Serena is smug for the next hour. She walks around the office, her heels clicking on the wooden floors and an arrogant grin on her face. During our afternoon break, Leo, Mia and I sit together around my desk, as usual. We hear the insufferable clicks before we see her.
Leo stops talking and pulls a face as Serena appears behind him.
"You were wrong," she says to Leo. He rolls his eyes and slowly spins the chair around to look at her.
"Oh, do explain," he replies sarcastically. Sophie laughs next to her and nudges another member of Serena's little group, Iwan. I resist the urge to huff at the sight of the pair giggling between themselves like schoolchildren. It's like being back at the academy, not at a job. Then again, our work here has the same competitive nature, so I guess silly feuds and comments are normal.
"You were wrong about the Second Realm."
Leo groans and leans back awkwardly in his chair. "You're bringing this up again?" he asks.
"Marcus said-"
"Oh, first name basis now, are we?" Mia asks. "Does he know you refer to him so informally?"
Serena blushes slightly and clears her throat. "That isn't the point. The point is that he said-"
"We've had this debate today, Serena. I'm not in the mood and, to be honest, I don't care what Kasier said. In fact, he would say that because he's in bed with all the politicians who want the war. Can you please just drop it?"
"Are you saying Mr Kasier is corrupt?" she snaps.
"I don't want to talk about this," he grumbles.
"Well, it's too late now. You can't just accuse someone like Kaiser of being corrupt and not give any sort of explanation," Iwan argues.
"I wasn't," Leo replies through gritted teeth.
"Can we just drop this?" I ask, looking between them "I'm sure Mr Kasier doesn't need you to defend him anyway."
Serena sneers at me and then turns smugly to Leo. "Well, I'll be sure to tell him what you said anyway. You can kiss any ideas of a good promotion goodbye once word gets around that you accused one of our greatest soldiers and wartime leaders of corruption."
"I'm so scared," Leo replies and stands up. "You know, your word doesn't mean as much as you think it does. You have no say or influence over which department decides to hire me."
Leo starts walking away and Serena laughs. "I will once Mr Kaiser hires me," she calls in his direction. Leo laughs and disappears into the staff room. I grit my teeth, but keep my mouth shut, not in the mood to have Serena give me some sort of egotistical lecture.
"You're a nasty bit of work, Serena," Mia sighs and stands, picking up her folders. Serena grins.
"You've got to be in a place like this. You can't get what you want by sitting at your desk and letting people walk all over you." Her eyes fall on me and I nod my head in agreement.
"True," I reply, "but you can't go around making loads of enemies either. I'm sure if future employers came around and interviewed your colleagues about what it was like to work with you and they all said you were a smug, bossy arsehole then employers would think twice about taking you on."
She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. Her eyes meet mine and her stare is challenging. "Well, it's a good job that no one here's going to say anything like that isn't it? Not when my father can see to it that you can all lose your jobs."
Before I can reply, she smirks, turns and walks away.
"Don't even bother, Astor," Sophie says to me, "You're still new here and you don't seem to understand how it all works yet. Serena has connections. You don't. The best thing to do is suck it up, shut up, and hope you get through this placement without making too many enemies."
My eyes widen in shock. Words fail me as her cronies turn around and chase after Serena, giggling. I look at Mia, my mouth pretty much hanging open.
"Yeah," Mia sighs, "looks like they've sized you up and don't like you."
"Are we in a fucking school?" I ask. "Or worse still, some sort of teen movie?"
Mia laughs. "Nope," she says and walks over to me. She pats my shoulder and sighs sadly. "That is the product of powerful parents who refused to say no to their little princess. Yes, it's pathetic, yes she's like a cheesy mean girl from a shitty teen movie, and no, we can't do anything about it. Just ignore her, Ivy, and her gang of suck-ups. This world isn't fair. We just have to accept that people like her with her powerful connections are most likely going to get what they want thanks to mummy and daddy. Best to just stay out of her way and try and make the most of our own time here. The more time we spend battling against someone who has an unfair advantage, the less time and effort we spend improving our own opportunities."
I bite at my lip thoughtfully as I look at Serena at the other end of the office, laughing with her little gang and occasionally looking over at me and Mia. It doesn't bother me. The academy was worse for rivalries and petty dramas. In fact, pissing off the wrong clique at the academy usually resulted in a beating. I can cope with a couple of silly giggles. But, this does present an excellent opportunity.
"I don't like that look," Mia says. I turn to face her with a smug grin before picking up my own folders.
"What are you planning, Ivy?" Mia asks.
"So, working with Kaiser is the most prestigious, sought-after job here?" I ask.
"Yes," she replies with a frown.
"I'm going to get it," I tell her. Mia's eyes widen. This is perfect. It is the perfect cover story for why I'll be pursuing Kaiser so much. If I'm doing it because of some sort of petty office feud, it won't look odd, or suspicious. Especially if getting that job is as cut-throat as everyone makes it out to be.
"Serena is practically primed to get it," Mia tells me. I laugh.
"You saw the way Kaiser looked at me," I tell her with a wink. "Fuck Serena. She's only here because of her powerful parents, not because anyone wants her here. I'm not going to let her use her influence to get ahead. No way. I'm going to get that job, and I'm going to get it through my own hard work."
Mia smiles. "Good for you, Ivy," she says. "But keep me out of whatever bitchy battles you and Serena end up in. I've had enough office drama for the year."
I laugh. "I will. Aren't you going to apply?" I ask.
