Peter shook his head. “A terrible thing. I’m glad you suggested I get into contact with Colin Marty. He sent me a brief thank you note, but I think he’s having a tough time of it. I received a personal note from the Queen thanking me for going to the trouble. I don’t know if it helped Marty any, but it seems to have had an impact on the Queen.”

  “That was kind of you, Peter,” Schloss said.

  “It actually helped me to write the note,” he said. “I have started planning a diplomatic trip to London, and I want to have dinner with him. Us widowers have to stick together, you know.”

  Schloss noticed the look of pain on Peter’s face and decided to change the subject.

  “Will the end of the Pacific war impact us?”

  “It will free up some armaments, of course,” Peter said. “Although, from what Ribbentrop has told me, the only real shortage we had was of the 250-kilogram bombs. And the English seem to be taking care of that problem. He commented that it was a good thing that we had already transferred all the ships to the Americans. He wonders if they will cancel the fifty U-boat order.”

  “I worried about that, myself,” Schloss said. “We are still scraping for every bit of foreign exchange we can get.”

  “I would think that without the far east to distract Stalin, he will be more focused on the war against us,” Rainer commented. “But I suspect he is already fully engaged. The SS sources in Moscow are pretty low level, but they indicate the Russians are still running around in circles after Smirnoff surrendered.”

  Schloss nodded. “That’s pretty much what Colonel Gehlen reported. The longer they stay confused, the happier I am.”

  “What’s going to happen, now, Hennie?” Peter asked.

  “We are in the middle of the spring rains, so nothing much is moving in Poland. But we must never forget that we are facing a large and determined foe. We are not getting to the end of the war soon by any means.”

  “Do you think Smirnoff's surrender represents a turning point in the war?” Rainer asked.

  “I would like to think so. But it’s a long time until that sausage is fried. In fact, I am worried about Schörner’s army. If he pushes too hard or too far, the Russians will try to cut him off. It wouldn’t be as bad as losing Model’s army was, but it would hurt.”

  “Rommel is keeping an eye on him, right?” Peter asked.

  “Yes, and Heinz is watching, too,” Schloss replied.

  “Heinz has worked with us to clean the remaining Russians out of Eastern Germany,” Rainer noted. “I just hope the Russians don’t manage to get across the river again.”

  “You can bet they are going to try it again,” Schloss shrugged. “I’m pushing the high command to come up with a plan to discourage the Russians from trying.”

  “I believe we need to be convincing,” Rainer responded.

  “Indeed,” Schloss said as he stood. “Peter and I need to head home. It’s almost dinner time, and we don’t need to face the wrath of Frau Marsden.”

  “Heaven forbid,” Rainer replied.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  April 28, 1944; 2PM

  Grandview, Washington, USA

  “It looks like the fire is out, sir. Finally,” Colonel Kent Clarke said.

  “Well, that’s some good news for a change,” General Mark Clark responded.

  “That may be the easiest part of this job,” Admiral Ray Spruance added.

  “I won’t argue with you there, Ray. We need to get our hands around an approach to the cleanup. I think we need to have a team get started at the accident site. Any thoughts, gentleman?”

  “Assuming, of course, that there are no further significant emissions from the plant, we are also going to have to come up with a plan for the cleanup from the smoke plume,” General Leslie Groves said.

  Groves had flown in from the East Coast to consult with the leadership of the cleanup team. He looked as though he had aged ten years in the previous several months.

  Admiral Spruance spoke, “With the Army standing down from the war with Japan, they will make available as many people as we need.”

  “Assuming they know what they’re doing,” Groves replied.

  “There is that. I had thought about using the scientists to train the men who will be in the field, but I don’t believe they know how to approach this, either.”

  “If it’s agreeable with you, Mark,” Groves continued, “I can organize the training for the team that will be going into Hanford. I assume you are all aware that having the fire out does not mean that we have corrected all the problems at the plant site. The fissile materials from the pile are probably still active, and they would have melted and pooled on the floor of the pile building. It’s only a matter of time until they burn their way through the concrete. And it will eventually impact the groundwater.”

  General Clark grimaced. “I’m delighted the fire is out. At least we can start thinking about the next steps. Do you have a plan for dealing with the remaining materials – you call them fissile, right?”

  Groves nodded. “We are going to have to build a concrete sarcophagus around the wreck of the pile.”

  “How will you deal with the melt-through? General Clark asked.

  “We are going to have to tunnel underground and get a concrete barrier in place underneath that building. I would like to have a good supply of cadmium and Borax sitting above the barrier we build so that it will hopefully mix with the melted nuclear fuel so that the reaction will stop. And that is the key to this whole exercise. The reaction must stop.”

  “Then you are going to have to begin soon,” General Clark said.

  “We are going to have to scrape off as much of the topsoil around the plant as we can. We know the wind directed the plume east to southeast, but I’m assuming that will have contaminated soil for some distance around all sides of the plant.”

  “That should be something we would be able to handle,” Admiral Spruance said. “We will need to teach the crews what needs to be done and also arrange for protecting them from the radioactive dust.”

