C. Graham - The Solomon Effect

“That’s what we used to think. But recent industrial archaeology on the remains of the experimental German reactor in Berlin suggests it did work-in fact, it might have been up and running for several weeks.”

“Long enough to make the material for a bomb?” said Tobie.

“For at least one.” Wolfgang leaned forward. “Some people believe the device exploded at Thuringia was a hybrid-fission and fusion. Others think it was a ‘dirty bomb,’ using enriched nuclear material with conventional explosives.” He lowered his voice even further. “And then there are those who think the bombs the U.S. dropped on Japan were actually German made-seized by the Allies when they overran Germany.”

“That’s ridiculous,” said Tobie.

“Is it? Ever hear of U-234?”

“No,” she said, while Jax nodded.

“It was a Type XB submarine. One of those big mothers.”

“One of the ones originally designed as a minelayer?”

“That’s right. It left Kiel on 25 March 1945, headed for Japan and loaded with everything from a dismantled Me-262 jet fighter to V-2 missile components, and experts on rockets and jet engines.”

“Operation Caesar,” said Tobie quietly. The cargo of U-234 sounded much like the material they’d seen stacked on the wharves in Kaliningrad.

“You know about it?”

“We’ve heard of it.”

Wolfgang nodded. “Well, along with everything else, U-234 was also carrying 550 kilograms of uranium.”

“How many bombs would that make?” Jax asked.

“Of the size we dropped on Japan? Two. Some people think that even if the U.S. didn’t drop German-made bombs on Japan, they used the uranium from that U-boat.”

Tobie said, “What happened to it? The U-boat, I mean.”

“They were still in the Atlantic when the order came through from the German High Command, saying the war was over and that all U-boats were to surface and fly a black flag from their periscopes.”

“So they surrendered?”

Wolfgang nodded. “An American boarding party escorted them to New Hampshire.”

Jax said, “The uranium oxide-where was it stored?”

“You mean, where in the U-boat was it? I don’t know. All I know is it was packed in ten metal containers. When the Americans cut them open with a blowtorch, they found them full of smaller containers, shaped like cigar boxes. A quarter ton of uranium oxide, altogether. J. Robert Oppenheimer himself was supposedly there when they opened it.”

Jax was silent for a moment. Tobie noticed he hadn’t eaten much of his jaeger schnitzel. Finally, he said, “Marie Oldenburg told you about the cargo manifest of U-114?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think it’s possible that submarine could have been carrying an atom bomb?”

“I’d say so, yes.”

Jax sat back in his seat and let out his breath in a long, slow sigh that sounded like “Fuck.”

Tobie leaned forward. “You said there were other files-files the Allies seized after the war and that are still kept top secret?”

“That’s right.”

“But why? Why would they do that?”

“Keep them secret, you mean?” Wolfgang pressed his full lips into a thin, flat line. “World War II might have ended over sixty years ago, but it’s still a very controversial topic. A lot of people say Truman and his generals should have been tried as war criminals, for dropping the A-bomb on Japan.”

“It was horrible, yes,” said Tobie. “But it actually saved lives, by helping to end the war sooner.”

Wolfgang gave a wry smile. “That’s the argument you always hear. The problem is, Japan was trying to surrender before we dropped the bomb on them. They were willing to accept every single U.S. demand, except they wanted to be allowed to keep their emperor.”

Tobie frowned. “I thought in the end we let them keep their emperor.”

“Exactly.”

“But what does that have to do with the Germans developing the bomb?”

The Texan drained his beer stein and set it aside. “Think about what it would mean, if Germany had the bomb but didn’t use it. I mean, the Nazis are supposed to be the biggest baddies the universe has ever seen, right? So what does that say about us Americans, if we dropped a weapon even the Nazis were reluctant to use?”

“I don’t believe it,” said Tobie.

“I have to admit,” said Wolfgang, pushing to his feet, “I don’t want to believe it, myself.”

“You didn’t eat much,” said Jax after the big Texan had shaken hands again and left.

Tobie stared down at their plates. “Neither did you.”

“No.”

They sat in silence for a long moment. Jax said, “It never made any sense, the idea of terrorists raising that U-boat for gold. Not with this attack supposedly planned for Halloween. The timing was just too tight.”

“It’s still tight, isn’t it? Even if what they were after was an old German A-bomb.”

Jax glanced out the window, to the darkened parking lot lit only by the faint flicker of gas lamps. “If there really was an old German A-bomb on that sub, anyone going after it would deliberately have planned the operation to be tight. Whoever these guys are, they’ll want to move as fast as they can. The longer they have that bomb in their possession, the more likely it is to be detected.”

She studied his half-averted profile, with its high cheekbones and lean jaw line. “You believe Wolfgang, then? That the Germans not only developed a small nuclear bomb, but decided in the last days of the war to send a prototype to Japan?”

“Somebody obviously believed it enough to go through the trouble of raising that U-boat.”

“But would the thing still be viable? After sixty years?”

“Viable enough to cause considerable damage, whatever kind of device we’re talking about.”

She pushed away her plate. “What I don’t understand is how anyone even found out about that bomb in the first place. They would need to have known about it before, right? Before Karl Wertheim advertised his grandfather’s papers on eBay.”

“You heard what Wolfgang said. New information has been turning up all over the place in the last twenty years. Not just in the Russian archives, but in the personal papers of men whose families were living in East Germany when the Iron Curtain came down. Someone could have found out about it that way.” He was silent a moment. “I also have an ugly suspicion the honchos in Washington know more about that submarine’s cargo than we’ve been told.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because according to Matt, the Navy has been keeping an eye on U-114 ever since they located it. That hit a sour note with me. I just can’t see them doing that if all they thought she was carrying was gold.”

She was aware of him watching the scene outside the window, although he’d been careful not to look directly that way again. She glanced toward the parking lot, and saw nothing except silent rows of cars.

“What do you keep looking at?”

“Don’t stare.”

She obediently looked away. “Why? What is it?”

“There’s a black Mercedes GL-Class parked beside the Jetta. See it?”

She threw a quick sideways glance at the shadowy rows of vehicles. “The SUV?”

“That’s it.”

“So?”

“So, they pulled in about ten minutes ago. Only, no one got out of the car.”

“Could be a coincidence. They could be waiting for someone.”

“It’s possible.”

Tobie reached for her beer stein and took a long, bitter swallow. “What do we do?”

Jax signaled their waitress for the bill. “I’ve got an idea.”

After they paid their tab, Jax walked up to the middle-aged man at the inn’s front desk and said in flawless German, “I’m afraid we have a problem. My friend here”-Jax nodded toward Tobie-“is being stalked by her ex-husband, and he’s out in the parking lot right now, waiting for us.”