Free The Trinity Paradox by Doug Beason Kevin J Anderson

civilian mess, that’s up to you. But if you can’t eat at the dorm, I’d stick to the lodge.”
    Elizabeth straightened and surveyed her pile of paperwork, half as high as it had been when she entered the room. She wanted some time alone, so she could snoop around. “Tell you what,” she said, “if you’re right about my reassignment coming today, I won’t be able to finish this. Why don’t you just bring me back something and I’ll try to get done here.”
    “You’re a gift, Elizabeth. I really appreciate this.” Holly rummaged for her purse. “What should I bring you?”
    “Oh, a salad is fine. With ranch dressing on the side.”
    Holly stopped and stared, then a wry smile spread across her face. “A salad— what a riot! You’re starting to fit right in! What in the world is a ranch dressing? How about a cheeseburger or a hot dog? Depends what they have warmed up.”
    “Yum.”
    Holly didn’t notice Elizabeth’s lack of enthusiasm. “I’ll spell you when I get back. That way you can catch lunch and take the afternoon off after your papers arrive.”
    “Sure. Whatever.”
    As Holly left, Elizabeth blinked and thought to herself that she couldn’t even take the food here for granted. Cholesterol city—no low-fat, no high fiber, everything loaded with preservatives. No diet drinks—or else they’d probably be filled with saccharine—no caffeine-free drinks, and no mineral water for sure. She felt her stomach turning already.
    Once Holly left, Elizabeth moved to the back of the office and pulled out her list. She skimmed her cribbed notes:
     
    —Okay, WWII started around 1940, ended 1945 (?). Germany (Nazis); Italy (Fascists); and Japanese.
    —FDR is Pres, then Truman. FDR died in office. When? Truman dropped the bomb.
    —Manhattan Project set up the secret town of Los Alamos in New Mexico mountains (Jemez). Bunch of scientists gathered together to develop the bomb. Headed by Oppenheimer. Tested bomb near Alamogordo: “Trinity” site.
    —Built two bombs, Fat Man and Little Boy, to drop on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (Wish I could remember the dates!) One bomb used a gun method and one used implosion scheme. Plane carrying the bomb is Enola Gay. Left from somewhere in the South Pacific. Not sure if the Enola Gay was used for both bombs. Don’t know how long between Hiroshima and Nagasaki; a few weeks most between Trinity and Hiroshima.
    —Germans dabbled in their own bomb concept, but they screwed up something. Heisenberg goofed a calculation, wrote down a wrong cross-section (?). Can’t remember what it was.
     
    Elizabeth sent a thousand silent curses to her former high school history teachers. She had never been an expert in history, but her years at Berkeley had given her the basics of when the major scientific advances had occurred. The time working for United Atomics, although in the fusion reactor group, helped her get comfortable with the jargon; and the real education started with the protest work, the Livermore incident and her time in New Mexico with the Santa Fe activists.
    She felt a knot growing in her stomach, and not just at the thought of a greasy cheeseburger or a goat-meat hot dog. I’m letting this get to me! she thought. Relax, it’s only my mind. I couldn’t screw up if I tried. None of this is really happening.
    She would still have to return to the MCG site soon and look around. Maybe she had missed something there and could figure things out. She also had to find a place to bury Jeff, before the coyotes found him. She pushed that thought from her mind and tried to concentrate on her list. Jeff had always called her a pragmatist.
    / have to know more than this about World War II! But she didn’t. She knew a bunch of movies, but who could tell how accurate they were? The list served only to orient herself, anchor her mind so that whatever happened was consistent with what she remembered about history. If her mind was undergoing some sort of healing process, then this