{"id":1515,"date":"2019-12-12T19:30:21","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T19:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectacorp.dk\/wordpress\/?page_id=1515"},"modified":"2019-12-15T09:29:22","modified_gmt":"2019-12-15T09:29:22","slug":"earthly-masters-chapters-6-to-10","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/selectacorp.dk\/wordpress\/earthly-masters\/earthly-masters-chapters-6-to-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Earthly Masters Chapter 6 to 10"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]CHAPTER 6: THE ACCIDENTAL ARCHIVIST<\/strong><\/p>\n

Karin looked down at the neat stacks of file folders on the dark oak conference table, all stamped \u201cFOREIGN OFFICE\u201d and then, in script, dates rolling back years. <\/p>\n

\u201cWell, let me know if you need anything.  I\u2019ll let you get on with it!\u201d the middle-aged lady announced, a bureaucrat who smiled primly and left her alone. <\/p>\n

The King Peter Map Room was a large sunlit room, a sumptuous library filled with volumes on the most minute aspects of Dominion foreign policy, as well as a collection of maps dating back two hundred years.  The dust motes rose from the stacks of file folders and danced in the streams of sunlight that poured in through the huge old floor to ceiling paned windows.  Based on the layer of dust alone, she doubted it had been used in years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Her career in international relations was off to a running thump.  So much for connections, she thought, as she began pulling out the file folders, quickly reviewing them and assigning them to one of an increasing family of stacks, each destined for archiving based on a carefully outlined master list of labels the sans-personality under-secretary had provided her.  Instead of the centre of activity the ministry had been under Foreign Minister Therese just a few months before, the place was now a graveyard, with all the really talented staff moving over with their boss, the new PM Therese, into Government House. <\/p>\n

It could have been worse. Since returning from the holiday, she\u2019d simply taken up her old room in the townhouse and the Ministry was close enough to walk to.  If the cadetship hadn\u2019t turned out to be half as glamorous or challenging as she\u2019d hoped, it kept her busy\u2014if only with archiving busywork like the kind staring back at her, in the form of musty old manila files.  The staff were older but nice, not exactly the high powered policymakers and diplomats she\u2019d imagined and more like a local council office with better interior design.<\/p>\n

Gunnar had surprised her with a dozen red roses delivered to Ministry reception, which tickled the older women who made up the middle ranks of the Ministry.  \u201cGlad you\u2019re back\u201d it read and she wasn\u2019t surprised when Mariela handed her a note on her return home, from Gunnar, asking her to meet him at Nord for drinks and dinner.  Since then, they\u2019d had dinner together when he was in town.  When he was out of town, it was only because he was working on \u201cmad deals\u201d that would ensure trips to London when she departed in a few months.  It was comfortable, it was good and it was going exactly as Karin had hoped.<\/p>\n

Elise called a couple times a week from uni to \u201ccheck in\u201d.  Her news about Gunnar was rewarded with gossip on the Christiansen sisters\u2014Laura was thinking of grad school, while Sarah was seeing a British exchange student.  Other friends were already interviewing for jobs after graduation, though Elise was in no hurry to make any commitments.  \u201cPublishing, probably,\u201d she offered with no enthusiasm, \u201cbut maybe advertising.  I just don\u2019t know.  I\u2019d loved school\u2014maybe I\u2019ll just do a grad degree with Laura.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn what?\u201d her best friend pressed, already knowing her mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I don\u2019t know!\u201d came the exasperated answer.  \u201cWhat difference does it make?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Typical Elise, with her large, impossibly prosperous family behind any choice she made.  As for her own family, Karin saw her mother as rarely as before, always busy at National Health Services.  Paul was home more often.  Since the election that had put Lucia Therese in Government House, his own safe seat in the Senate made him a target for unending political seduction attempts by the Opposition National Party, as well as by the governing Progressives.  It all bored her to no end\u2014big and small fish swirling about in the tiny fishbowl that was the Dominion political arena.  It was why domestic politics were a black hole for her and she\u2019d always been attracted to the wider world stage.  She honestly knew more about the domestic politics of countries in Europe and North America than whatever was going on in the Dominion\u2014which was usually related to commodities prices or the cost of shipping.<\/p>\n

Now she realised how boring the Dominion\u2019s foreign relations were as well.  Based on the files she was reviewing, foreign affairs had less to do with intricate diplomatic dances than facilitating quarantining of visitor pets and granting tourism visas.  She scanned through the top sheet on the hundredth file of the morning.  A summary on the installation of a new well in Peru.<\/p>\n

\u201cAid,\u201d she said to herself, dropping it in small pile to her right.<\/p>\n

When she\u2019d asked if there was any more to the cadetship than archiving loose ministry paperwork, the Under Secretary had primly informed her that as they had never offered a cadetship before now, she had no idea what a cadetship involved.  Until they came up with something else, Karin was informed, yes, it would involve archiving, which the permanent staff of the last few years seemed to have had little interest in.  Karin didn\u2019t blame them.<\/p>\n

Advice not to visit Katanga due to \u2018adverse local condition\u2019.  \u201cTravel,\u201d she noted, tossing it in a fairly tall stack in front of her.<\/p>\n

A Dominion vote in the General Assembly in the affirmative for naming 2019 as the \u2018Year of the Indigenous Languages\u2019.  Yawn.  \u201cUN.\u201d  It landed in a big pile on her left.<\/p>\n

Scanning the next topsheet, she was confused.  It was, except for sender, recipient, subject and date lines, almost entirely redacted.  Thick black lines obscured the rest.  Lazily, she began to place it in the small pile for \u201cIntelligence\u201d as it must have been a DIS request.  But a quick double check revealed the sender as Royal Household, Security Detachment.  Not strictly the DIS.  Recipient was the Ministry, so fair enough, but the subject line simply read \u201cExtradition Request, Azania\u201d.  It was dated five years\u2019 previously.  Where did this need to go?  \u201cRoyal\u201d?  \u201cIntelligence\u201d?  \u201cCriminal\u201d?  She set it aside as she pressed on with the rest.  She\u2019d ask for clarification and let someone else decide.  Still, as the afternoon ticked down to the end of the work day, the mystery file kept calling to her.  Too many loose ends\u2014and something had happened five years ago.  The Dominion didn\u2019t boast any international jewel thieves that she knew of.  Before leaving for the day, she decided to uncover the mystery herself.  But, who to call?<\/p>\n

She picked up the secure land line phone, the only type allowed in the Ministry, and asked to be connected to the Palace.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrivate Secretary\u2019s Office please\u2014this is the Foreign Ministry.  Me?  I\u2019m the\u2026 Archivist,\u201d she replied.  A few minutes later, she\u2019d relayed her question to an assistant.  \u201cNo rush\u2014just need clarification on how this document she should be handled,\u201d she assured the listener, \u201cso if you could, please just leave a message for me if you might.  Thank you!\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, she packed up for the day, pleased she could brag it had ended with a call to the Palace if anyone should ask. [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]

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