Zero Day

The opening scene with the mail carrier introduces the theme of environmental degradation versus economic survival. The people of Drake have to choose between immediate survival and long-term health and environmental integrity, and the conflict provokes hostility from people who need jobs in that moment. The author creates suspense by withholding the first glimpse of the crime scene, showing Reed’s reaction but not the thing that caused it.

The story is written in a brisk style often characterized by a preponderance of declarative sentences:

Puller stepped through the magnetometer. It beeped. He was wanded. Like always. The device screeched at his right forearm.

‘Titanium rod,’ noted Puller. He rolled up his sleeve to show the scar.

The wand went off again at his left ankle. The MP looked up inquiringly.

Puller said, ‘Screws and plate. I can lift my pants leg.’

‘If you will, sir.’

When Puller let his pants leg drop back down the guard said apologetically, ‘Just doing my job, sir.’

‘I would’ve given you hell if you didn’t, MP’ (8-9).

It is consistent with the kind of spare voice that fits the protagonist. Puller is a sharp observer, not a poetic or emotional person. The style extends to dialogue, which is spare and quick, moving rapidly from one speaker to another with no unnecessary words. This approach keeps the scenes moving quickly and allows the characters to convey a lot of information, including backstory, in a short time without losing the readers’ interest.

The titanium rod in Puller’s forearm foreshadows his recurring dream of the episode in Afghanistan during which he received the injury. Symbolically, it represents the “Wound That Will Not Heal” that frequently characterizes an archetypal hero. The Wound is a physical manifestation of a deeper, psychic wound that impedes the hero’s ability to achieve his ends. It may simultaneously be a source of power and, when the hero overcomes the impediment, of inner strength. Puller’s psychic wound is his desire for his father’s approval. He is constrained by the hurt he feels at being unable to ever satisfy his critical and demanding father. At the same time, the desire for his father's approval gives him power by driving him to be the superlative soldier he is. His Wound is overcome when he discards his need for his father’s approval. Unburdened, he retains the strength he earned but couples it with a sense of inner-directedness rather than a pursuit of external validation. One of Puller’s inner tasks will be to relearn how to make connections with people and feel dangerous emotions like grief without losing the self-control that has been drummed into him all his life.

Robert Puller shows himself to be a man of integrity by refusing to answer either yes or no to Puller’s question about his guilt or innocence, thus avoiding either lying or placing his brother in a conflict of interest. Robert’s impulse to protect his brother, even from inside prison, foreshadows the climactic scene in which he reaches out from prison to help Puller disarm the bomb. By establishing Robert as a good man despite his situation, the author develops the conflict between internal values (being a good man) and duty (living by the rules). Puller will choose the side of internal values when he insists that Robert is the only person he will trust to help him disarm the bomb. The warmth of their relationship contrasts sharply with their father’s coldness, and it encourages sympathy and interest in the reader—a desire to see justice done and a good man exonerated. The brothers’ close relationship highlights Puller’s compassion and ability to forgive, and Robert’s situation lays the groundwork for book three in the series, The Escape, in which Puller will finally learn the truth about Robert’ s conviction.

The two rules for Puller family men show that rules are important to Puller. He thinks in terms of rules and discipline and therefore feels comfortable with the structure of Army life and satisfied with his enlisted role. Rules give him a sense of control.

The interaction with the clerk regarding local eating establishments reinforces the issue of rules. Puller doesn’t just follow rules, he thinks in terms of rules, even unwritten ones. It also reiterates the theme of environmental impact. Whether the food is actually contaminated with coal dust or not, the issue infiltrates the residents’ awareness to such an extent that they perceive it as a daily part of their lives.

“Chekhov’s gun” refers to the principle expressed by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov that any object that appears in the first act of a story must be used in the second or third act. This is more likely if the object reappears two or more times before the climax. Chapter 5 contains the first reference to the dome and the abandoned housing complex. Their appear in the middle of a summary of Puller’s drive to Drake calls attention to them and foreshadows that they will be significant to the story.

Randy Cole introduces an element of chaos and change. He is an uncontrolled character—the opposite of the very controlled Puller; he is angry, he drinks too much, and his emotions control him rather than the other way around. Randy’s reference to his headaches combines with Reed the mail carrier’s reflections on his own health problems to foreshadow Randy’s brain tumor.

Each time Puller encounters what seems to him to be poor judgment or poor management on Cole’s part, he learns that she was, in fact, every bit as competent and prepared as he could want. When he believes she has abandoned the crime scene and gone home to sleep, he learns that she had just gone to bed. When he thinks she left the crime scene unguarded, he learns she left a guard and the guard was murdered. The author teases the reader’s expectations, anticipation rising, then falling, then rising again, increasing the reader’s investment in Cole as a strong partner for Puller.

Cole’s arrival on the scene is written from Cole’s point of view. The author seizes this moment as an opportunity to create suspense, making the reader wonder where Puller has gone and whether Cole is about to be shot from the tree line by the person Puller saw from the window. When she is grabbed from behind, the leader doesn’t know whether the assailant is Puller or whoever murdered officer Wellman. As soon as Cole recognizes Puller’s voice, the point of view shifts back to Puller. The suspense of sharing her possible danger creates a sense of attachment.

The Puller family rules are heavily influenced by John Puller Sr.’s traditional stereotypes about masculinity; or example, Puller men don’t cry. Puller finds that the extreme emotional constraint imposed by his father’s rules interferes with his ability to form intimate connections, leaving him isolated and lonely. Cole’s emotional reaction to the death of officer Wellman contrasts with Puller’s family rule number one, but Puller recognizes the legitimacy of grief for a lost companion. Cole, a woman, will eventually teach Puller that he can express feelings without becoming weak.

Puller’s care with evidence conveys his competence as an investigator. He is aware of what details and information need to be collected, and he knows how to use that information. His competence sets up the reader to believe that he would spot something as small as the indentations in the carpet left by a camera tripod.