Chapter 14: CHAPTER 12(Zoe’s POV)

Zoe was not having a better time than him! Her part of the plan started well enough. She quietly sneaked towards the armory. She was a bit worried about going without Jake. the two of them were a team. They had practiced together, their fighting styles complimented each other and even their thought process worked best together. 

Zoe was good at planning the mission while Jake was good at improvising if anything went wrong. And if Zoe had learned one thing after doing so much research on war planning and studying various missions the previous TIme Knights went on, it was that no battle plan survived first contact with the enemy. 

She thought about the last time she had gone on a mission with Jake. That mission had woken her up to all the issues they could face. Then she thought about what they had done when they had returned.

Her face burned as she thought of that night. When she had gone to him, her only intention was to talk about the mission and how happy she was that she wasn’t going through it alone. She was really glad that she had someone like Jake to watch her back. ‘I certainly thanked him for having my back,’ she thought with a grin on her face.

She sneaked towards the armory, still thinking about the missions the other Knights had done when she heard someone call out to her.

‘You, girl!” she heard a shrill male voice shout behind her. “Stop!”

Zoe’s heart stopped at the thought of being discovered. She chanced a glance behind her, ready to bolt at the slightest sign of trouble. ‘No,’ she thought,’ I can’t run. If I run he’ll announce an intruder and the mission will be in jeopardy.’

The man behind her was another servant, a short, fat man who was huffing and puffing as he ran towards her. He was wearing the same uniform as Jake but it fit him in an unflattering manner with his shirt crumpled, his shoes dirty and the buttons of his jacket ready to pop off from the size of his belly. As he reached her, she noticed that his face was red from exertion and covered with sweat. He stopped in front of her and raised a hand to ask her to pause as he took deep breaths as if he had just finished a marathon. 

“Didn’t you hear me call out to you?” he asked Zoe in a derogatory tone. He had a typical deep Russian accent. “Where are you going?”

Zoe had heard how the female servants talked to the male staff. If anyone talked down to them or insulted them they gave those insults right back. There was no notion of weakness in any woman.

“I was deep in thought,” Zoe admitted. “And it’s none of your business where I am going,” she answered.

“Watch it, new girl! Just because you joined the staff doesn’t mean you can talk to us like that.” the fat man growled. “Now, I need someone to help me clean the room just ahead and you, new girl, have just been selected.”

Zoe growled right back. “I don’t answer to you. And I take my orders from Madam Ekaterina.”

Madam Ekaterina was head of the servants at the Palace and though Zoe had never met her, she hoped that throwing her name at the situation would make the asshole in front of her back off. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Rather, he grinned.

“Ah, Madam Ekaterina has placed me in charge of training the new servants, and since it is your first day you have been chosen for this honor.” The fat bastard replied grinning wider.

Zoe almost groaned. She had no way to verify if what he said was true. If he was telling the truth and she refused to attend his training, he could go and tell someone and blow the whole damn mission but if she went with him and he was lying, she would be wasting valuable time just to satisfy the ego of this pervert. 

In the end, she decided that refusing him would be too big a risk in case what he said was true. She glanced around. The two of them were already gathering attention, the one thing she desperately wanted to avoid. And she couldn’t even kill the fat asshole with so many people watching. 

“Very well,” she nodded her agreement.

The fat bastard in front of her grinned creepily. “I’m Ivan.”

 

***

 

And this brought Zoe to follow Ivan into an empty room. The room was huge, just a bit smaller than the dining hall back at the Time Mansion. The walls were painted in a shade of off-white color and the floors were covered with triangular tiles with a wooden finish having a mixture of light brown, dark brown, and black colored wood. As she entered the room, she first noted the bed, a king-size just as large as the one she was used to sleeping on, back at the mansion. It looked like it was very heavy, made of dark brown wood. There was a side table made of the same material on either side of the bed. 

Zoe looked around the room and noticed a fireplace made of white marble with a mantle extending out of it. A candlestand was kept on top of the mantle that looked like it was made of gold.

On the other side of the large room, there was a dining table with four cushioned chairs and the wood seemed like mahogany. There was silverware on the table that the shine suggested was freshly polished. 

There were two windows in the room but luckily, they were both covered with heavy curtains that no one could see in or out of them.

Perfect. 

 Luckily for Zoe, the room was on her way to the armory so she wasn’t derailed too much. 

