Story so far
Paul Thurman, a Georgia senator and war veteran, recruited Donald Keene to adapt an architectural design into an underground facility, admitting that he had helped elect Donald for that purpose. He compartmentalized the work and pursued regular nano treatments. He warned Donald of weapons that could selectively kill people by ancestry, presenting those threats as claims supporting his contingency plan, and gave him The Order to study. At the convention he kept Donald near the Georgia stage and coordinated an evacuation after the blasts.
After the catastrophe, Thurman maintained that destroying the old world had saved it, claiming humanity was already infected with a potentially universal killing mechanism. According to Erskine, Thurman’s alternative to escaping Earth was to move humanity through time. He woke Donald when silos were being lost and brought him into the investigation involving Anna Thurman and Victor. Though he initially spoke of reluctance to gas Silo Eighteen, Thurman later admitted that its reset had begun when Donald was awakened. He manipulated its shadow’s anger during questioning and subsequently appeared outside in ordinary white coveralls without a protective suit.
Thurman was eventually stored in a pod labeled Troy while Donald occupied his position. When Donald woke him at gunpoint, Thurman acknowledged the plan to release one silo’s population and kill the others. He argued that releasing everyone would lead them to kill one another and that dangerous knowledge must die with those who possessed it. Donald shot him in the pod, apparently killing him, but Thurman later survived to identify himself to medical staff and accuse Donald, also known as Troy, of shooting him.
Frail and requiring support, Thurman repeatedly kicked the captured Donald. He told Donald that untreated exposure would kill him within days and that he could cure him, but intended instead to put him back under. He investigated missing drones, bombs, and the means by which Donald had assumed his identity, describing revolt within the leadership as the system’s greatest weakness. On a call to Lukas, he threatened the silo, recognized Sims’s impersonation of Bernard Holland, and ordered it shut down. Later he admitted trying unsuccessfully to kill Donald and reported sabotage of the gas feeds. Most recently, Thurman approaches the wounded Donald with two armed Security men.
Appearance
Thurman has white hair, a square jaw, and a once sturdy, military bearing. He has become frail and needs support; Charlotte most recently finds him slimmer and older. He has worn white coveralls.
Role
A leader and architect of the silo project, he defends controlled survival and suppresses challenges to its authority.
Relationships
Donald Keene — Once treated like a son, Donald became his impostor and armed opponent; Thurman survived the shooting and later beat and imprisoned him.
Anna Thurman — His daughter, whom he had awakened for her expertise in the silo crisis.
Victor — A collaborator whose death Thurman struggled to explain and whose position influenced his decision to reset Silo Eighteen.
Charlotte — He had been like a second father to her; she later accused him of destroying the old world and attacking her brother.
Lukas — He threatened Lukas’s silo and ordered its shutdown after detecting the attempt to impersonate Bernard.
Sources — 180 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 89
- 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 91
- 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 93
- 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 95
- 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 97
- 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 99
- 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 101
- 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 103
- Donald says the Senator wants him and Helen at the National Convention and is planning something big.
Chapter 105
- 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 107
- 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 109
- 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 111
- 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 112
- 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 117
- 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 118
- 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 119
- 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 120
- 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 125
- 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 126
- 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 127
- Thurman brings meals down to Donald.
Chapter 131
- 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 132
- Donald understands that Thurman and Victor planned for five hundred years underground but does not know what was to follow.
Chapter 133
- 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 134
- 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 138
- 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 139
- Thurman is nearing the end of almost a year awake across two full shifts.
Chapter 141
- Thurman comes outside in ordinary white coveralls without a protective suit.
- Thurman watches from a corner of the airlock as Donald is undressed.
Chapter 150
- Thurman’s name appears on the boots provided to Donald.
Chapter 151
- Donald does not know whether Thurman has been awake since Silo Seventeen’s loss.
Chapter 152
- Donald concludes that Thurman concealed Victor’s suicide note during Donald’s previous shift.
Chapter 156
- Donald imagines that Thurman would respond to the silo’s panic by shutting down facilities and ordering deaths.
