Characters
Both protagonists carry symmetrical buried complicity before war is even declared. Neither can position himself as simply a victim of events. The war happens partly because two serious, capable, privately doubtful men each chose, at a critical moment, not to act. That symmetry is the foundation of everything that follows.
Thomas Aldrich Howe
Archetype & Model
The Smedley Butler type — the naive patriot whose scales fall from his eyes. Named with deliberate resonance: there were Howes on both sides of the Revolutionary War. The real Butler was one of the most decorated Marines in American history, who became one of the most savage critics of American militarism (War is a Racket, 1935) and was the target of the Business Plot (1933–34) — approached to lead a fascist coup against Roosevelt, which he reported to Congress.
Profile
- Senior Marine Colonel or General — decorated, celebrated, a true believer at the outset
- East Coast family with faint British connections or sympathies he suppresses as the war radicalises around him
- Genuinely angry about the Caribbean incident — his initial outrage is authentic, not manufactured
- Commands the early Caribbean operation; feted and decorated in Washington
Dramatic Arc
- Discovers the Caribbean incident that triggered the war was not what he was told
- Sees corporate interests profiting while his men die
- Encounters British subversion and realises with horror it works — because the grievances are real
- Understands the war serves specific powerful interests on both sides, not American honour
- Is approached (the Butler moment) to lead something that would end American democracy. His refusal — and what it costs him — closes Book One.
Buried Complicity
Had information early in the spiral that might have slowed things down. Didn't act — because he assumed his superiors knew, because institutional momentum made dissent feel futile, or because part of him wanted this war. The British arrogance in the Caribbean made him angry in a way that felt righteous. That small buried complicity — the war happened partly because Howe didn't stop it — is the wound that drives his entire arc.
- First complicity (Hinge 2): Briefed on the Caribbean incident including the German intelligence document. Does not question its provenance. Begins operational planning.
- Second complicity (Hinge 3): Has intelligence suggesting British naval movements. Passes it up the chain without caveat.
The Chemical Weapons Wound
Present at planning. Raises an objection — overruled. Does not press it. Walks through the aftermath in a Canadian town. Cannot reconcile what he sees with what he believes about America. Consider having him first encounter the aftermath through Tarrant's propaganda — photographs in a neutral country's newspaper — and only then going to see for himself. The double perspective deepens the wound. He cannot unsee either version.
Tarrant
Models
William Stephenson ("Intrepid") — ran British Security Coordination out of Rockefeller Center in WWII, working to bring America in. Roald Dahl — deployed into Washington and New York society to cultivate influential Americans, cover essentially being Roald Dahl: witty, glamorous, wounded RAF hero.
Class Background
Grammar school to Oxford on pure ability. Not aristocracy — which makes him less threatening in America, almost seems meritocratic, which is precisely the cover. Knows exactly where he stands in the English class system and has made a private peace with it that is perhaps not entirely convincing.
Operational Structure — Two Layers
Surface Cover
Trade attaché at the Washington Embassy, or representative of a British banking interest in New York. Wall Street connections genuine — British financial houses had deep roots in American banking going back generations. He moves in the world of old money, discretion, transatlantic connections.
Covert Operation
Field agents he coordinates never meet him in the Embassy. Private dining rooms, gentleman's clubs, Park Avenue apartments belonging to sympathetic Americans. Running Irish-American networks, labour agitators, isolationist politicians receiving quiet funding, newspapers being fed particular stories.
The Central Contradiction
Genuinely loves America in an intellectual, almost anthropological way. Finds it fascinating, admires its energy. And is simultaneously, methodically dismantling it from the inside. This contradiction should never be fully resolved.
Buried Complicity
At Hinge 3, receives London's assessment of American preparations and suspects German intelligence is feeding both sides selectively. He could report this — attempt to pump the brakes. But doing so would be politically explosive and would rob Britain of a confrontation the hawks want anyway. He chooses not to act. Not to accelerate — simply to not interfere. That decision through inaction is morally more interesting than active villainy. It haunts him for three books. The deliberate symmetry with Howe's complicity should be felt by the reader.
Moral Trajectory
Feels genuine horror at the chemical weapons episode — it makes his job easier but the war has become something uglier than he signed up for. As British war aims quietly expand from defence to something atavistic (the semiconscious slide toward "actually, let's revisit 1776"), his conviction is tested progressively through three books.
Possible Late Revelation
A half-American child somewhere from an earlier posting — who doesn't know what their father does. Noted as a potential late-trilogy revelation of extraordinary power. Not yet developed.
Their First Meeting
Post-declaration. A Washington or New York dinner where old American money and British diplomatic presence naturally overlap. Howe has been feted after the Caribbean operation. They find — to both their private surprise — that they like each other. Similar cast of mind, both serious men in a world of talkers, both with private reservations they'd never voice publicly.
The dramatic irony is exquisite: the reader knows what Tarrant is. We watch him assess Howe across the dinner table. Asset or threat? Both? That ambiguity runs for an entire book before resolving. A third presence — the American Tory bloc figure — is also at this dinner and will become important later.
The dinner is placed after war is declared deliberately. Meeting as nominal enemies who don't yet know they're looking at each other carries more dramatic charge. The Anglo-Saxon ritual of the formal dinner underlines that these are adversaries connected by civilisation, engaged in sibling rivalry rather than war against a foreign enemy.
Characters Still To Be Developed
| Character | Nationality | Role & Function | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese naval officer / diplomat | Japanese | Navigating the restored Anglo-Japanese Alliance with private reservations | Book Two focus; provides a view from outside the Anglo-American dyad |
| Australian character | Australian | Naval officer or politician; moral conscience of the trilogy | Officially allied with Britain; Japan (Britain's ally) is the existential Pacific threat. Impossible position. |
| Mexican political / military figure | Mexican | Navigating the British offer with clear eyes | Genuinely hates American imperialism. Understands that being a British pawn is not the same as being free. |
| American submarine commander | American | Carries the Atlantic naval narrative | Claustrophobia, moral complexity, unrestricted warfare questions mirror the chemical weapons episode on land |
| American Tory bloc figure | American | Old money, pro-British; present at the Howe–Tarrant dinner | Torn between his country as it exists and as he believes it should be. Critical for Hinge 6 fracture to land with weight. |
| Female character | American (East Coast patrician) | Set aside as potentially clichéd; kept in reserve | If developed: her anguish should be between her country as it exists and as it should be — not between two countries. No geometric mean. |