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1918.”
    “Very well, sir. I will call you back when I learn something.”
    Kassler set the phone back on the cradle, straightened in his chair, and continued reading Engel’s file, confident that his instincts were leading him down a rewarding path.
    University of Heidelberg Research Lab
     
    Basement Room
     
    10:04 a.m.
    Joseph Engel readjusted his clipboard in hand, jotting down notes, as did the other half-dozen, white-coated junior physicists who circled Professor Heisenberg in rapt attention, even on this Sunday morning. To any outsider, the metallic cylinder before them, standing upright in meter-deep water, would appear as nothing of importance. But as Joseph peered into the wooden tank, his eyes widened with expectation, knowing today’s events could change the history of nuclear science forever.
    “Gentlemen, German physics is poised to take a momentous step forward in our research,” Heisenberg began. “For months, we have worked under the assumption that slow neutrons do not have the energy to blast a nucleus apart. We are about to conduct an experiment to see if two atoms will be slightly lighter than the parent uranium atom by the equivalent of one-fifth of a proton.”
    Deutsche Physik. How many times had Engel heard Dr. Heisenberg proudly insert that phrase into his speech? German physics—like German literature—was the envy of the world. It was German physicists, Heisenberg lectured, who filled blackboards with mathematical symbols that won Nobel prizes. Brilliant theorists like Max Planck, Philipp Lenard, and Johannes Stark had developed quantum theory and unlocked the fundamental discoveries of atomic processes. And Joseph hoped one day his contributions would equal theirs.
    Professor Heisenberg’s lecture about slow neutrons droned on, interrupting Joseph’s thoughts. “I once heard a colleague say, ‘Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.’ Gentlemen, we shall put that idea to the test today.”
    Joseph snapped to attention. He’d heard that quote before. Whose words were those? Then he remembered: Albert Einstein, the celebrated physicist.
    Of course, Joseph thought, Heisenberg didn’t dare attach a name to the quote. Einstein was Jewish.
    Whispers in the hallway claimed Heisenberg maintained back-channel contacts with several Jewish physicists and mathematicians who’d fled across the Atlantic and resettled in America. These distinguished scientists had lost their teaching posts shortly after Hitler became German chancellor in 1933. With a stroke of a pen, all Jews were banned from government posts within days of Hitler’s installation. Since universities were state institutions, anyone Jewish was driven off like an uninvited guest.
    Many of Germany’s best and brightest—scientists like Victor Weisskopf and Fritz Reiche—quietly fled with their families to academic institutions like Oxford University outside London or Princeton University in New Jersey, where they resumed their research on atomic particles. Of course, Joseph had also heard that those who—for one reason or another— had remained behind until Germany invaded Poland now found different work at “relocation” camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau and Treblinka. Camps that had whispered rumors all their own.
    Joseph shook those stories from his head and turned his attention back to his professor.
    “This morning, we are continuing our experiment with atomic piles,” Heisenberg noted in a professorial voice. “This aluminum cylinder, which we are calling C-12, contains powdered uranium metal set in heavy water from Norway, which is acting as a moderator.”
    “The water appears to be quite hot,” a junior physicist piped up. Joseph couldn’t remember his colleague’s name, but he could see excitement in the man’s eyes. Joseph peered closer into the cylinder and discovered the man was right. Joseph’s heartbeat quickened at the thought that today could be the day his career had prepared him