Story so far
A Georgia senator, former soldier, and longtime figure in Donald’s life, Paul Thurman recruits Donald to adapt a college architectural design into an underground structure. He promises engineering help and an unrestricted budget while insisting that project knowledge remain compartmentalized. Regular nano treatments accompany his interest in longevity. He warns of invisible weapons and claims humanity faces a threat already capable of killing everyone, presenting the project as a contingency. He gives Donald The Order to memorize and arranges for him to attend the convention.
Thurman changes Donald’s assignment to keep him near the Georgia stage, introduces the anthem, and coordinates evacuation after the blasts. In the silo era he defends the destruction of the old world as its salvation. He wakes Donald for help during the silo crisis and prevents attendants from giving him memory-suppressing pills. Anna Thurman credits him with excavating the silos under the public explanation of a nuclear containment facility. According to Erskine, Thurman’s proposed escape through space proved too expensive, so preservation across time became the alternative.
Thurman helps bring Anna into the crisis response, wrestles with Victor’s death, and permits Donald to see Charlotte while refusing to wake her. He admits that a reset of Silo Eighteen began when Donald was awakened and uses questioning to redirect Rodny’s anger toward sacrifice and the greater good. Later, he appears outside in ordinary white coveralls during Donald’s recovery from the surface. Donald subsequently finds evidence of Thurman’s signature on the founders’ pact and believes Anna displaced him from power.
Stored in the cryopod labeled Troy, Thurman is awakened by Donald, to whom he had been like a second father. He acknowledges the plan to release one silo and kill the people in the others. He argues that releasing everyone would lead to mutual slaughter and that dangerous knowledge must die with those who possess it, though he concedes humanity could eventually rediscover the means of destroying itself. The confrontation ends with Donald shooting him in the pod; Thurman dies.
Appearance
A trim, fit older man with stark white hair, a square jaw, a sturdy frame, and military bearing. In Silo One he wears white coveralls.
Role
Thurman was a central organizer of the silo project and defender of its selective-survival plan. He is now dead after Donald’s confrontation.
Relationships
Anna Thurman — Anna Thurman is Thurman’s daughter; he wakes her for her expertise, while Donald later believes she removed her father from power.
Charlotte — Charlotte campaigned for Thurman; he had been like a second father to her but refused Donald’s request to wake her.
Victor — Thurman mourned Victor and attributed the decision to reset Silo Eighteen to Victor’s having won their dispute.
Erskine — Erskine describes Thurman’s progression from seeking escape through space to seeking it through time.
Sources — 137 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 2
- Paul Thurman is a senator from Georgia.
- Thurman is a trim, fit older man with white hair and a military bearing.
- Thurman fought in a war as a young man and later tried to prevent another war.
- Thurman advises denying truths and lies equally so public confusion will conceal the truth.
- Thurman denies that visiting aliens are real.
- Thurman argues that interstellar travel will never happen.
- Thurman says his energy bill has already created forty thousand jobs in Georgia.
- Thurman wants Donald to adapt his architectural design into an underground building.
- Thurman promises Donald engineering help and an unrestricted budget for the design.
- Thurman says he supported Donald’s election so Donald could carry out this project.
Chapter 4
- Anna credits Senator Thurman with securing Donald’s election.
- Anna says her father takes nano treatments regularly after starting them for his knees.
- Anna says the military covered her father’s nano treatments for a time.
Chapter 6
- Donald credits Thurman’s campaigning with helping both him and Mick reach their positions.
- Thurman instructs Donald and Mick to meet him Monday morning about their first trip to the job site.
- Thurman says Donald and Mick will work closely together.
- Thurman insists that project members keep their work details compartmentalized.
Chapter 8
- Thurman selects an old French book as a binding sample for another project.
- Thurman offers to speak to Charlotte about getting help for battle fatigue.
- Thurman asks Donald and Mick to inspect the excavation in Atlanta.
- Thurman wants Donald to report on construction staging problems.
- Thurman says he served with Charles Rhodes.
- Thurman is working to move Donald and Mick into higher leadership roles on the project.
Chapter 10
- Rhodes says Thurman acquired the nickname Thawman through the anti-cryo bill he wrote.
- Rhodes says Thurman invested a fortune in a cryo company before reconsidering the ethics of cryonics.
