- Almost halfway through Man in the High Castle, here's a new character's POV: Freiherr Hugo Reiss, the German Consul in San Francisco. (Freiherr is a title, like "baron," not a name.)
- Reiss has a slight problem, named Kreuz vom Meere. Kreuz vom Meere is the head of the German secret police (the Sicherheistdienst) in the Pacific States area and he's searching for a German intelligence agent (Abwehr) named Rudolf Wegener—but who's probably traveling under a fake name. Can you guess what that name is?
- Reiss and Kreuz vom Meere don't really get along, which is a problem since their agencies overlap.
- Also, Reiss's secretary Pferdehuf notes that someone is claiming that there's a Jew in San Francisco, which makes them both laugh. (Maybe Lotze reported Baynes?)
- And finally, there's a secret message from Germany telling Reiss to be on the lookout for a Japanese general named Tedeki.
- So Reiss has all this stuff to deal with, when what he really wants to do is read The Grasshopper Lies Heavy (which, remember, is illegal in German-controlled areas).
- To Reiss, this book is very disturbing, since he's reading a section about the destruction of Berlin and the trial of Adolf Hitler.
- This book is very upsetting to Reiss (though he keeps reading it). He thinks that Abendsen should be assassinated or something. But he's not about to stick his neck out and propose that—if it went wrong, he would look bad.