Chapter 13: CHAPTER 11

July 30th, 1914 

16:00:00

Cathedral of Saint Catherine,

Saint Petersberg, Russia

Jake blinked the brightness of the light out of his eyes and looked around. ‘We need a way to travel that doesn’t fuck up our eyes,’ he thought ruefully.

Jake and Zoe looked at the beautifully designed building around them. The beautifully painted wall, large pillars, and painted windows, all gave Jake a sense of peace.

They had landed in one of the side rooms attached to the main cathedral. As they walked out, they merged into the crowd in the main room, politely nodding and smiling at people, and acting like a married couple. The people were dressed similarly to them, in comfortable yet fashionable clothes.

This crowd was the reason they had chosen this particular time. The gathering happened around this time every day, making hiding in plain sight very easy for the Time Knights. As they politely made their way to the exit, Jake noted how these people acted. None of them looked like they were worried that war was breaking out or that the soldiers that were guarding the city had been increased.

No, they were swamped in their everyday lives and had no worries other than looking after themselves, their family, and their friends. Jake wondered how long this relaxed behavior would last before the news of the war swept it away. He felt sorry for these people.

Both the young knights stepped out of the cathedral and stopped to look around in awe. While the people inside the cathedral were dressed and acted in an odd way, the fact they time traveled couldn’t be more obvious outside. 

It was a scene out of a movie. The streets were filled with carts carrying people, goods, and other whole lots of stuff. The air had a freshness that Jake didn’t expect. There was smoke rising over the horizon from what looked like forges and the people were moving around, trying to get to their destinations. There were vendors on the streets, selling everything from food to horseshoes for the beasts pulling the carts.

They moved towards the way the palace was, ready to put their plan into action. The plan was pretty simple. They had to scope out the place and try to find a servant leaving the palace, follow him and bribe him to let them in through the servant entrance. While Jake was sure that they could bluff their way through the servant entrance with people entering and leaving all the time he would very much prefer to have someone lead them in and divert any attention that either Jake or Zoe might get.

Soon they found their target. A middle-aged woman was leaving the palace. She too was wearing a servant’s dress like Zoe was. ‘Though it doesn’t suit her as well as Zoe,’ he thought, keeping that thought to himself. They followed her through the streets, dodging the traffic but still keeping her in their sight when they finally spotted her entering a house inside a small alleyway. Looking on either side of the house to see if anyone could spot them, Zoe knocked loudly on the door. As the door swung open, the woman they followed answered it.

“Yes?” she asked in a heavy Russian accent. She looked like she recognized the uniforms and widened the doors a bit.

Zoe looked at her with wide scared eyes. She pointed to Jake and said, ”My husband got hurt. We need some help!”

The woman looked at Jake, only to find him leaning heavily on Zoe.

“Of course, come in!” she let them in her house. The woman was so kind that Jake felt bad for doing this to her. Then he reminded himself they had no choice and in the end, this will probably help the woman.

As they entered, Zoe shut the door and Jake stood up straight. 

“Sorry about this,” Jake told the woman. “But we needed to talk to you and it isn’t something we can discuss out in the open.”

The woman stared at them before finally recovering. 

“What?” she growled out.

After telling her numerous times what they wanted to do and then negotiating her payment, they finally reached an agreement. They decided that the next day, in the evening the woman will lead them through the servant’s tunnel and they’ll pay her 15 gold coins. After verifying that they had the gold to back their word, they decided that they would pay her 5 coins before they left, 5 after crossing the entrance, and another 5 after their job was done and they were leaving.

Finally, Jake handed her the coins and they left the house and made their way to the famous Alexander Palace. On the way, Maria, the woman who was guiding them, told them that all the servants answer Madam Ekaterina. She told them how servants acted with the guards and the royalty. And though Jake and Zoe already knew that, it was good to verify everything.

Soon they reached the servant’s entrance, and with Maria showing them the way, they crossed over very quickly without anyone trying to stop them. Jake handed over another 5 coins to Maria and opened just a sliver of the door on the palace side. Seeing that the path was clear, Jake and Zoe stepped out.

“Ready?” Jake asked Zoe, dreading their separation. He knew it was necessary but that didn’t mean he had to like it. Honestly, he knew she could handle herself. After all, they both had trained together. They both knew a number of fighting techniques including Karate and MMA. Of course, that didn’t stop him from worrying about her.

Zoe nodded grimly.

“Alright then,” Jake breathed deeply. “We have a plan. Let’s just hope everything goes well.”

Zoe placed her hand on his chest and gave him a gentle smile.

“Relax,” she said comfortingly. Stop doubting your plan. It’s a good one. Nothing will go wrong. I’ll see you back here soon.”

Jake smiled at her. He wished he had her confidence. Still, he acted relaxed and confident for Zoe’s sake. 

“What would I do without you?” he asked her.

“Hopefully you won’t have to find out,” She replied with a smirk. “But your life wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.”

