“Yes. It was that. You think me unsympathetic. I hope I’m not.” He continued rubbing the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes for a moment to ease the strain. “We keep losing the individual-it’s become so easy.” His talk drifted, almost to reverie, and Connolly was fascinated; it was like watching someone think. “You grow callous just to get through it.” He sat up, pointing to one of the piles on his desk. “How do you separate out what’s important? There’s algae in the water again-some of the women are complaining. Important? It is to them. Conant’s sending a delegation from Washington tomorrow and they’ll want a summary, which isn’t ready, and then a tour, which is disruptive, but it’s important to give them both somehow. Dr. Teller wants to see me and of course that’s always important, even when it isn’t, because if I don’t see him he’ll sulk and not work and that will be important. It’s all important, and sometimes you forget, just to get it all done. But a life-yes, you’re right, that’s something else again. I’d like to help you any way I can. I don’t want you to think otherwise. It’s just there’s so little time to go around.”
“I appreciate that, Dr. Oppenheimer. I don’t want to take any more than I have to.”
“Do you know how far along the Germans are with their gadget?”
“No,” Connolly said, unsure where he was heading.
“Neither do I. No idea. We do know they have Heisenberg and some of the finest scientific minds in the world. We have to assume they’re working on it. After all, the same information is available to everyone. Was, anyway, before the war-” He paused for effect. “Compartmentalized us all. Now we don’t know. But what if we’re running out of time?”
“Right now it looks like the Germans are running out of everything.”
“A year ago they said London wouldn’t be bombed again, and then the V-2s came. Nobody knows anything. You were briefed about the gadget in Washington, I know, but I wonder if you appreciate how very powerful it will be. If the Germans develop one first, they could take England out of the war.”
Connolly raised his eyebrows skeptically.
“You think not?” Oppenheimer said. “I think so. It’s a gamble we can’t afford to make. We have to get there first. So sometimes individual things-get lost. On the one hand, every little detail is important; on the other hand, nothing is important except the project. You have to bargain one against the other all the time. But a murder can’t get lost, can it? So. What sort of bargain do you want me to make with you?”
Connolly looked at him for a minute, surprised to be so abruptly brought back to business. Or was this where Oppenheimer had been going all along?
“I want unrestricted access to all security files. I want to be able to talk to anyone I think might be useful without having to clear it first. My being Bruner’s replacement makes this easy; it’s the most natural thing in the world to talk about. I want more background on the scientific details of the project-if there is a connection, I need to know where to look. And I want to be able to appropriate any personnel-all of G-2 if necessary-if I need them.”
“Done,” Oppenheimer said, looking at him thoughtfully. “But surely you already have all this from General Groves.”
“I’d like it from you.”
Oppenheimer nodded. “I see. All right. Anything else?”
“What’s the gossip? What have people been told-what story’s been given out and what do they think of it? You can’t have a murder in a small community without some sort of explanation.”
Oppenheimer brooded for a minute. “No, I don’t suppose so. But there’s been remarkably little talk, now that you ask. I’m not sure why. Possibly because he really wasn’t part of the community, not the work community anyway. They know that he was attacked and robbed. Shocking, especially in a town like Santa Fe, but then you have to move on. It’s not as if it were one of the scientists.” He paused. “Don’t disapprove, I’m just trying to be truthful. If it had been Kisty or Enrico-”
“Do they know why?”
“You mean, were they told he was homosexual? No, there was no reason for that. I’m sure it never occurred to them-it certainly never occurred to me. At the time, I think there was a feeling that it would be, well, disrespectful. The poor man was already dead-no need to rake his life over the coals. Hold him up to ridicule.”
“Or the army.”
Oppenheimer frowned. “I don’t think that entered into it. We may have our moral failings, but I hope we’re not hypocrites. It was my decision-I never even considered the army’s feelings in the matter. I don’t care what his sex life was, but some people do. Is it a sin? What’s a sin? But since Bruner never said anything, I felt we should respect that.”
“Maybe he never said anything because it would have meant dishonorable discharge.”
“That’s irrelevant,” Oppenheimer snapped. “He was dead.”
“But he may have had associates, just as vulnerable, just as-” A sharp rap was followed by the secretary’s head, disembodied, poking around the doorjamb.
