her lungs nearing collapse, she turned her head upwards and could see the man who shot James looking down her before he rained his foot down on her face and it all went black.