Jake looked at her, trying to remember his life before he met her. Before he became a TIme Knight. Before everything changed. And he found that his life was dreadfully boring. 

“No doubt you’re right,” he finally answered her.

“Now, before the timeline gets any more messed up, let’s go get this over with,” he said with a sense of finality. 

Zoe nodded.

“All the best to us then.” with that, she softly kissed him on the lips and turned to go to the armory. 

Jake watched her leave with a speck of worry and one thought. ‘Damn, that’s an amazing ass.’

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***

 

Jake finally started moving down his side of the hall, pushing his worry about Zoe to the corner of his mind. As he moved toward Dr. Conners’ room, he looked around at the decorations of the Palace’s halls. The walls were painted in a mix of red and gold. One wouldn’t think that the two colors could complement each other so well, but they looked surprisingly good. The pillars were beautifully carved with curved lines. One thing Jake noticed about Russian architecture was that they used a lot of carved pillars to show their creativity. As he moved down the corridor, towards the advisor’s rooms he noticed a sharp increase in the number of guards.

‘It seems the Czar is worried about Dr. Conners,’ Jake thought. ‘But is this security for Dr. Conners’ safety or the royal family’s?’

Jake wouldn’t be surprised if the Czar had placed these soldiers here to kill Dr. Conners. After all, Dr. Conners did show up with a large number of highly trained soldiers and futuristic weapons. One might even say it would be foolish not to place guards near him. Because what was stopping him from deciding that the world was better off without the royal family and taking over Russia?

As Jake pondered this thought, he was suddenly stopped by one of the palace guards.

“You, there? What are you doing here?” the guard asked Jake. He had a deep Russian accent and a sneer marred his face.

Jake winced. He had really hoped that none of the guards would stop him.

‘Wistful thinking,’ he thought to himself.

After all, it wasn’t like they would let anyone go to the guy who was going to plan the whole war and supply the weapons.

But they had prepared to answer any questions if a guard would stop them while they moved into the palace.

So, Jake dipped his head and turned to the guard.

“I have been sent to collect the guest’s laundry and ask them if they need anything before bed sire,” Jake answered in a meek voice. 

“Wasn’t another servant sent yesterday?” he inquired in a gruff voice.

“Yes sire, but he was doing something else so the head housekeeper sent me to attend to any of our guests' needs,” Jake continued. “She said that the guests shouldn’t have to wait just because the servants were busy.” He concluded with a quiver in his voice.

“Oh for god’s sake, look at me while answering!” the guard ordered in an annoyed tone.

“Yes sire,” Jake looked at the guard's face. The guard was wearing a black uniform made from a thick material. His shirt was tight-fitted and highlighted his tall and sturdy structure. His face was angular with thin lips and beady black eyes. His hair was cut very small, so small that it was difficult to tell the color. His face had a long thin scar that moved down from the side of his left eye to the bottom of his lips.

“Something on my face, boy?” he asked with a sneer. 

“N-no sire,” Jake answered softly.

“What? I didn’t hear you. Speak louder boy!” the guard ordered.

“No sire,” Jake spoke louder, trying to make his voice tremble.

Honestly, he was getting a little worried. They were on a deadline but if this guard didn’t let him leave soon he might not be able to kill Dr. Conners before the window closed.

“No sire,” the guard repeated in a mocking tone. 

Jake was getting annoyed with the guard. All through the conversation, he kept repeating to himself, ’don’t punch him, don’t punch him, don’t punch him.’

“Just let the boy go!” another guard groaned. “If the Czar finds out we caused the delay in his guest’s service we won’t hear the end of it. And I don’t care about you but I don’t want to end up on cleaning duty in the armory.” The other guard also looked like a veteran. His face was hardened by his experience and his looked were pressed together in a way that showed his annoyance. His uniform was similar to the first guard's.

‘They’re probably partners,’ Jake thought. Did they have partners assigned at this time period? Or were these guys here because their names came together on their duty rosters? 

The first guard grumbled. “The advisors won’t be finding out why you were late, will they buy?” he asked.

“No sire,” Jake replied. ‘It’s not like they will be alive long enough to tell anyone if they had any issue with their service,’ he thought to himself. Of course, he didn’t say it.

“Good!” the guard barked. “Remember, if anyone comes asking for me, I know what you look like.”

Jake nodded.

“Now get lost!” the second guard ordered.

Jake wisely kept his head down and kept moving to his destination. He turned the corner and breathed a sigh of relief when he lost sight of the guards. 

He kept on moving to his target and encountered another pair. Luckily, they just saw his uniform and the laundry basket in his hands and nodded him along.

‘It looks like they weren’t ordered to stop anyone from going to the advisors' chambers. That guard was probably bored and just wanted to bully a servant to pass the time.’ Jake sneered at that thought. That idiotic guard's entertainment might cost him the mission.

He pulled out the pocket watch in his clothes and glanced at it. He was being the schedule. Sure, they had taken some margin of error but given that they were in hostile territory, it wasn’t much. He just hoped Zoe was having a better time than him.

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