Forty seconds after the detonation, the shock wave reached the scientists in the control station. The sound of the blast followed shortly after. It had the quality of distant thunder, reverberating off the nearby hills for several seconds, giving the impression of a rolling thunderstorm. The sound was heard up to a hundred miles away; the light from the explosion was seen from almost twice as far.

The blast instantly vaporized the steel tower that held the bomb, leaving a crater nearly half a mile wide in its place. An iron pipe set in concrete, four inches in diameter, sixteen feet tall, and fifteen hundred feet away from the detonation, was also vaporized. In the control station, there was silence. In place of the worry that had led up to the event, every person who had seen it now felt awe. And uncertainty.

As if coming out of a trance, the team members looked around, unsure what to do. Some shook hands, congratulating each other. A few people laughed. Several cried. All believed that in the New Mexico desert that morning, the world had changed forever.

The first atomic bomb had been detonated. They hoped it would be the last.

Back at Los Alamos, a team member raised a glass. “To the dawn of the Atomic Age.”

Many had feared the test would be a dud. The feeling most of them now felt was relief; for a few it was fear.

Robert spoke for the first time since the Trinity test. “Yes, a new age indeed. We have given the human race something it has never possessed before: the means with which to destroy itself.”

When no one responded, he added, “How long will it be before a madman acquires our device and uses it? Five years? Ten? A hundred? I wonder which will be the last generation of humans? Our children, perhaps our grandchildren?”

When the group broke, Robert’s supervisor followed him back to his office and closed the door behind him. Robert had come to respect and trust the older man, and so the words he said gave him great pause.

“Did you mean what you said?”

“Every word. We’ve opened Pandora’s box.”

His supervisor studied him a moment. “Be careful what you say, Robert. Some people here aren’t what they seem.”

Less than a month later, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Three days later, a second bomb fell on Nagasaki.

Death toll estimates ranged from 129,000 to 246,000.

The depression Robert had fought his entire life finally overwhelmed him. When he stopped coming to work, his supervisor visited him at his home.

“Did you know?” Robert asked.

“Not the specifics. Only that the bombs would be used to end the war.”

“We killed those people.”

“The war would have dragged on for years.”