The President is Missing

Carolyn is the White House chief of staff, and as such, she functions as a close confidante and advisor to President Duncan. At the novel’s conclusion, she is revealed to have been a traitor: After Nina reached out to her about the Dark Ages virus, Carolyn took the opportunity to concoct a scheme in hopes of removing Vice President Brandt from office and occupying the seat herself. Throughout the plot events, Carolyn hides her complicity with the Dark Ages plot and does not reveal that she knows the password that could stop the virus. She is also responsible for Nina’s death because she revealed Nina’s whereabouts to Suliman Cindoruk (leading him to send assassins to kill her). Carolyn is portrayed as duplicitous and driven by a fatal flaw of ruthless ambition. She is intelligent and highly competent, which is why Duncan initially feels so much trust. He eventually reflects with sadness that “she is the best chief of staff [he] could have ever dreamed of having” (474).

Carolyn is motivated by her ambition and her bitterness about how gendered expectations have impacted her political trajectory. Carolyn initially had a promising political future, “poised for the pinnacle of House leadership, if not higher office” (35). However, she was caught using an expletive to refer to her opponent and doubled down by remarking, “[I]f a man had said it, it wouldn’t be an issue” (35). This incident ensured that Carolyn no longer had a viable political future and became the core of her anger. When her betrayal comes to light, she reveals her anger to Duncan, referring to him as “the man who gets to be president […] the man who didn’t see his political career tanked just for saying a dirty word on a live mike” (474). Carolyn is a complex character because her assessment of gendered injustice in the world of American politics is accurate, but it doesn’t justify the terrible risks she took by concealing crucial information during a national crisis. At the end of the novel, Carolyn faces the consequences of her actions, as she is publicly put on trial for treason and ends up facing life in prison.

Vice President Brandt serves alongside President Duncan; when Duncan mysteriously disappears from the White House, she assumes some of his authority. Brandt is depicted as intelligent and competent, but she is also an ambiguous character. Brandt fulfills the role of a red herring in the plot since the narrative is structured to suggest that she may be the one who has leaked the code words. Duncan even implies this to trick Carolyn and prevent her from knowing that he suspects her.

While Brandt did not leak the code words, she does engage in a different form of duplicity: She meets with Speaker Rhodes while he is plotting to get Duncan impeached, and she entertains his proposal. However, as Duncan eventually explains in his speech to Congress, “[T]o her everlasting credit, the vice president refused to go along” (504). Brandt represents the middle ground between Duncan’s impeccable integrity and Carolyn’s treachery: She is tempted by the opportunity to secure greater power, but she ultimately chooses loyalty and her principles. Brandt is ultimately rewarded for her loyalty because Duncan refuses to accept her resignation, and she is allowed to remain in office and serve as a trusted ally to the president.

Augie is an important secondary character who fulfills the role of sidekick or helper to President Duncan; Duncan is accompanied by Augie for most of the time that he is outside of the White House, trying to resolve the threat of the cybersecurity attack. Augie also contributes significantly to the exposition of the plot because he provides knowledge about the aims of Suliman and the Sons of Jihad group. Augie is a young man in his twenties and a math genius; he was born in Ukraine but studied in Turkey, where he encountered Suliman. Augie initially liked working on the Dark Ages project because it was intellectually challenging, and he did not fully understand what the aims of the project were.

Augie is revealed to be sensitive and loyal; he loved Nina deeply and becomes very motivated to carry out her mission of stopping the virus. He also feels increasingly distraught and ashamed of the role he played in developing the virus: At one point, he tries to flee and tells Duncan, “I can’t be there when it…when it…” (331). Augie responds well to Duncan’s coaching to control his emotions and continue working; he ends up contributing significantly to efforts to dismantle the virus. At the end of the novel, it is implied that Augie may stay in the US and work with the government to advance cybersecurity. This choice reflects Augie’s growth as a character: He becomes more confident, self-assured, and able to see how he wants to contribute to the future.

Speaker Rhodes is the speaker of the House; he functions as an antagonist because there is significant enmity between him and President Duncan. When Duncan is under suspicion for reaching out to Suliman and preventing him from being killed, Rhodes is quick to accuse Duncan of treason and begin proceedings to have him impeached. He also refuses to cooperate when Duncan pleads with him to call off the impeachment efforts, leaving Duncan to conclude bitterly that “if this guy ever had an unselfish thought […] it would die of loneliness” (57).

Rhodes later reveals that he is even more sinister: He tries to collude with Vice President Brandt to ensure that Duncan is impeached and is willing to barter for his daughter to become a Supreme Court justice. Rhodes is never fully aware of the Dark Ages plot, but he creates additional tension in the plot by exploiting a moment of vulnerability. When Duncan is preoccupied with an external threat and should be able to rely on loyalty from his inner circle, he faces internal conspiracies and threats of a coup as well.

Suliman is the leader of the Sons of Jihad and the mastermind behind the Dark Ages plot. He functions as the antagonist who has created the threat that drives the central conflict of the plot. With funding from a splinter group of Saudi royals and the Russians, Suliman hires an elite team (including Nina and Augie) to design and plant the Dark Ages virus.

Suliman is intelligent, cunning, and successful at repeatedly evading attempts at capture. He is also aware of the risks he is taking and has a plan to take his own life if he is ever captured (so that he will evade torture and imprisonment). Suliman does not have a strong ideological basis for his actions; he enjoys the sense of power that comes from having the capacity to undermine the US, and he is greedy. As a villain, Suliman does not advance or grow as a character. He dies while attempting to escape from Russian and/or Saudi forces once he realizes that the virus has been dismantled. His death represents the elimination of a source of destruction and threat from the plot and allows for a happy ending to the novel.