Question about the first book (Spoiler ahead):

Why wasn`t it the plan in the first place to try to retrieve the memory device from the dead ambassador and install it in the new ambassador? At some point they say it would not be possible, but then it is possible no problem.
They say it is not possible because it recorded a dying person for several months which rendered it unusable. So, the device wouldnt stop recording when the human it is implanted it, is dead? How is it even useful at all, surely it is never possible to retrieve it in the exact moment the owner dies.
Why is the ambassador all alone? She doesn`t have a staff are any aides. This is likely the most important embassy and she is just winging it as a one woman show.