Her smile stretched wider, but then a shadow darkened her pretty eyes. “Would you—would you pray for me tomorrow?”
All day he would. While building ships all day, he would.
He gave her a brusque nod, then a little smile to erase the brusqueness. “Yes.”
14
TUESDAY, MAY11, 1943
The clock in Mrs. Iversen’s office ticked in time with Else’s heart. It was almost four thirty, almost time to leave, and she still hadn’t spoken to Mortensen.
Twice, she and Mrs. Iversen had approached him. Twice, he’d been deep in discussion with Jørgen Wolff. Twice, Mortensen had shooed them away.
Else’s fingers tapped together in a frenetic rhythm. She’d told Laila and Hemming today was the day. She couldn’t go home in failure. “One more try?”
Mrs. Iversen shook her shoulders straight, making the rest of her jiggle. “This time the snake will not escape our grasp.”
Else worked up a smile for the older woman. Their allegiance not only provided support but added moral heft to their arguments.
She grasped the doorknob, and a quiver ruffled her throat. Every time she’d confronted someone, she’d lost something dear. If she confronted Mortensen, she could lose her position at the institute. But she could also lose her position if her career slowly withered due to silence.
Else opened the door. At the far end of the laboratory, Mortensen and Wolff sat before a blackboard covered with tempting equations and diagrams.
The first time Else had come to confront Mortensen, he’d been asking Wolff about methods to separate isotopes of large atoms. He hadn’t mentioned uranium, but he didn’t have to. If the unstable U-235 isotope could be separated out of uranium ore, the applications for energy would be enormous. And for weaponry.
Wolff had adamantly shut down that line of discussion.
And Else couldn’t let even physics distract her now.
As she marched, she dug her hand into her lab coat pocket and wrapped her fingers around the warm wood of the little dog from Hemming. His promise to pray infused more strength into her.
About six feet from the physicists, Else stopped, and Mrs. Iversen drew up beside her. Wolff smiled at them, but Mortensen kept talking.
Time to yelp. Else was done being nice to Mortensen. She’d continue to be kind, but not nice. For too long she’d confused the two.
She cleared her throat.
Mortensen cut his gaze her way. “What is it now, Jensen?”
Else raised a benign smile. “Mrs. Iversen and I have asked to speak with you in private twice today. You promised we could do so by the end of the day. It’s the end of the day.”
Mortensen ran one hand through the sandy waves of his hair. “What do you want me to do, Jensen? Dismiss Wolff? Or abandon him while I attend to you?”
He meant for her to say no to both options, to admit her request was rude, to back away. Else kept her voice steady. “I want to speak to you, and so does Mrs. Iversen.”
“Today,” the secretary said. “And I go home in ten minutes.”
Wolff turned his chair to face the women, scraping wooden legs on the wooden floor. “Pardon me, ladies. But is this something you don’t wish me to hear?”
Else studied the challenging look on the senior physicist’s face. She’d wanted to speak with Mortensen in private so she wouldn’t humiliate him as he’d humiliated her. But if he refused the privacy she offered...
“No,” she said. “I don’t mind if you hear.”
“Proceed.” One corner of Wolff’s mouth flicked up.
Mortensen groaned. “Be quick.”
Else met his gaze, determined to confront with strength and compassion, the same way Hemming had confronted her.
