Nora whistled all the way to Y-12, and even once she reached her office. She pulled out the scheduling manifest and went to work. If she focused, she could knock out the new schedule for next week in several hours. After that, she would walk through Beta-2 first, since Mary wouldn’t be there to distract her, and then Beta-4, the newest plant.

She had no idea how much time had passed when Jane came flying into her office without knocking.

“Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?” she joked.

“What are you still doing sitting there?”

“Where else would I be?”

Jane shook her head. “You’re either the coolest customer ever, or you’re living in a cave.”

Nora knew she must look as puzzled as she felt. “What in the world are you talking about?”

“Haven’t you heard?”

“Heard what?”

“Oh, my God. You are living in a cave. It’s all over the news and all over town!”

“What is?”

“We dropped an atomic bomb on Japan, on some city named Hiroshima! And the fuel for that bomb was made right here in Oak Ridge, by us! Apparently, that’s what I’ve been doing all this time—calculating percentages of enriched uranium. I had no idea!”

Nora sat back and tried to absorb that information. “We dropped a…”

“Uranium!” Jane shouted. “That’s what the Tubealloy is! It’s enriched uranium, and we made it right here. The president said so in an official statement. Put your head out the window.”

Nora went to the window. A sea of jubilant people crowded the streets.

“Come on, we have to go celebrate!” Jane tried to tug her along.

“I’ll be out in a minute. I’ve got to tie up a few things here.”

“Okay. See you out there!” She practically floated out the door.

Nora slumped in her chair. They’d done it. They’d actually done it. She’d been right. Their purpose had been to convert enough harmless U-238 into reactive U-235 to create a massive chain reaction—one big enough to wipe out an entire population. They’d brought Japan to its knees. Surely, the Japanese would have to surrender now. She and Mary were going to get their happily-ever-after.

Mary. She needed to get home to Mary. Nora jumped up. She had to tell her. Now she wouldn’t need to keep secrets anymore. They could talk about it openly. They could celebrate that the work they’d done likely had brought an end to the war. Now the Allied soldiers would be able to come home. She gathered her papers and stuffed them in her desk. Heck, she didn’t need to hide what she was doing from prying eyes anymore. Apparently, the whole world knew.