“If his friend is so rich, why was he wearing boots?”
“You got me. Maybe they’re not connected.”
Mills looked up to answer him and then stopped, his attention drawn away. They had walked back toward the Tech Area and now stood beside the fence, sidestepping a jeep. A girl in heels, her white badge flapping against her sweater, brushed past the MP guard, her face covered in tears. Outside the gate, she squinted into the late afternoon sun, then, blinded by the light, walked unsteadily past them, nearly knocking into Mills as she went.
“What was that?” Mills said.
“Trouble in paradise,” Connolly said lightly. “The boss yelled. The boyfriend took a hike. Maybe it’s—”
“No, look,” Mills said, stopping him with a hand on his shoulder. “Something’s happened.”
Suddenly the street began to fill with people coming out of the buildings, then standing around aimlessly, unsure what to do, as if an explosion had gone off inside. Some of the women hugged each other. Others began to move in haphazard groups toward the open area in front of the Admin Building, anxious and listless at the same time.
Mills went up to the guard. “What’s going on?”
“It’s the President-Roosevelt’s dead,” he said, not looking at them.
Nobody said a word. Connolly felt winded, caught by an unexpected punch. He was surprised by how much he minded. Only the war was supposed to end, not the foundation of things. Now what? He imagined himself back in Washington-bells tolling, people stupefied in their maze of offices, the humming of gossip about a new order that was beginning before its time. Most of the people he knew there had come to Washington for Roosevelt, measuring their lives by his successes. They never expected to know anything else. Now the others would begin scurrying to make the town over-it wasn’t too soon, even now. For the first time since he’d come to Los Alamos, Connolly missed it, that nervous feeling of being at the center of things, where telephones rang and everything mattered. He felt suddenly marooned on a cool, bright plateau, looking at an inconsequential crime while the rest of the world skipped a beat.
They joined the others drifting toward the Admin Building, drawn home like children after dark. It was only when he saw Oppenheimer appear on the steps that he realized why they had come. There was a different White House here, and the plain army-green building was as central and reassuring as the one across from Lafayette Square. There were no loudspeakers and Oppenheimer barely raised his voice, so that Connolly missed most of what he said. There would be a service on Sunday. He knew everyone must be shocked. He knew they would carry on the President’s ideals. The words faded even as he spoke them. But no one looked anywhere else. His face visibly troubled, Oppenheimer held them all with the force of his caring. In Washington there had been the rakish glint of Roosevelt’s eyes, his generous celebration of worldliness, but here the center was held by Oppie’s almost luminous intelligence. It was his town. When something went wrong-the water supply, a death in the larger family- they didn’t have to hear what he said. It was enough to have him here.
Connolly looked around the crowd of his new town. Scientists in jeans. Nurses and WACs and young typists with vivid red nails. MPs. Fresh-faced graduate students in sweater vests and ties-you could almost see them raising their hands in class, eager to impress. Some were openly weeping, but most people simply stood there, sober after a party. And then Oppenheimer was finished, coming down the few steps to join the crowd, and people began drifting back, not wanting to burden him further.
Connolly couldn’t stop watching him, and Oppenheimer, glancing up, caught his stare and looked puzzled for a moment, until he placed him. He was walking toward them, and Connolly felt oddly pleased to be singled out, then embarrassed when he saw that Oppie had been headed for Professor Weber all along.
“Well, Hans,” he said, placing a hand on his shoulder, “a sad day.”
Weber, always in motion, now seemed to bubble over. “Terrible, terrible. A gift to the Nazis. A gift.”
Oppenheimer looked at his watch. “It’s already tomorrow there. Friday the thirteenth. Dr. Goebbels won’t even have to consult his astrologer. For once, a clear sign, eh?”
“But Robert, the music. What should we do? Should we cancel this evening? It seems not respectful.”
“No, by all means let’s have the music,” Oppenheimer said softly. “Let the Nazis look at their entrails-we’ll take our signs from the music.”
Weber nodded. Oppenheimer, in a gesture of remembering his manners, turned to include Connolly. “You know Mr. Connolly?”
“Yes, forgive me. I didn’t see you. We met at the dancing.”
“How are you getting on?” Oppenheimer said.
“All right, I guess.”
“Good. You must invite him to your evening, Hans.” Then, to Connolly, “All work and no play-it can be a disease here. They’re really quite good.”
“But I have invited him. Yes? You remember? So come.”
“I’m planning on it. If there’s room.”
“Oh, there’s always room,” Oppenheimer said. “And the cakes are even better than the music.”
“Vays mir,” Weber said, putting his hand to his head. “Johanna. You’ll excuse me, please?” But he went off before anyone could answer.
Oppenheimer lit a cigarette and sucked the smoke deeply, like opium. “He likes to help. Schnecken. Seed cake. I think the music is an excuse. How are you getting on?”
“Slowly. Thanks for running interference on the files.”
“I hope they’re worth it. They say bad things run in threes-maybe you’ll find something yet.”
“Would that make three? Has something else happened?”
“No, I’m anticipating. It’s been just the opposite. Today Otto Frisch finished the critical assembly experiments with metallic U-235.” He paused, looking at Connolly. “You haven’t the faintest idea what I’m talking about, have you? Well, so much the better. I probably shouldn’t be talking about it in any case. Suffice it to say, it’s a significant step-best news in a week. And now this. No doubt there’s some philosophical message in it all, but I’m damned if I see it.”
“Did you know him well?”
“The President? No, not very well. I’ve met him, of course, but I can’t say I knew him. He was charming. But that’s beside the point.”
“Which is?”
“It was his project. He okayed it. Now it’s anybody’s guess—”
“Truman opposed it?”
“He doesn’t know about it.”
“What?”
Oppenheimer smiled. “You know, I’m constantly surprised at security’s being surprised when something secret is kept secret. No, he doesn’t know. Nobody there knew except Roosevelt and the committee. And I expect he’ll be furious when Stimson tells him what he didn’t know.”
“Touchy, anyway,” Connolly agreed. “But he’s not going to pull the plug at this point.”
“How well do you really know Washington? This project has cost nearly two billion dollars.” He watched Connolly’s eyes widen. “None of the men you sent to Washington to spend your money knows a thing about it.”
“That’s a lot of money to hide,” Connolly said, thinking about his own paltry search.
“Only Roosevelt could have ordered it,” Oppenheimer said. “It had to come from the top. Still does.”
“So you’re off to Washington, hat in hand?”
“No,” Oppenheimer said, “nothing that drastic. General Groves will take care of it-he knows his way around those land mines better than anybody. But it’s—” He hesitated, grinding out his cigarette. “A complication. We were always racing against time, and now it’s worse. It’s a bad time to get a new boss.”
“It always is.”
“This is a particularly bad time.”
“Can I ask you a question? What if it doesn’t work?”
“I never ask myself that. It will.”
“Because it has to?”
“Because the science is there. It will work. The question now is what happens after that. The generals will want to own it. We’ll need a whole new kind of civilian control. Otherwise, all our work here—” He looked away,
