Read Online The Trinity Paradox by Doug Beason Kevin J Anderson - Free Book Online

isotopes—they are both uranium, as far as the chemistry goes. We must find a physical method. We are working with devices such as cyclotrons, a new instrument called the ultracentrifuge, another called the ‘isotope sluice.’
    “The actual difference between the good uranium and the bad uranium, if I may call it that, is infinitesimally small. Let me use this comparison: imagine you are on top of the Cologne Cathedral, looking down upon a crowd. You are given the task of finding the one man who has an odd number of eyelashes in his left eyelid ... and you have only a pair of dirty binoculars to work with. That is the magnitude of our task.”
    The physicists in the room seemed amused by the comparison, and a few applauded. Air Marshal Milch scowled. Esau continued rapidly, “The Fuhrer has requested that we find a way to utterly annihilate Great Britain. This bomb can do it! We can bring even America to its knees. But we can do this only if we receive the fullest support for our work.”
    Esau knew he had to make his point with Milch. Armaments Minister Albert Speer had not bothered to attend the conference, but Milch had his ear and would report back, favorably or unfavorably.
    Air Marshal Milch got to his feet. Esau recognized why the man usually remained seated, because he was relatively short and stockily built. He set his smoldering cigarette on the edge of the scarred table, then looked across the room. “And such a weapon—Professor Heisenberg, tell me, how big would a bomb have to be to destroy a whole city?”
    Esau’s fingernails dug into his palms. Heisenberg, always Heisenberg! Why hadn’t Milch bothered to ask him?
    Heisenberg shrugged, then answered after a moment of pursing his lips in thought, “About as large as a pineapple.”
    “So.” Air Marshal Milch sat back down. His face seemed to be carrying a smile.
    Esau cringed, suspecting that now they would be given the order to produce such a bomb and have one ready within a few months. Obviously, Heisenberg was a theoretician—he had no common sense. If he had any background in party politics at all, he would have learned never to make promises that might later backfire....
    Somehow the conference had achieved its aim. Word trickled up the chain of command. Armaments Minister Speer and Deputy Fuhrer Goering had become interested in the project, though Hitler himself had taken no notice. Esau had been appointed Plenipotentiary of Nuclear Physics.
    Now he stood up from the desk in his new Berlin office, went to the hall and called for someone to bring his boxes into the room. He wanted to unpack. He knew he would be staying awhile. This project still had an enormous amount of work to do before it could accomplish its aims.
    Was it something to be proud of, Esau wondered, to oversee this broken-up nuclear program, with its offshoots of scattered research? With physicists squabbling over minimal resources, duplicating each other’s work?
    The whole thing seemed impossible. It would take a miracle.
     
    4
     
    Los Alamos June 1943
“If the new weapon is going to be the determining factor in the war, then there is a desperate need for speed. Three months’ delay might be disastrous.”
    — James B. Conant
“One might point out that scientists themselves have initiated the development of this ‘secret weapon’ and it is therefore strange that they should be reluctant to try it out on the enemy as soon as it is available ... The compelling reason for creating this weapon with such speed was our fear that Germany had the technical skill necessary to develop such a weapon and that the German government had no moral restraints regarding its use.”
    — The Franck Report, composed by seven dissenting nuclear scientists, delivered to Secretary of War Stimson, June 11, 1945
    Mud still covered A Street, but the mountain morning shone blue and crisp. Though the research town was a mere shadow of what it would become decades later, Elizabeth thought the