Jezabelle Sherlock wrote:Meanwhile, the third Jez turned to the other package, the larger one. The arrival of two at the same time couldn't be a coincidence, could it? She worked on opening it while her other selves focused on the big mystery.
This was, as Jez suspected, not part of the
big mystery, though the timing
definitely was funky, and something to keep in the back of her mind, at the very least.
What it
was, however, was filled with Official Symkarian...stuff.
A big chunk of it was clothing; multiple outfits both in Symkarian colors and Karkov family colors, with the crests embroidered in key points. There were dresses like she had had during her stay at the palace; dresses of the Royal Handmaidens and the like. But there were also more casual outfits for day-to-day use -- and not just skirts and dresses; someone had made sure to include some slacks and things, as well. Then there were more Uniformy-type uniforms. A military-style uniform like the one she may have seen in Nika's closet, only without the various medals and rank insignia. An equestrian outfit, complete with tailcoat, jodhpurs, gloves, even a riding crop with a script "KK" emblazoned on the handle.
But there was also some official identification papers and ID cards, declaring Jez a diplomatically-protected operative of the Symkarian Royal House (and a hefty-looking booklet that explained what privileges that granted her, as well as the responsibilities thereof), as well as booklet explaining rules of protocol, entertaining and the like -- who should sit next to whom, appropriate levels of dress for various events, table etiquette differences between the Continent and America including a diagram of formal silverware arrangement. There was even a badge, with her name engraved on it and everything!
Then there were a couple personal items she'd recognize from Katarina's bedroom -- a journal, a couple dog-eared novels, a photograph of her and her parents, a little crystal jug; some minor personal effects.
Oh, and a gun. A fancy, ceremonial gun, with gold plating and emblems and everything, but definitely a gun. You can't just
mail a gun to someone, especially not in the UK, but apparently customs doesn't get to check the diplomatic bag when it arrives in the country.
Attached to all this
was a letter, on Royal stationary with a wax seal and the whole lot. It was written in Symkarian, and was very formal, so it would take Jez a few minutes to really get the gist of it, but, in short:
- Katarina's status as a secret Princess was history; everyone knew that she was in the UK now.
- Katarina had been asked to return home, but had refused, and the King was graciously letting her own royal prerogative stand in this matter, despite significant protest from his ministers and advisors.
- That being the case, Katarina must resume her duties as the Golden Girl of Symkaria, and spread a positive image to the people of the United Kingdom; conducting herself in a manner appropriate to her station
- THAT being the case, her UK-based staff --i.e., Jez -- must also represent the Royal Family well, and shall be given the tools to do so.
- A plea to Jez to try to convince the Princess to actually follow these directives, especially in a time of such internal strife in Symkaria, and to reiterate that the Royal Person required a larger staff than just one individual to fully meet all her needs. And to aid the Princess in filling out such a staff as needs be.
It was signed by the head of the Royal Office for Protocol, as opposed to being a letter directly from the King --y'know, her father and all that. If there was a polite, diplomatic way to order someone to straighten up and fly right, this was it; and they were apparently counting on Jez to help ensure their wild and crazy princess would behave responsibly, or at least what
they viewed as responsibly. Hopefully, that wasn't what the gun was for! Maybe the riding crop. But in the absence of Nika, apparently they had no one to turn to other than Jez here. May God have mercy on their souls.
Katarina hadn't mentioned anything about any of this to Jez, at the very least, though I suppose Jez hadn't happen to have asked "are they any secret government packages coming for me in the immediate future?" So really, this was surely Jez's fault, and not Katarina trying to ignore things. Definitely not; the Princess can't be blamed for anything, surely.
Jezabelle Sherlock wrote:One of the Jez took the thumb drive and put it in her laptop while another carefully put on the piece of jewelry. She half-suspected that this wasn't actually the key, but sending something that covered her finger, and a thumb drive that had a fingerprint scanner... well she had to try it.
For a moment, nothing happened. And then, as she continued to press the golden finger onto the fingerprint scanner, a green light lit up, and her laptop screen went black.
Just for a moment, before the Symkarian Royal Crest filled the screen as it booted up.
"Good afternoon, Your Highness," a measured, artificial voice came out from the speakers. "May your Golden Light continue to shine upon us all."
Jez's laptop screen ran through some encrypted numbers, before resolving in a secure connection to...
something.. There was a map of Symkaria, with shaded regions representing the areas rebelling against the Karkov regime. The little dots were...military units, maybe? Some sort of tactical map? Call of War-style games may not have been atop Jez's playlist, but she could recognize the basic format well enough, at least. And maybe the different colors meant something -- like, those lines of green dots outside Symkaria might represent Dr. Doom's bots? And the red dots on the other border -- was that Transylvania? Eastern European geography sucked. The white dots must be Symkarian units -- though that meant that some of them had actually crossed into the disputed territory. And the grey, flashing dots -- forces belonging to the rebelling houses? Lots of information; an almost overwhelming amount of information.
And that was just the home screen. Tapping another button, she got a map of the location of the 12 current members of the Royal Council, including Katarina here in the UK and Prince Alex in jail back in Aniana. The King himself didn't show up; possibly because Katarina was a level below him and wouldn't have access to that information? Another button brought up some kind of economical map; another a complex web of lines from country to country; some kind of diplomatic chart? All very complex. All sorts of filters that could be, uh, filtered, as well.
And THAT was just the MAP screen. There were other tabs -- access to files from the Symkarian Intelligence Service, and from their Historical Archives. An e-mail inbox for secure, government business. Direct access to the Symkarian legislative chamber. Something labeled Council of the Twelve. Everything a high-ranking government official would need to do her job remotely.
Jezabelle shouldn't have this.
No one other than Katarina should have this. It looked like she could, if she wanted to, send orders to the Symkarian military, or their spies. She could implement a decree banning the apostrophe, or order the newspaper to print a story about ham sandwiches on their front page. All because it believed she was Katarina; all because her fingerprint
swore she was Katarina.
Jez had never seen Katarina
use this in any way, shape or form. Was she using it secretly; not trusting anyone to watch her? Did she think Jez would be bored by it, or that it was above her pay grade? Was she not using it at all, and was shirking any royal duties?
AND, for that matter,
how the fuck did someone else have access to this, and send it to her. The fact that it was in her possession, rather than being used to send military units marching across Eastern Europe, was probably a good thing, right? But if they were just a good samaritan returning things, they surely would have sent it to Katarina?
There was also a small flashing red box in the bottom right hand corner of the screen reading "restore last session?", which, if nothing else, indicated that no one else was using this at this point in time.