“Ready for your training, girl?” Ivan questioned with that same creepy grin on her face. Zoe suspected that she knew exactly what his intentions here were. After all, his wandering eyes were obvious enough.

Zoe just nodded in answer.

“Well then, let’s see you make that bed,” he ordered. Zoe simply sighed and got to work.

She just wished that he would finally make his move. Otherwise, he was just wasting both of their time.

As she was removing the sheets she noticed the other man close the door and move toward the small dining table. He turned the chair till it faced Zoe. She could feel his eyes boring into her behind and it disgusted her. Suddenly, he spoke up.

“Alright, new girl,” he interrupted her. “That’s enough.”

Zoe stopped and turned towards him. 

“Now, do you want to work in the Palace?” he questioned her. Zoe simply nodded.

“Speak up!” he demanded. “Do you want to work in the Palace?”

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“Yes,” Zoe replied.

“Good,” he smiled that disgusting slimy smile of his and continued. “Then you’ll have to do something for me.”

Zoe remained quiet, waiting for him to continue. 

“You see,” he said, still smiling, “before I give the all-clear of a servant to Madam Ekaterina, I like to vett the servants.” He stressed the work vett and Zoe could guess what that meant. Her face must have given her away because Ivan nodded.

“Ah, it looks like you know what I mean. Good.” he drawled.

“And if I refuse?” Zoe asked.

He smiled an oily smile. “Why, I simply tell Madam Ekaterina that you are very incompetent and that training you will be a waste of money. That’s it. There are a lot of women who wish to work in the Palace. It won’t be difficult to replace you,” he finished.

“Now if you’re done asking questions, let’s get to your task. Come over here,” he ordered her.

She moved towards him. 

“Kneel,” he ordered, licking his lips. 

Instead of following his orders, Zoe pull back her leg and kicked him straight in the chest. His chair fell back with a loud bang.

Zoe thought she was lucky that the thick walls of the palace blocked the sound or the noise would have dragged every guard in the block to this room.

“Urgh,” The man groaned and coughed deeply. After coughing a few more times, he pushed on the table to get up. 

“How dare you!” the idiot barked in a rageful tone. “See if you get a job in the Palace now!”

Zoe sighed at his words. Some people just didn’t learn. 

She moved towards him and socked him in the face. As his face rippled, Zoe thought it looked like jelly. He fell back down groaning in pain, his face red. Zoe almost felt pity for the man. Almost. Because he was trying to blackmail her for sex. She wondered how many other women had to sleep with this bastard to get the job. 

As Zoe was thinking about this, the man stood back up. He came running towards her his fist raised. Well, at least it looked like he was running because she had seen people walk faster than that. 

As he reached her, his fist poised to strike her jaw, and she ducked. She felt his fist swing over her head and she punched him in his ribs. when he leaned forward from the impact Zoe pulled back her leg and kneed him in the nose.

There was a loud crunch and he fell back.

“Aah! You stupid bitch!” the man cried out pathetically, his blood coming out of his nose, which was broken quite badly if its position was any indication.  

She should have left him there. He was in no shape to go anywhere. But then she thought of how he said he liked to vett women. Thinking of women forced to sleep with this quivering, pathetic bastard filled her with rage and she swung her leg into his crotch.

The man gave a loud high pitched squeal and curled into the fetal sobbing pathetically. 

“You like to vett the servants, huh?” Zoe asked in a cruel voice. “Let’s see how you like it now.”

Ivan remained quiet, sobbing softly.

Zoe sighed. She doubted he would go anywhere for a while but she couldn’t take any risks. She moved towards him, and punched him in the temple, hard.

And he went lights out.

 

***

 

As Zoe left the room, she wiped her hands on her uniform in a vain attempt to remove the disgusting stench of that fat asshole. If she was honest with herself, she should have put down Ivan the moment they entered the room. She was just curious about what he would try. She took out her pocket watch and glanced at it. 

“Fuck!” she cursed, as she kept the watch back in her pocket. It looked like that incident took a lot of time. Luckily, she would still make the armory in time. She just wouldn’t have the extra time she would need in case there was another delay. 

She quietly moved to the armory, trying not to draw attention to herself. On the way, she ran over the plan in her mind a few more times. She and Jake had planned for every possible scenario they could think of. 

Finally reaching the armory, she opened the door and froze. 

On the other side of the door stood a man dressed in military garb. And he was looking straight at her.

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