- Rhodes says Thurman’s financial losses helped protect his political reputation.
Chapter 12
- Donald says the Senator is in Boston for a nano treatment.
- Donald believes the Senator spends about a week confined during each treatment while continuing to work.
Chapter 14
- Senator Thurman is undergoing nanobiotic treatment at RYT Hospital.
- Thurman values the treatment’s enforced quiet because it gives him time to think.
- Thurman says Donald’s grandfather taught him to play golf.
- Thurman tells Donald that he and his sister have always felt like family to him.
- Thurman wants Donald fully involved in the project.
- Thurman claims the first invasion of Iran concerned a threat greater than nuclear weapons.
- Thurman claims Iran stole the technology Israel was developing.
- Thurman claims Iran is developing invisible weapons that could kill people identified as having Jewish ancestry.
- Thurman claims the absence of recovered nanobiotic weapons in Iran is explained by remote self-destruction.
- Thurman believes an attack is coming and wants Donald and Helen included in his contingency plan.
- Thurman gives Donald The Order to study.
- Thurman gives Donald a couple of years to memorize The Order as closely as possible.
- Thurman asks Donald to attend the National Convention with Helen.
- Thurman says some of the nanos in the chamber are intended for Donald, then laughs.
Chapter 16
- Donald says the Senator wants him and Helen at the National Convention and is planning something big.
Chapter 18
- Anna says her father entered politics after leaving the army and losing money in failed ventures.
- Anna describes the construction project as her father’s legacy.
- Anna says her father takes nano baths and stem-cell vitamins because he believes he can live forever.
- Anna says her father bought a large amount of stock in a cryonics company years earlier.
Chapter 20
- According to Donald, Thurman refused him a tour of the other facilities on national-security grounds.
- Thurman led dignitaries through the complex after Donald cut the ribbon.
Chapter 22
- Thurman has chosen not to run for president this year.
- Thurman says his ambitions extend beyond the presidency.
- Thurman changes Donald’s assignment so that Mick will cover the Tennessee tent.
- Thurman wants Donald and Helen near the Georgia stage with him.
- Thurman tells Donald that a surprise female visitor is expected shortly.
- Thurman wants Donald nearby during the flyover following the national anthem.
Chapter 24
- Thurman introduces the anthem at the Georgia stage.
- Thurman invokes Ronald Reagan while asking whether any price is too high to preserve liberty.
- Thurman coordinates the evacuation beside a smaller tent after the blasts.
Chapter 25
- The Thaw Man has stark white hair, white coveralls, a square jaw and a sturdy frame.
- The Thaw Man tells Troy that the crisis has only begun.
Chapter 30
- Donald recognizes the white-haired man as the Thaw Man, and the man corrects the name to Thurman.
- Donald remembers that Thurman was once a senator.
- Thurman prevents the orderlies from giving Donald pills.
- Thurman says they need Donald to remember everything.
- Thurman leaves a report for Donald to study when his mind clears.
- Thurman tells Donald that someone wants to see him.
Chapter 31
- Thurman maintains that destroying the old world saved it.
- Thurman says he killed many men during the war.
- Thurman says killing became harder for him over time.
- Thurman says killing Hannigan saved other soldiers.
- Thurman claims humanity was already infected with a threat that could be triggered to kill everyone.
- Thurman says he woke Donald at someone else’s request because silos are being lost.
- Thurman says Donald can be put back to sleep after answering questions.
- Thurman doubts that Donald’s report contains an answer, but warns that thousands may die without his help.
- Thurman reveals that a woman requested Donald’s awakening and plans to take him to her in the morning.
Chapter 32
- Anna says Thurman argued for awakening her because of her expertise in wireless networks.
- Anna says Thurman initially vetoed Victor’s request to awaken Donald.
- Anna says Thurman was responsible for excavating the silos.
- Anna credits Thurman with proposing a nuclear containment facility as the public explanation for the construction.
- Anna says Thurman calls Victor his boss.
Chapter 33
- Anna fears Thurman will terminate Silo Eighteen to avoid dealing with its problems.
- Anna says Thurman is now the only person with access to her level.
- Anna says Thurman blames himself for Victor’s death.
- Anna says Thurman still doubts that Victor’s death has anything to do with Donald or his report.
