Cloak and Dagger

C'est moi.

I thought you'd

never show up.

We're crowding call time.

Get the piano going. This will be

a short one. I'll put it in code.

Anything sensational?

No. Some are pitchblende.

Forty carloads.

Heading North? Yeah. For Germany.

Highball. He didn't even

get the chance to sign off.

Pitchblende from Czechoslovakia.

Pitchblende from Spain.

Two hundred and fifty carloads

out of Germany in the past 30 days.

And British intelligence says they've taken

the whole output of monazite from Norway.

Our trouble is we haven't enough

people who can analyze scientific data.

Pitchblende and monazite.

I'll be out of town till tomorrow. I've

got to talk to somebody who can analyze it.

Who's there?

An old fraternity brother.

Why, Clem.

How are you?

Don't know how I am. I've been

wandering through cellars...

and breaking down doors

trying to get to you.

- Are you hiding something from me?

- No.

But what are you hiding from me?

I thought you were in the army.

To put you in your place,

I'm a colonel.

Then why the civilian

clothes? I'm in O.S.S.

Never heard of it. That's fine. We're

not supposed to get any publicity.

It's the office of

strategic services.

Around Washington we're called

the Cloak-and-Dagger boys.

Sounds romantic.

Sure. Very.

We do a lot of things, Alvah.

Intelligence work. Morale stuff.

Operations behind

the enemy lines.

Why are you telling me

all this if it's so hush-hush?

How's work

in nuclear physics these days?

So-so. Don't close up on me.

Well, it's hush-hush too, Clem-

government work.

I know. You're working on

the Manhattan project.

That's why I'm here.

What does this

mean to you?

Pitchblende's for Uranium.

Monazite's for Thorium.

We're not working with Thorium anymore.

235 has a more convenient atomic structure.

Any chance the Germans have learned

something about Thorium we don't know?

The Germans?

I wouldn't think so. But... quantities

like these aren't for the laboratory.

They're for

large-scale operations.

Do you think they might be

working on an atomic bomb too?

We've all wondered.

They got the brains.

They know as much about

nuclear fission as we do.

Well, Alvah, they are

working on an atom bomb.

Mm-hmm. Clem,

this is the first time I was

ever sorry I'm a scientist.

Why?

Look,

in a few years, we'll be able to break

up the atomic structure of this apple.

When we do that,

it will become a bomb.

The energy in this one, little apple could

pulverize this university, this whole town,

its fine hospitals,

its libraries,

its wonderful medical schools, to

say nothing of all the people in it.

But...

we still wouldn't be able

to make one, little apple.

We're running ahead of ourselves.

Society isn't ready for atomic energy.

I'm scared stiff.

For the first time, thousands of allied

scientists are working together to make what?

A bomb! But who was willing to finance science

before the war to wipe out tuberculosis?

And when are we gonna be given a

Billion Dollars to wipe out cancer?

I tell you,

we could do it in one year.

But if anybody's going to develop

the Atom bomb, you want it to be us,

not the Nazis.

Not much choice in that.

Alvah, we need

more trained men on this.

We've got to know

how far the Germans have gone.

Where they're working.

How we can stop them.

Most of our agents

aren't equipped.

They don't know

what to look for.

They're missing clues, I know.

This is a race.

It's the Germans or us.

We've got to get more

scientists into our outfit.

How about what

I'm doing here?

I'm already authorized to take

you off. You know the problem.

You're single. You can speak a little

German. But you've got to volunteer.

There was a time when I thought I'd like

to become some sort of a secret agent.

I gave it up

at the age of eight.

Okay, brother,

you're now a spy.

I've got two plane tickets

back to Washington

Can I even have time

to wind things up here?

Ordinarily we'd give you a few weeks.

I want you to take a look at this.

Know her?

Dr. Katerin Lodor,

one of the great ones.

Used to be my scientific pinup girl

before Hungary sold out to the Nazis

I suppose now she's right in

the center of German atomic work.

She's in Switzerland.

Since when?

About six weeks.

She came over the alps... alone.

She's been in a hospital

in Zurich with pneumonia.

A few days ago she got in touch

with the American consulate.

Said she wanted to see

one of our scientists.

You don't know

how happy that makes me feel.

Say, if she's just out of Germany she can tell us

- this is a terrific break.

If you'd stop feeling so happy

about it and go home and pack a bag,

you could see her in

a couple of days. Okay.

I hope you find

your room satisfactory.

Danke schoen.

Very sorry, sir.

Quite all right.

Here you go.

Danke sehr.

Don't turn around.

The lady you want to see

is at the Angelo hospital.

Room 1-6-8. she's there under

the name of Mrs. Hickerty.

You may come in.

Not too long, please,

Mr. Wilson.

What is your real name,

Mr. Wilson?

Alvah Jesper.

I know your work.

Thank god you've come. You don't

know how indebted I am to you.

To me?

When people find out

what you've done,

they'll know you're not only a

great physicist, but a great woman.

Maybe. The story

isn't ended yet.

What will people think?

What will you think...

if I were to go back

to Germany? Go back?

Oh, but that isn't why you crossed

the alps or got in touch with us.

No. But you see,

I thought I'd be safe here.

I'm not. The Germans

have found me here.

Yesterday I got a letter

postmarked Zurich

I'm to go to Italy to work.

I've been collaborating

there with Polda.

Giovanni Polda?

Yes.

If I don't return,

beginning Sunday,

ten anti-nazi Hungarians are to be

taken out of concentration camps...

and shot each day.

Each day, they promise me

a letter with names.

With photographs

of the dead people.

So the Germans

are working on atomic weapons?

Italians too.

They are coordinated.

Then what would happen if you went back

and your work helped them to succeed?

What happens if I stay here?

I can't live day by day knowing that

innocent people are being shot because of me.

I'll go back.

I'll take poison.

I can't decide any other way.

Suppose you went back

to work with Dr. Polda?

But you met difficulties

in your work? Obstacles.

Understand?

Yes.

That's possible.

That's possible.

And if you felt strong enough for it,

you could help us, too, with information.

There are ways of

communicating? I think so.

I'll have to discuss it. Arrangements

will have to be made, and-

believe me, I would be

strong enough for that.

But you have to hurry. They've

given me only until Sunday

Before I go back,

we have to talk.

I'll need every bit

of information you have.

If you only knew how

the British set them back...

when they bombed that

heavy water plant in Norway

It meant a delay

of months for them.

But what if you

can't arrange this?

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