ATOMIC EXPRESS: The 1945 Plot To Destroy Amerika
April 1945. Two armed military policemen disguised as salesmen carry a briefcase from Knoxville to Chicago onboard the
Southland Express
passenger train. They guard the suitcase with their lives-inside is a crucial shipment of highly enriched uranium destined for atomic bombmakers at the Los Alamos lab. Although the Third Reich is doomed, fanatical and highly trained Nazi infiltrators seek to intercept the shipment and use the U-235 to detonate a dirty bomb over New York City-a spectacular gift to Herr Hitler on his 56th birthday. Soviet agents are ready to steal the enriched uranium for their own devious uses. Mobsters are interested in the shipment, as are a band of petty thieves who know the suitcase carries valuables. The invasion of Japan is planned for the Fall of 1945 and hundreds of thousands of casualties are expected. Unless the U.S. can use the atomic bomb to persuade the Japanese to surrender. The fate of the world depends on their success-and their success depends upon the delivery of bomb-grade uranium. But even the best-laid of plans can go awry onboard the Atomic Express, a novel by Mark Zimmerman, author of Mud, Blood & Cold Steel.