As soon as the man had closed the door, the author began to laugh uncontrollably. Her friend under the desk soon joined her, and Eliza, too, could no longer hold back. The women lay in each other's arms for a moment and giggled, then Kathleen began to regain her composure. "Well, Frau Lane," she said to Eliza. "From the looks of it, we're going to San Francisco."
Eliza eyed her confused for a moment and let the words sink in. San Francisco? Her? America? But why, what for? And besides... "But I - where do you know my real name from?" Eliza asked puzzled.
"What?" Kathleen asked, and then remembered. "Oh that. Well, that wasn't hard. You're British and so you probably don't really have a German last name, so it's probably a simple translation. Spur - Lane. But to be honest, I just guessed. So you're really Eliza Lane?"
Eliza blinked and then sat down on the chair at the window side, next to the desk of her boss. "Y-yes," she stammered. "But... San Francisco? And you? You're British as well? American? Why the passports? And what do we..."
"Well well," Kathleen interrupted her laughing. "Is all of that so overwhelming? Well then: No, I'm from the German Reich, but if you can Germanize your name, then I can Americanize mine, right? It'll also help us go unnoticed there, new names, new birth dates, new identities. That's what the passports are for. And you never know when you might need an American passport again."
The secretary nodded and fanned herself with her hand. This wasn't quite the kind of work she had expected, but she was undecided how she should feel about it. Then suddenly, she remembered the third woman in the room, below Kathleen's desk. "Yes, uh, alright," she stammered bashfully and cleared her throat. "I'll leave you to it then." She got up and took another quick look at the head of the whore, which was barely visible between Kathleen's legs.