"I'll throw my CV in the works, as will everyone else in this department and others. I'll see where that gets me, but I'm not going to actively pursue it through various schemes or by sucking up to the right people. I'd rather focus on learning other useful skills that will get me an equally good job in another department. I'm thinking counter-terrorism."
"Sounds interesting," I admit. She smiles happily.
"Yeah, I think it will be. Anyway, we really need to get back to work."
"We do," I agree.
"Good luck. You're going to need it."
I laugh. "Thanks."
Mia walks away and I pick up some notes before making my way to Zoe's office. My heart flutters in my chest with nerves as I think about how I'm going to work this without being suspicious.
"Come in," Zoe says as I knock on her door.
"I just wanted to ask a question about my assignment," I say, closing the door behind me.
"Sure," Zoe says, and gestures for me to sit. I take a seat and put my notes down on the desk.
"You do have time, don't you?" I ask, "You don't have some super important tasks from Mr Kaiser that I'm interrupting or delaying?"
She laughs and shakes her head. "Marcus knows that my department takes priority over the work he gives me. He won't suffer too much if the translations are five minutes late."
"That's good. He doesn't seem like the man who likes to wait," I say, and laugh nervously. Zoe smiles and her expression softens.
"I suppose you've heard a lot of rumours about him since you got here," she states.
"Yeah," I laugh.
"Well, don't listen to all of them. Most of them are embellished in some way. That's not me saying he isn't dangerous, because he is. But, he's not the type to blow up at staff for small mistakes or delays. He's a tough man to work for, but he's not an unreasonable arsehole."
"That's somewhat relieving," I reply, laughing awkwardly. "Wait, did you say translation? Do you speak another language?" I ask, making it seem like I'm more interested in her language skills than her relationship with Marcus.
"I speak a couple. I'm also one of the only people here who speaks the Athainian from the Second Realm. Well, just about. I'm far from fluent," she sighs. "I'm trying, but it's a tricky one."
"You can practice with me," I suggest. Her eyes widen and she pauses for a moment. Then, she lets out a small gasp.
"Yes, of course. I remember seeing your CV," she says. "You speak Athianian too, don't you."
I nod my head proudly. "Yes, I love languages," I reply.
"Me too," she agrees, her smile widening.
"Well, if you need my help with any translations, you can come to me anytime," I suggest.
"You know, I might just do that," Zoe agrees, "especially if it gets Marcus off my back so much. For someone who works a lot on the Second Realm, he really should know the language by now," she huffs shaking her head. I smile and nod in agreement. "Anyway, your question?"
***
"What are those?" Connor asks as I open up a box that had just been delivered to my door.
"Listening devices," I say, grinning.
"Where?" Connor asks, squinting as he looks at the little plastic bag I remove from the packaging.
"Exactly," I grin as I open the bag and tip the little metal spheres onto my hand.
"How?" he asks, tilting his head in confusion.
"If you're asking how it works, I have no idea," I say and hold the little ball in my fingers. It is no bigger than an earring. The tiny balls are almost all silver with the exception of a black dot, which I assume is the microphone. I smile wider and carefully put them back in the bag. I have no idea how they were able to make listening devices so small, but I'm certainly not going to complain.
"How did you get them?" he asks.
I raise an eyebrow at him.
"Right, need to know," he laughs.
"Let's just say I put in a request with my handler and now, here they are. Delivered by spy mail express."
Connor laughs harder and shakes his head. He stands and walks into the kitchen.
"Did I say you could have one?" I ask as he pulls a bottle of beer from my fridge.
"I bought them!" he shouts at me as he opens them. I laugh and examine the receiver. It looks like an average watch. Hidden inside, is a card which will store all the recordings gathered from the mics and save the data to be listened to at another point. It connects through some sort of linked frequency, so I really hope they don't have detectors on them because the devices will be caught thanks to the signals being broadcast.
"What are they for?" Connor asks.
"The restaurant," I tell him.
"Ah, is that pervy politician coming in again?" he asks.
"Yep," I reply and put the watch on.
Connor chuckles to himself. "Are you going to put on your fancy perfume?" he asks and then flutters his eyelashes mockingly at me. I reach out and slap him. He laughs harder and I stand up to go and get ready for my shift at the restaurant. I walk into my bathroom and turn on the shower.
"Wow, are you getting ready already? You don't have to leave for another hour," Connor shouts.
"I've got to be perfect," I reply and step under the warm water. I hear Connor groaning despite the water pouring over my head.
"I wanted to watch the latest episode of The Last Song before you left!"
"Watch it, I'll catch up later!" I call to him. As I turn off the shower, I hear the theme song of the episode begin from my living room. I sigh and head to my bedroom and close the door. I take my time drying and styling my hair before doing my make-up. By the time I leave my room, the credits are playing. Connor whistles at me and I laugh.
"You look ready to seduce an old pervert," he jokes. I shudder and retch.
"Don't remind me," I tell him as I reach for my bag.
"Poor man doesn't know what's coming," he says as I walk back to my room to get something. I laugh and look at my reflection once more. I adjust my hair, which has been pulled into a stylish, effortless messy bun. I dab away some mascara that had transferred onto my skin then let out a breath. I smile confidently, my pink lips looking full and plump.
I adjust the blouse and walk back into the living room.
"Have fun," Connor says as I unlock my door.
"I will," I say with a grin. An excited buzz ripples through me, making my heart flutter, as I imagine the secrets I will get out of Mr Salt tonight.