The Haigerloch Project

Dirk turned to look after her as she left the room. He glanced at Oskar.

The big man regarded him gravely. He nodded.

“We stay,” he said.

3

Here are the three files you requested, sir.” Captain Barnes placed the file folders on McKinley's desk.

Without looking up from the report he was studying, the general nodded. “Thank you, Barnes,” he mumbled.

“May I remind you, sir. Colonel Reed and Major Rosenfeld will be here in fifteen minutes, as you requested.”

“Fine. Have them come in when they arrive.”

Barnes looked at the general with a little frown of concern. “Yes, sir,” he said. McKinley looked worn out. Small wonder. He worked around the clock almost every day.

As Barnes left, McKinley pulled the three file folders to him. He sighed.

He opened the first file folder.

OPERATION GEMINI.

He sighed again. He wanted to be completely up to date on all three cases before his meeting with the secretary later on. Stimson had a habit of asking pertinent questions and expecting answers.

He riffled through the papers The dossiers of two young men. Recruiting. Training. Briefing. Cover. Infiltration. Then — nothing. The last entry was from the day before: 031300 Apr 45—No Contact. He bit his lip, feeling a twinge of guilt Perhaps he should not have okayed a team as unorthodox as Gemini, however urgent the need.

He pushed the file aside.

Operation Gemini was closed.

He looked at the second file. Irritation and frustration rose in him.

REPRESENTATIVE ENGEL, ALBERT J., MICHIGAN.

Of all the problems besieging him, he needed this one the least.

Engel was at it again, despite the earnest intervention of congressional leaders He still insisted on an investigation of certain “unexplained expenditures”. There was no way of placating him anymore. He would have to be shown. They would have to take him to Oak Ridge. But before they did, Stimson wanted to familiarize himself with the progress there. In a way, you couldn't blame Engel, McKinley thought. One billion dollars was a hell of a lot of money….

The third file was headed—

OPERATION HARBORAGE.

It was the most important one now — and the one he had to bring up to date before his meeting.

The. Yalta Conference in February between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin had divided post-war Europe into three zones. Just recently a fourth zone had been added. French. And the Hechingen-Haigerloch area would lie smack in the middle of the French zone. Nevertheless, it was understood at the highest level that it was imperative that Haigerloch be taken as quickly as possible and that any atomic project there fall into American hands. Operation Harborage was the projected MED-Alsos operation against Haigerloch.

Records which had fallen into the hands of Alsos only days before revealed an ominous fact. Degussa, the Frankfurt-based uranium-refining plant, had manufactured ten tons of uranium-oxide briquettes. He knew enough about the project at Oak Ridge to realize the significance of this information. Where were those uranium briquettes? At Haigerloch?

With Gemini aborted and the airborne drop planned by Colonel Pash called off, the final decisions were even now being made for Harborage.

The buzzer on his intercom sounded.

“Yes, Barnes,” he said wearily.

“Colonel Reed and Major Rosenfeld are on their way in, sir.”

“Thank you.”

The door opened and Reed and Rosenfeld entered the office. McKinley motioned for them to sit down. He turned to Rosenfeld. He came straight to the point.

“I asked you here, Major, to find out if there have been any developments regarding Operation Gemini. Any contact at all?”

Rosenfeld looked unhappy. “No, sir,” he said. “None. Our last contact with the control officer in London, Captain Everett, was two hours ago. He had heard nothing.”

“What is the official OSS conclusion?”

“We must consider the operation a failure, sir. The agents — lost.” He looked down. “The monitoring is being discontinued,” he added.

McKinley nodded slowly. “Then — with no firsthand information, we are forced to proceed on the assumption that the Haigerloch Project is atomic in nature and act accordingly”. He turned to Reed. “I have a meeting with the Secretary and the Chief of Staff in two hours. What are the final decisions regarding Operation Harborage?”