Chapter 161
- Thurman and others concealed the outbreak to avoid causing panic.
- Thurman and Anna were awakened to terminate facilities cut off from Silo One.
Chapter 162
- Charlotte campaigned for Thurman during a furlough.
Chapter 166
- Donald recalls receiving a bag marked Shift containing Thurman’s personal effects.
Chapter 168
- Anna says her father made a pact under which they were never to be awakened.
- Donald holds Thurman responsible for destroying the world.
Chapter 173
- Donald recognizes Thurman’s signature on the Pact memo.
Chapter 178
- Donald believes Anna took her father out of power and entrusted Donald with his position.
Chapter 183
- Donald regards Thurman as having imposed on Anna the same brutality of waking that Anna imposed on him.
Chapter 185
- According to Donald, Thurman said showing silo residents death outside deters them from wanting to leave.
Chapter 188
- 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.
Chapter 210
- The wounded cryopod occupant identifies himself as Paul Thurman, formerly addressed as Senator.
- Thurman was sedated after waking and insisting that his name was not Troy.
- Thurman identifies Donald as the man who shot him.
- Thurman confirms that Donald and Troy are the same man.
- Thurman claims to be one of the Heads of the silo and demands release from his restraints.
- Thurman denies ever having been called Shepherd.
Chapter 219
- A frail white-haired man arrives supported by a younger man.
- The frail white-haired man orders the men beating Donald to stop before approaching him.
- The frail white-haired man repeatedly kicks Donald while a younger man supports him.
Chapter 223
- The man with white hair repeatedly kicked Charlotte’s brother during the attack she witnessed.
Chapter 224
- Thurman tells Donald that untreated exposure to the outside air will kill him within days.
- Thurman says he could cure Donald but chooses to put him back under instead.
- Thurman plans to put Donald under the following morning.
- Thurman reports missing drones and bombs.
- Thurman has awakened recently frozen personnel to investigate Donald’s activities.
- Thurman wants to learn how Donald assumed his identity so it cannot happen again.
- Thurman considers revolt from the leadership the greatest weakness of the system.
- Thurman claims cryopods and shifts solve succession by keeping power among the same few people.
Chapter 225
- The caller from Silo 1 claims to have devised the World Order.
- The caller initially asks for Bernard Holland as the head of the silo.
- The caller gives Lukas fifteen minutes to produce Bernard and threatens everyone in the silo.
- The caller recognizes that Sims is impersonating Bernard.
- The caller tells Lukas that Bernard is dead and demands to know how he died.
- The caller says his side has no feeds from Lukas’s silo.
- The caller claims to have a machine that detects Lukas’s lies.
- The caller apologizes and orders the silo shut down.
Chapter 230
- Thurman appears slimmer and older to Charlotte when she encounters him.
- Thurman lets Charlotte continue after she says she is checking a power drain.
- Thurman speaks with the guard after passing Charlotte.
Chapter 237
- Thurman suspects an accomplice disguised as a reactor technician came looking for Donald.
- Thurman initially rules out Donald as the attacker because Donald is not covered in blood.
- Thurman gives Donald a clean rag and takes away his bloodied one.
- Thurman admits he tried unsuccessfully to kill Donald.
- Thurman tells Donald that he will be put under that day.
- Thurman reports sabotage of the gas feeds between Medical and Population Control.
- Thurman says he rescued Donald after an alarm because intervening was an instinctive response.
Chapter 239
- Charlotte accuses Thurman of attacking Donald and destroying both the old world and Juliette’s people.
Chapter 244
- Darcy recalls supporting Thurman while Thurman kicked his impostor.
Chapter 245
- Donald says Thurman told him that other people had previously tried to help a silo.
- Donald says Thurman implied that more silos were added to the original plan for redundancy.
- Donald recalls Thurman saying that the shutdown of Silo Eighteen corrected someone’s interference.
Chapter 249
- According to Donald, Thurman told him he had only a day or two left to live.
Chapter 254
- Thurman approaches the wounded Donald with two armed Security men.