Chapter 38
- Thurman says goodbye to Victor by touching his cheek with fingers he has kissed.
- Thurman allows Erskine to stay with Donald after Anna leaves.
Chapter 39
- Donald reports that Thurman repeatedly claims humanity was already doomed.
- Thurman made the decision to wake Anna.
- According to Erskine, Thurman initially saw hostile nanos as an invisible overseas war that should be taken to the enemy.
- According to Erskine, Thurman wanted humanity to start over away from Earth, but space travel was too expensive.
- Erskine confirms that Thurman’s alternative was to travel through time rather than space.
Chapter 40
- Thurman brings meals down to Donald.
Chapter 44
- Thurman convinced Erskine and Victor that Anna could help with the silo crisis.
- Thurman searches for a purposeful or conspiratorial explanation for Victor’s suicide.
Chapter 45
- Donald understands that Thurman and Victor planned for five hundred years underground but does not know what was to follow.
Chapter 46
- Thurman permits Donald to see Charlotte but refuses to wake her.
- Thurman already knows where Charlotte is stored.
- Thurman says a last-minute switch allowed Donald to enter without testing because Thurman vouched for him.
- Thurman suspects Victor’s interest in Donald’s report was actually an interest in Donald himself.
Chapter 47
- Thurman says Victor wanted another reset of Silo Eighteen.
- Thurman explains that screens and taboos keep people inside the silos.
- Thurman says he has become less willing to gas Silo Eighteen since Victor’s death.
- Thurman speculates that Victor may have killed himself to win their argument by having the last word.
- Thurman says Victor’s death finally motivated him to wake Donald.
- Thurman regards evidence of surviving memories in Silo Eighteen as further reason to terminate it.
Chapter 51
- Thurman admits that the reset began when Donald was woken.
- Thurman says the head of eighteen recruited new people and deliberately sowed discord.
- Thurman says he started the reset because Vic won.
- Thurman reports bombs, violence, and fighting between groups identified by different colors.
- Thurman orders the operator to activate sensors in the shadow’s headset during questioning.
- Thurman draws out the shadow’s childhood anger and sense of not belonging.
- Thurman redirects the shadow’s anger through arguments about sacrifice and the greater good.
- Thurman predicts that Rodny will become a fine silo head, better than the last.
Chapter 52
- Thurman is nearing the end of almost a year awake across two full shifts.
Chapter 54
- Thurman comes outside in ordinary white coveralls without a protective suit.
- Thurman watches from a corner of the airlock as Donald is undressed.
Chapter 63
- Thurman’s name appears on the boots provided to Donald.
Chapter 64
- Donald does not know whether Thurman has been awake since Silo Seventeen’s loss.
Chapter 65
- Donald concludes that Thurman concealed Victor’s suicide note during Donald’s previous shift.
Chapter 69
- Donald imagines that Thurman would respond to the silo’s panic by shutting down facilities and ordering deaths.
Chapter 74
- Thurman and others concealed the outbreak to avoid causing panic.
- Thurman and Anna were awakened to terminate facilities cut off from Silo One.
Chapter 75
- Charlotte campaigned for Thurman during a furlough.
Chapter 79
- Donald recalls receiving a bag marked Shift containing Thurman’s personal effects.
Chapter 81
- Anna says her father made a pact under which they were never to be awakened.
- Donald holds Thurman responsible for destroying the world.
Chapter 86
- Donald recognizes Thurman’s signature on the Pact memo.
Chapter 91
- Donald believes Anna took her father out of power and entrusted Donald with his position.
Chapter 96
- Donald regards Thurman as having imposed on Anna the same brutality of waking that Anna imposed on him.
Chapter 98
- According to Donald, Thurman said showing silo residents death outside deters them from wanting to leave.
Chapter 101
- Thurman has been stored in the cryopod labeled Troy.
- Thurman had been like a second father to Donald and Charlotte.
- Thurman acknowledges the plan to release one silo and kill the inhabitants of the others.
- Thurman believes that releasing all the silo populations would lead them to kill one another.
- Thurman says knowledge capable of destroying humanity must die with the people who still possess it.
- Thurman concedes that humanity could eventually rediscover the means of destroying itself.
- Thurman dies after Donald shoots him in the cryopod.