Erskine is a silo planner and medical-nano researcher who argued that an undetectable weapon would eventually threaten all humanity.
Anna Thurman identifies Erskine as one of the three principal planners with Victor and Paul Thurman, while saying his name is not his real one. A former hospital colleague of Victor, he says he developed tiny machines to protect and repair soldiers, then found hostile machines fighting them in a blood sample and eventually everywhere he looked. He initially favored countermeasures, but says finding nanos in his daughter's blood and hearing Victor's computer-virus analogy persuaded him to accept the silo plan.
Erskine worked a double shift with Anna on the lost silos despite the problem falling outside his expertise. He feared hackers might reprogram airborne nanos, visited his sleeping daughter, and wished he could justify waking her despite her accounting specialty being unneeded. He also worked with Dr. Sneed on a new formulation for Donald. As Donald lost consciousness, Erskine expressed the wish that someone like him could be in charge. Later messages concerned coordinating shifts and overflow from Deep Freeze; Donald wondered, without evidence, whether Erskine helped alter his identity. Donald now recalls Erskine's argument that someone would inevitably create a weapon capable of silently exterminating humanity.
Erskine is thin and wears glasses. He speaks with a British accent.
He is a principal silo planner associated with medical nanos, the rationale for the project, and work with Sneed on Donald's treatment.
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