The Trinity Paradox by Doug Beason Kevin J Anderson Page A
Authors: Doug Beason Kevin J Anderson
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become heroes. The firestorm of Hamburg would be nothing compared to the devastation a German atomic bomb could deliver. The other scientists would not be so smug and uncooperative with Speer standing beside him. Esau now had the crowbar he needed to consolidate the nuclear physics research firmly under his own custodianship.
Werner Heisenberg would not be expecting them; Esau wanted that as part of their surprise. Heisenberg lived in Leipzig with his family, but took the train to Berlin twice a week to continue work at the institute. Esau had taken great care to be sure they arrived on a day Heisenberg would be at the Virus House.
The motorcycles ground to a halt. The staff car pulled up in front of a complex of wooden buildings surrounded by a gate and a sagging barbed-wire fence. One guard, wrapped in a rain shawl with a machine gun over his shoulder, stepped forward to inspect the papers of the motorcycle riders, who gestured him toward the staff car. The driver wrestled with the crank to turn down the window.
“This is a restricted area. May I see your papers please?” the guard said, pushing his head in and dripping water on the driver’s shoulder.
When he saw Reichminister Speer and Major Stadt in their respective uniforms, the guard stiffened, but held his ground. For security reasons they had not marked the staff car to announce the ranks of its occupants.
Major Stadt remained silent, and Esau waited as the guard checked them through. Any other behavior by the guard would not have been tolerated. The guard returned the folded papers to the driver, then trudged off through the mud back to his windbreak shelter beside the barbed-wire gate. The two motorcycle riders kicked their engines into life again, then proceeded through the gate. The driver of the staff car kept the window cracked open, allowing damp air to purge the atmosphere inside. They drove into the grounds of the Virus House.
In July 1940 the researcher Karl Wirtz had built a small laboratory on the grounds of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Biology and Virus Research, adjacent to the Institute of Physics. All power and water for the new establishment came from the institute’s large virus growth laboratories. But Dr. Karl Wirtz was no biologist. The ominous name “Virus House” was prominently displayed only to keep the curious away, and to mislead any spies about the actual research conducted there.
At the beginning of the war, Reichminister Speer’s predecessor had been skeptical about the nuclear physics program, since it then appeared the Blitzkrieg would give Germany victory over Britain long before nuclear physicists could develop a new weapon. Nevertheless, a research program was set up. The head of the institute, the Dutch experimental physicist Paul Debye, was told that he must either become a German citizen or leave his post, because no foreign national could be allowed to work on a secret military project. Debye had chosen to leave, departing to go on a “lecture tour” to neutral America.
That was in January 1940. The Armaments Ministry tried to install Dr. Kurt Diebner from the military as Debye’s replacement, and this the rest of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute resoundingly opposed. But they had not yet realized how much times had changed. Finally the institute accepted Dr. Diebner as a provisional head, until such time as Paul Debye returned from his lecture tour.
But Diebner’s career had not survived political machinations in the following years. Other scientists, such as Karl Wirtz and Carl-Friedrich von Weizsacker had schemed to draw Werner Heisenberg into the institute, where he became titular head of nuclear physics work-subordinate to the Plenipotentiary for Nuclear Physics, of course, Esau reminded himself.
Esau had been to the Virus House on official visits, but he had accomplished nothing. The program remained as scattered and uninspired as ever, the scientists more concerned with maintaining their reputations
Werner Heisenberg would not be expecting them; Esau wanted that as part of their surprise. Heisenberg lived in Leipzig with his family, but took the train to Berlin twice a week to continue work at the institute. Esau had taken great care to be sure they arrived on a day Heisenberg would be at the Virus House.
The motorcycles ground to a halt. The staff car pulled up in front of a complex of wooden buildings surrounded by a gate and a sagging barbed-wire fence. One guard, wrapped in a rain shawl with a machine gun over his shoulder, stepped forward to inspect the papers of the motorcycle riders, who gestured him toward the staff car. The driver wrestled with the crank to turn down the window.
“This is a restricted area. May I see your papers please?” the guard said, pushing his head in and dripping water on the driver’s shoulder.
When he saw Reichminister Speer and Major Stadt in their respective uniforms, the guard stiffened, but held his ground. For security reasons they had not marked the staff car to announce the ranks of its occupants.
Major Stadt remained silent, and Esau waited as the guard checked them through. Any other behavior by the guard would not have been tolerated. The guard returned the folded papers to the driver, then trudged off through the mud back to his windbreak shelter beside the barbed-wire gate. The two motorcycle riders kicked their engines into life again, then proceeded through the gate. The driver of the staff car kept the window cracked open, allowing damp air to purge the atmosphere inside. They drove into the grounds of the Virus House.
In July 1940 the researcher Karl Wirtz had built a small laboratory on the grounds of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Biology and Virus Research, adjacent to the Institute of Physics. All power and water for the new establishment came from the institute’s large virus growth laboratories. But Dr. Karl Wirtz was no biologist. The ominous name “Virus House” was prominently displayed only to keep the curious away, and to mislead any spies about the actual research conducted there.
At the beginning of the war, Reichminister Speer’s predecessor had been skeptical about the nuclear physics program, since it then appeared the Blitzkrieg would give Germany victory over Britain long before nuclear physicists could develop a new weapon. Nevertheless, a research program was set up. The head of the institute, the Dutch experimental physicist Paul Debye, was told that he must either become a German citizen or leave his post, because no foreign national could be allowed to work on a secret military project. Debye had chosen to leave, departing to go on a “lecture tour” to neutral America.
That was in January 1940. The Armaments Ministry tried to install Dr. Kurt Diebner from the military as Debye’s replacement, and this the rest of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute resoundingly opposed. But they had not yet realized how much times had changed. Finally the institute accepted Dr. Diebner as a provisional head, until such time as Paul Debye returned from his lecture tour.
But Diebner’s career had not survived political machinations in the following years. Other scientists, such as Karl Wirtz and Carl-Friedrich von Weizsacker had schemed to draw Werner Heisenberg into the institute, where he became titular head of nuclear physics work-subordinate to the Plenipotentiary for Nuclear Physics, of course, Esau reminded himself.
Esau had been to the Virus House on official visits, but he had accomplished nothing. The program remained as scattered and uninspired as ever, the scientists more concerned with maintaining their reputations
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