Page 63 of The Women of Oak Ridge
“Let me guess. You’ve never heard of uranium. Don’t they teach you anything useful in those backwoods schools in Kentucky?” Disdain practically dripped from every word. “Uranium is a heavy metal. It’s found in rocks. Here in Oak Ridge, we’re working to enrich enough uranium to fuel a bomb. A big bomb. After the uranium is ready, it’s shipped to a secret location in New Mexico where the actual bomb is being built. Y-12, K-25, and the X-10 reactor all have the same purpose, just different methods to accomplish it. S-50 is the newest cog in the wheel. General Groves and the other top dogs hope it will speed up the enrichment process, because beating Hitler to the bomb is imperative. Unfortunately that hasn’t been the case. The plant is using more energy than expected, not to mention a plethora of problems that came with its hasty construction.”
My mind reeled even as I fought to keep a straight face.
Uranium? Bombs? Another secret location? Was he telling the truth, or was this some elaborate story he’d concocted to make himself sound important, like his lie about his ancestors arriving on the Mayflower? Sissy had written in her diary multiple times about Clive’s vast intelligence, which to me meant the fellow had done his best to impress her. I, on the other hand, wasn’t impressed by him at all.
I was about to declare his ramblings bogus when we broke free of the trees. The wide Clinch River ran along the road to our left, but on our right stood a dozen or more buildings clusteredtogether. While the site wasn’t as sprawling as K-25, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
There was another plant on the Reservation? A plant I’d never heard of?
I stared in dumbfounded silence.
The tallest structure was topped with three towering smokestacks where puffs of white escaped into the late afternoon sky. A smaller building with no windows had a long, elevated conveyor running from railroad cars, their cargo being off-loaded by a crew of workers, to the top of the building. A different conveyor carried the mysterious load to the structure with the smokestacks. More buildings of various sizes were arranged in neat order.
Clive slowed the car. “Behold, I give you S-50. Believe it or not, the whole thing was built in sixty-nine days.”
I practically pressed my face to the window. As my eyes traveled over the site, I couldn’t imagine how I hadn’t known this place existed. I’d never heard anyone talk about it nor had I seen any buses with a destination sign for S-50. But, I reasoned, I hadn’t been looking for them either. Watching a railroad crew off-load something from a string of railcars, I wondered how many people worked at this plant. With its location so far from town, I guessed most of the employees lived in Happy Valley.
It occurred to me Sissy surely must have been aware of S-50 but hadn’t said anything to me about it. I held no doubts that Clive had revealed these same secrets to her. The slogan on one of the newest billboards in town flit through my mind as I gazed out the window.Hold your tongue. The job’s not done.Sissy may have adhered to the warning, but Clive certainly hadn’t.
A new wave of fear rolled through me. “Why are you telling me all of this?” I turned and faced him. “I’m not supposed to be here or have knowledge about these things. I could lose my job if someone found out.”
He continued to look straight ahead. “Insurance, plain and simple. The more you know, the less you’ll say.”
Is this what had frightened Sissy? Knowing too much? Maybe she had gone back to Georgia because of it.
We sped past the buildings and followed the river around a bend. Twelve or more enormous storage tanks appeared, but Clive didn’t comment on their purpose as we went by. The dirt road eventually came to an end. Piles of unused building materials sat here and there.
Clive stopped the car and shut off the engine. We sat in the stillness, not moving, not speaking. The scenery was beautiful, with the Clinch River meandering along, surrounded by woods ready for a long winter’s slumber. Clive’s presence, however, spoiled the tranquility. I had no desire to remain here a moment longer than necessary. The sun was on its westerly descent, and I wanted to be safely back at K-25 long before it dipped behind the hills. His security clearance obviously gave him permission to be here, but if someone found us, I could be in serious trouble.
With unhurried movements, Clive removed his glasses, then took a small cloth from his jacket pocket and wiped the round circles of glass. After he returned them to the bridge of his nose, he faced me. “I want it back.” His words were measured but firm.
There was no reason to pretend I didn’t understand what he meant. “No.”
The muscle in his jaw ticked. “You don’t know what you’re dealing with, Mae. For your own safety, give me the badge.”
I shook my head and stubbornly crossed my arms. “Where is Sissy? Why do you have her ID? You answer those questions and I’ll consider giving you what you want.”
I wasn’t sure where this bravado came from, but I wasn’t leaving until I knew why Sissy left Oak Ridge so suddenly.
“I told you, she went home after I informed her I didn’t want tosee her anymore. She was upset and embarrassed. She said everyone assumed I was going to propose, which was the furthest thing from the truth.” He gave a nonchalant shrug. “I guess she didn’t want to face you and the others, so she got on the first bus to Georgia.”
I didn’t believe him. “She wouldn’t have gone home without saying goodbye. She didn’t take any of her belongings. Even if she planned to leave Oak Ridge, she wouldn’t have just vanished.”
“You can believe what you want, but the facts say otherwise.”
“The facts? The facts don’t make any sense. I think you threatened her. I think she discovered you’re a spy and you forced her to leave.”
There. I’d said it out loud. What would he do now?
We stared at each other, neither willing to look away. I wouldn’t let him intimidate me another moment. He was the one doing wrong, not me. If he truly was a spy, he was a traitor to the United States of America. A traitor to his fellow soldiers.
In an instant, his demeanor changed.
His eyes narrowed on me, and his breathing grew hard. “You’re a little fool, you know it? You’ve messed with the wrong person, Mae. Would you like me to tell you what happened to Sissy?”
A tremor raced through my body, but I nodded. “Where is she?”
He glanced out the window. “This was our favorite place to come. We’d neck, right here in this car.”
