Hoover grunted, then asked, "What's this got to do with Groves's bomb?
With Oak Ridge?"
"If we succeed in getting the metallurgist safely out, and see how much attention the Germans pay to his disappearance, we'll start bringing out the mathematicians and physicists we need... or whose services we don't want the Germans to have."
"And if they catch you bringing out the metallurgist, the Germans won't connect it with the Manhattan Project?" Hoover asked.
"Precisely," Donovan said.
"If we get to the point where we do bring nuclear people out, once they get to this country, they'll be your responsibility, protecting them at either Oak Ridge or White Sands. I thought perhaps, presuming we get the metallurgist out, you might want to use him as sort of a dry run yourself."
"You keep saying 'if' and 'presuming' you can get him out," Hoover said.
"There's some question in your mind that you will? Or do you believe the operation won't work?"
"We have high hopes, of course," Donovan said, and went on to explain that the OSS had set up a new escape route "pipeline," which ran through Hungary and Yugoslavia, for the sole purpose of getting the "special category" people out of Germany. The normal, in-place pipelines took people off the European continent through Holland and France to England.
Hoover displayed a deep curiosity in the details of the new pipeline, and Donovan explained the operation to him, wondering if the FBI Director's curiosity was professional or personal. Hoover, he knew, liked to think of himself as an agent rather than an administrator. Donovan suspected that Hoover was vicariously crossing the border from Germany into Hungary, and then walking out of Yugoslavia in the company of Yugoslavian partisans.
When the explanation was finally over, Hoover grunted, then looked at Captain Douglass.
"You don't seem to have much to say, Douglass," he said.
"I ask Pete to sit in on the more important meetings, Edgar, so I don't have to spend time repeating to him what was said."
"I was thinking along those lines myself," Hoover said.
"That it's going to take me some time to repeat all this to Tolson." Clyde Tolson was Deputy Director of the FBI, and Hoover's closest friend. They shared a house.
"If Clyde was cleared for the Manhattan Project," Donovan said, "I'd be the first to say bring him along."
"Clyde knows about the Manhattan Project," Hoover said.
"He's my Deputy."
Donovan was not surprised that Hoover had made Tolson privy to the secrets of the Manhattan Project, but he was surprised that Hoover had admitted it so openly to him. Tolson, like Vice President Wallace, was not on the shortlist of people authorized access to information concerning the atomic bomb.
"Then you should have brought him with you,
Edgar," Donovan said.
"Clyde's an old pal. He doesn't need a formal invitation to break bread with us."
Hoover, Donovan realized, had just put him on a spot. Should he run, as he was supposed to, to Roosevelt and tattle that the head of the FBI had taken it upon himself to breach security? If he did, would it turn out that Hoover had gotten permission from Roosevelt to tell Tolson? Which would make him look the fool. And if he didn't go, would Roosevelt find out, and be justifiably angry that he had known and said nothing?
He decided that this was one of those rare instances where it was necessary to be very open with Hoover.
"Edgar, does Roosevelt know you've decided it was necessary to brief Clyde?"
"No," Hoover said, and met his eyes.
"Are you going to tell him?"
"Certainly," Donovan said.
"I've been hearing rumors about Clyde. He's supposed to be about as pinko as Henry Wallace."
Hoover laughed, but his smile was strained.