Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon (Newbery Honor Book) by Steve Sheinkin

Author:Steve Sheinkin [Sheinkin, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Published: 2012-09-04T07:00:00+00:00

SWISS DEAL

CARL EIFLER STOOD ON THE BALCONY of the Office of Strategic Services office in the city of Algiers, Algeria. Loud honks and shouts rose from the hectic street below. OSS director General William Donovan stepped onto the balcony. He closed the door behind him.

Eifler had spent the past few months perfecting his plan to kidnap the German physicist Werner Heisenberg and putting together his team for the job. Everything was set, he told Donovan, for “my proposed entry into Country X.”

“Carl, there’s a change in your orders,” Donovan informed Eifler. “We have broken the atom secret with our Manhattan Project. We beat the Nazis. Your mission is scrubbed.”

“I see, sir,” said Eifler, blinking back tears of disappointment.

Donovan assured Eifler he’d be given a new assignment, one just as dangerous, penetrating Japanese-held territory in Korea.

Eifler walked back to the room he was sharing with another OSS operative. Unable to sleep that night, he paced the room, muttering, “I can’t get him out of my mind … I can’t get him out of my mind…”

“Who?” asked the other man, annoyed at being kept awake.

“The last guy I bumped off,” said Eifler.

“Well,”—the roommate yawned—“what can you do about it?”

“Bump off another one.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Carl! Turn out the light and go to bed.”

* * *

DONOVAN HAD not been truthful with Eifler. The Americans had not yet “broken the atomic secret” and did not know if they would “beat the Nazis” to the atomic bomb. Donovan just wanted to take Eifler off the job without hurting the man’s feelings.

But the job was still on.

By December 1944, American and British forces were driving toward Germany from the west. The Soviets were coming on fast from the east. Hitler was about to be crushed—unless he could pull out an atomic bomb. So it was still necessary, reasoned Donovan, to target German physicists, especially Heisenberg.

But Donovan had changed his mind about Eifler’s fitness for the mission, worried the man’s loose-cannon style could draw unwanted attention to the delicate operation. He gave the job instead to a forty-one-year-old former baseball player named Moe Berg.

Berg had been a mediocre ballplayer at best, hitting .243 over fifteen big league seasons as a backup catcher. To Berg, baseball had just been a way to make a living. In the off-season he worked as a lawyer, studied languages, and traveled the world. In 1943, his playing days over, he took his talents to the OSS.

Berg was soon assigned to a secret operation, code-named Alsos. The Alsos mission’s job was to follow close behind advancing Allied forces in Europe, searching for any scraps of information about the German atomic bomb program.

Berg spent some time in London studying atomic physics. In early December he was told to report to Paris. Walking the streets, he was spotted by a sportswriter he knew from his previous career. The man smiled with surprise and opened his mouth to speak.

“Don’t ask me what I’m doing here,” Berg warned.

Actually, he didn’t know himself. He found out the

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