Zero Day

Drake police sergeant Sam Cole is described as a small, attractive woman with dirty-blonde hair and a cynical look. Despite her coloring, the height of her cheekbones suggests some Native American ancestry. Initially, Puller has some doubts about her competence, but every time he questions her professionalism, she demonstrates that she is more than up to the job. Her diminutive size contrasts with her forceful personality.

Her main character trait is her dedication and determination not to turn her back on the people who need her. She stays in Drake despite all its shortcomings because these are her people and she won’t abandon them. She stays with Puller while he disarms the bomb because she won’t turn her back on him, either. If she had fled when he told her to, she might have been far enough away from the explosion to survive. She died for her loyalty to him.

Randy adds an element of chaos and change into the story. Young, hurt, and angry, he pushes his sisters to see how they are complicit in what is happening in Drake. Jean is married to the prime polluter, and Cole sees what is happening to her community and does nothing to change it, although what she could do is unclear. His headaches, caused by a brain tumor, embody the environmental degradation caused by Trent Exploration as well as the irresponsibility of the Army in leaving radioactive materials in the Bunker. His chaotic nature supplies the final piece to the puzzle when he tells Puller he was exploring the dome, found something that was meant to remain hidden, and told the wrong person about it.

Cole’s older sister, diminutive and beautiful, is the oldest of the three siblings. She married Roger Trent before he made his money, but the money seems no great consolation for having to live with a man who has no apparent redeeming qualities. It is never clear what moved her to marry him in the first place. She remains married to him, perhaps for the money, perhaps for her children, but on some level, she seems to be envious of Cole’s acquaintance with Puller. She sees her sister with the possibility of a relationship with a worthy man.

Jean’s B&B is her rebellion against an unsatisfactory life. She built it herself without her husband’s money and proves herself a more competent business owner then he could ever be. With the B&B, she will be fine even if her husband’s business collapses. Jean has money, a husband, and children, but she is as lonely as her sister. At least Cole has her role as a guardian of her community to fall back on. With Cole gone and Randy sick, Jean will have to take over the guardian role for her family. If she follows Puller’s advice, she will take Randy with her and her children and follow her dream to Italy.

Grandiose and self-involved, Roger Trent, the owner of Trent Exploration, loves to see himself as both an underdog and a genius. He has an exaggerated idea of his own prowess, bragging that he, unlike Puller, has what it takes to be a great businessman. In his eyes, Puller is only a soldier who doesn’t understand what “real” war is. In actuality, his business is failing; he is being used by the real mastermind—the business partner he was foolish enough to trust. There’s no indication what appealing quality might have induced Jean Cole to marry him before he could even offer the temptation of money. If he ever had any good qualities, they are long since gone.

Strauss, the chief operating officer of Trent Exploration, allows the grandiose Roger to play the figurehead while he, Strauss, makes the real decisions and siphons money from the company. He has a limited ability to express emotion, even for his son, whom he sees as defective because of his sexual orientation. He seems able to mimic superficial feelings for his wife and son, but those expressions aren’t convincing, and his actions belie his words. Strauss represents the furthest extreme of what Puller fears he is becoming—a machine, unable to experience emotion or attachment to another person.

Bill Strauss’s son Dickie is big, bulky, and bald. He was discharged from the Army for his sexual orientation under the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. He is a disappointment to his father, who feels that Dickie’s orientation reflects badly on himself. Whereas a cold, hypercritical father drove Puller to greater effort to succeed, Dickie may have had no hope of ever pleasing his father, so he fell into bad habits and bad company. Puller offers Dickie what his father never did—a chance to prove both his father and the Army wrong. He never gets to experience the satisfaction of having proved himself. His father’s association with Mason ends with Dickie’s murder, and his father doesn’t even grieve.

Joe Mason works for the Department of Homeland Security. His introduction near the middle of the story throws him in a suspicious light. Normally, in a mystery, all the characters and potential suspects are introduced early in the story. Like Strauss, he inserts himself into the investigation, repeatedly introducing false leads in an effort to derail it. Not until it is almost too late does Puller realize that Mason and Strauss conspired to steal the nuclear materials in the dome. Mason’s motive is greed. He sees the 6,000 people of Drake as a number, and a very small number in the grand scheme. It is bad enough when the government is prepared to risk 6,000 people to protect hundreds of thousands, but Mason is doing it for money, which makes it nothing more than mass murder.

Tall, trim, blonde, and taciturn, General Julie Carson let ambition lead her astray; she held back information that got Colonel Reynolds killed. The information was tenuous, and she would have reported the situation up the line when she had something more concrete, but she can’t deny that a large part of her motivation was ambition. Breaking the conspiracy and presenting her superiors with a fait accompli would advance her career and maybe get her a second star, but if Reynolds’s suspicions had been more widely known, the conspirators might have been wary of attracting more attention by killing him. Under the circumstances, discovery now would probably ruin Carson’s career. Finally facing up to her mistake, Carson is prepared to accept the consequences.

Unlike General Puller Sr., Carson feels remorse and takes personal responsibility for her actions. Puller judges that if Reynolds hadn’t been killed, Carson’s mistake would have been so minor that it wouldn’t have mattered. Because she takes responsibility for her error, he deems her worthy of a second chance. They will continue to be friends throughout the second and third books of the series.

John Puller Sr.’s life has collapsed around him. He had to retire without receiving either the fourth star or the medal of honor he hoped for. He is gradually losing himself to dementia, and because of his own failings, he can’t reach out to his sons for comfort. He refuses to acknowledge his older son at all, and he can relate to Puller only as a subordinate officer. When he feels helpless and confused in the VA hospital, he begs Puller, whom he believes to be his executive officer, to come and help him get his soldiers into line. When bored and lonely, he begs “gunnery officer” Puller to join him someplace exotic and exciting.

Puller Sr. was a legend on the battlefield—feared and adored by his men, any of whom would lay down their lives for him. In private, he has a great deal in common with Roger Trent. They both crave external validation—the general through medals and decorations, Trent through making people jealous of his success. They both see themselves as victims. Puller Sr. blames his disappointments on other people who he believes are conspiring against him. Trent basks in the hatred of people he sees as his inferiors; he pictures himself as an underdog, misunderstood and unfairly vilified. The similarity is why Puller dislikes Trent so much. The man reminds Puller of the father he can’t allow himself to hate.