  “We will have challenges in where we store the contaminated soil from the site,” Colonel Clarke said. “If we just dump it in a ravine somewhere, we’ll have the same groundwater problems we’re facing with the atomic pile itself.”

  “That is correct,” Groves said. “There’s a team at Oak Ridge studying this very issue. I would suggest you go ahead and get your team assembled, and hopefully, we’ll have a solution for you by that point. You’re going to have to collect a pretty good fleet of earth-moving equipment for what you want to do.”

  “Are you suggesting that we not proceed until we have that solution from your engineers, General?” Spruance asked.

  “By no means, Admiral. It is critically important to begin working on the side of the pile as soon as possible. I think you’re going to have to pile the scrapings above ground. Keeping it stable is another story, of course. Based on some late-night pondering, you might want to keep a continuous water spray on the debris so that it does not spread in the wind. You may have to dig some ditches so that the runoff goes into a retention pond. We don’t need any of this getting into the Columbia River, and that’s at all costs.”

  “I understand,” Spruance replied. “General Clark, I have the teams available to clear the ground around the factory site, and I have been promised earth-moving equipment within the next couple of days. With any luck at all, we should be able to start within the week. What I don’t know, General Groves, is what kind of equipment you will need for the building itself. Do you have any suggestions?”

  “I have a train coming with the equipment we will need for the job.”

  “I’m amazed you have pulled so much together so quickly,” General Clark said.

  “When you have orders assigned by the president and has DP written all over it, it’s amazing the size of a mountain you can move and how quickly.”

  General Clark and Admiral Spruance both chuckled. General officers in every branch of the military lived in mortal fear of getting a memo that began with At the Direction of the President. It enabled the recipient to get things done, but it bypassed a large segment of the chain of command, which irritated the people at the Pentagon.

  DP orders also sometimes exhibited questionable legality or constitutionality. And these orders generally left a lot of people at career risk. Nobody wanted to be without a chair when the music stopped. Groves looked at the men around the table and easily read their reactions.

  “I can tell by the looks on your faces,” Groves continued, “you are wondering what is going to happen when it hits the fan, which it inevitably will. First, President Truman has accepted full responsibility for the accident as well as the cleanup. I also accept responsibility; however, the president doesn’t want me to say things like that. So, we will try to protect you and your people from wrecking your careers. But understand that this is more important than any of our careers. We have a job to do, gentlemen, and we’re going to get this done.”

  General Clark nodded at Groves, as did the others. General Groves studied the reaction a moment longer and then spoke again.

  “Once again, this is a directive from the president, and I need to hear a proper response.”

  General Clark responded at once. “Yes, sir. We will get this thing done.”

  “Aye, aye, sir,” Spruance said.

  “Yes, Sir,” Colonel Clarke responded.

  General Clark looked at Spruance. “You know what you need to do, Ray?”

  “Yes, General.”

  Clark looked at Colonel Clarke. “How about you, Superman?”

  Spruance grinned, and Groves looked confused.

  “Yes, General. I believe I have a train to unload.”

  “Superman?” Groves asked.

  General Clark laughed. “You see the familiarity of Colonel Clarke’s name? Since we have had confusion because he and I both have the same last name, we all decided to call him Superman to limit the confusion.”

  “With all due respect, General,” Colonel Clarke said, “everybody didn’t decide that; you did.”

  General Clark ignored the response. “How long are you in town for, Leslie?”

  “At least until my train gets here. Along with the equipment on the train, I have two platoons of engineers. I want to make sure they understand what they have to do as well as how to do it safely.”

  “If you can provide to me the details of the personnel mix, I will need to see about quarters,” Spruance said. “They are scarce right now.”

  “Thank you, Admiral. We’re headed into summer, so you can put them in tents if you have to. Once we are assured we have removed the local ground contamination, I would suggest moving them closer to the plant.”

  “It is very likely going to be tents, General. Every spare board-foot is going into quarters for the people the accident displaced. I’m glad I don’t have that nightmare. I can’t see how we are even going to feed all those people.”

  The Secretary of the Interior has all that in his portfolio,” Groves replied. “The president thinks he is competent, for whatever that’s worth.”

  “I’ve heard good things about Harold Ickes,” Spruance commented.

  General Clark nodded. “If there’s nothing else, let’s adjourn so we can get back to our offices.”

  “I had one other item,” General Groves added.

  General Clark rolled his fingers to indicate that Groves could continue.

  “This one is rather delicate. The Germans asked the president if they could send an observer to the cleanup operation.”

  “Letting a German in here?” Spruance spoke sharply. “I know this comes from the president, but what is he thinking?”

  “This benefits us in two ways. First of all, it confirms that the Germans have an ongoing project similar to ours here. Secondly, he will be working close to you three, and anything he lets slip about the German program is going to be gravy for us as far as I’m concerned.”

  General Clark shrugged. “If the president wants to do it, I guess we need to salute and get on with it.”

  “I agree,” Spruance said.

