Hamish Montrose is the main antagonist in the story. He is one of the people who greatly benefitted from the Change of reality. Before he became the lieutenant to the Pacifier, he was a lowly pickpocket who was trying to get by day to day with quick wits and fingers. Too bad he wasn’t good at it.
When the change hit, he was suddenly one of the Elite, a mage with the ability to warp reality and create things only heard of in fantasy. Fireballs, electrical storms, magical control of others. He could do it all. He didn’t think big enough however, others did. ‘They’ got wizards working together for mutual advantage, and rose quickly to the top of the power structure.
Once there these same wizards created an enforcement arm to control the growing metahuman and magical community. This enforcement arm became Control. A second arm spoken of in hushed terms even by the hardened members of Control is called Processing, which oversaw the destruction of dissidents and reusing their stolen essence as resources for those at the top of the food chain.
Hamish wasn’t at the top, having found himself becoming part of Control, where he got to indulge some of his more violent instincts. His efforts had him assigned to the toughest task Control had: capturing Yellowjakket. Hamish had undertaken the assignment expecting an easy victory over a teenage girl. His illusion was shattered when she proved impossible to track and pinpoint magically or by technology.
Most metas lasted mere weeks against the might of Control, Yellowjakket has lasted three years. More damaging than that, Yellojakket had started attacking prisons and detention areas, spiriting away prisoners into the Londinium (the new world’s name for London) underground where they disappeared from Control’s grasp.
Redoubling their efforts redoubled their frustration as Yellowjakket seemed to have the ability to teleport, which was unheard of in the metahuman world, and barely doable in the magical. This elusiveness became the obsession of Control, and members of the Elite who controlled the world from Londinium.
Hamish found that advancement was nearly impossible. Members of Control never got an advancement unless something happened to the current structure, such as a retirement or dying on the job. With the power of metahumans and rogue magicians, the life of a field agent was often short with a violent painful death. Hamish thrived in this position and hungered for more power. He found, like others, that job openings could be created with the unfortunate demise of a higher up. Assassination by rivals became the fastest way up the magical food chain. Hamish became adept at identifying threats from lackeys and began his rise towards the inner circle one body at a time.