  No one said anything further, so General Clark stood, as did the others. They and filed out of the meeting room. Ray Spruance was thoughtful as he walked back to his office. They were getting ready to receive several thousand military and civilian personnel to begin the cleanup task, and housing was in critically short supply. Grandview was already well beyond capacity with the fifteen thousand refugees from the contaminated zone.

  Spruance had spent a couple of fruitless days calling around Army supply depots to look for anything and everything that would help him in his task. He was not notably successful. Fortunately, he had priority to make all the long-distance calls he needed, so he put in a call to the naval station in San Diego.

  “Spruance, have you adopted lubberly ways, now?” Chester Nimitz said in his gruff voice.

  “No, Sir. I’ll never forget the Navy. Maybe I’ll get a deck under my feet sometime in the distant future.”

  “That will likely remain in your dreams; I’m sorry to say. How can the Navy help you today?”

  “Has the Army requisitioned everything out of the naval and marine warehouses yet?”

  “I think the Army has forgotten we exist, which is not a bad thing at all.”

  “That’s good, Admiral. I essentially need everything you can ship me before the Army wakes up and takes it. There are a lot of people running around taking advantage of their DP orders.”

  Nimitz rubbed his chin as he held the telephone receiver and then came to a decision. “If I’ve got it, Ray, you’ve got it.”

  “Okay, Sir. I need tentage, Quonset huts, rations, vehicles, tools, and if you have any exceptional logisticians, I would be in your debt.”

  Nimitz chuckled. “You’re already in my debt. But what’s a couple of trainloads of goods between friends.”

  “And could I ask for a solid group of Marines to guard the shipments, Sir? I think we’ll need someone who is not afraid to stare down flag officers. Maybe if you put “DP” into the written orders, we won’t lose the shipments. You can bet the Army will try to grab it if it figures out what we’re doing.”

  “Are you telling me this is DP, Ray?”

  “I’m working for Mark Clark, and he definitely is working under DP. If you want, I can telex you a set of orders under his cover.”

  “That might be wise. I don’t think Harry Truman would bother me about what we’re trying to do, but there are plenty of useless people at the Pentagon who would get their rocks off by messing with us.”

  “Very well, Admiral. Thank you for your time.”

  “If we’re going to be doing this a lot, Ray, then you need to plan to make a trip down here so I can buy you dinner.”

  “I will certainly keep that in mind, Sir. Thank you for your help.”

  “Glad to.”

  And Nimitz hung up.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  May 1, 1944; 2PM

  Reich Chancellor’s Office

  Frankfurt, Germany

  Schloss always wondered why famous scientists were seemingly unable to tame their hair. He welcomed Konrad Zuse into his office and idly considered whether the man had been in contact with a severe charge of static electricity. By all accounts, the Zuse was a genius, although he did not receive due credit for his contributions to computer science for decades after the fact.

  “I am glad to see that you got safely out of Berlin, Herr Doctor. You have reopened your laboratory in Leipzig, is that correct?”

  “Yes, Herr Reich Chancellor. When the Russians came over the Oder River, I began arranging the move immediately. We got all of our people and equipment out in good order.”

  “I am glad to hear that. Was there some reason to select Leipzig rather than a location further away from the front?”

  Zuse tilted his head slightly. “I wanted to relocate to Munich but, the Army told me that Leipzig was good enough. When I tried to explain that I was working on a strategic project for the Reich Chancellor, they told me I would have to take my chances.”

  Schloss scribbled a note on the pad in front of him. This was something Rundstedt needed to know. He felt like he was the only one in the government who recognized what Zuse was doing.

  “Very well. You should be fine for the moment. I think I will have you speak with the Reichsmarshall while you are in town. I have had difficulty in convincing people of the importance of your work. How badly did the interruption affect you?”

  “I would say we lost about three weeks. The new laboratory is not as nice as the old one, but we have an adequate electrical supply. And that’s the most important thing.”

  “And what is the progress on your Z4 device?” Schloss asked.

  “We were just completing it when we had to leave Berlin. Fortunately, it was not damaged in the move. We are running tests on it now, and so far, any issues have been minor.”

  “And have you identified an area where we can put the machine to work?”

  “Yes, mein Herr. The Army ballistics group has agreed to test the machine.”

  “And are they enthusiastic?” Schloss asked with a smile.

  Zuse grinned back at the Reich Chancellor. “I would suggest they were grudging in their acceptance.”

  “I think they resented my interference. I passed the word down that they would accept the machine for testing, and they would make every effort to succeed.”

  “I hate to have to twist people’s arms,” Zuse commented, “but this is the kind of thing that accrues advantages to the Reich. On the other hand, our invention of solid electron tubes has drawn a huge amount of interest.”

  “Is that so? Can you give me a summary of how that project is going?”

  “Yes, mein Herr. Herr Ribbentrop has signed a nonexclusive contract with Siemens to develop the invention. They hope to have production devices in about eighteen months. The Askania Works also has a contract, and Herr Ribbentrop finds that to be significant. We also signed a contract with a small consortium of inventors and engineers. They made no commitments to a schedule, but they are very excited about it.”