Characters / The Nexus Series Emerging Risks Directorate

Members (or allied members) of the Emerging Risks Directorate, responsible for fighting transhuman technology in the United States.

Beware of unmarked spoilers.

Samantha Cataranes (Sarita Catalan)

The main ERD protagonist through the Nexus Series. Sam was the agent responsible for busting Kade and his friends in the first book.

• Big Eater: Justified as when she's wounded, her body needs the extra calories due to her genetic enhancements.

• Emotion Bomb: Accidentally does this while undercover to people she's sharing experiences with. Unfortunately she shares more than her cover's experiences which leads to...
• Glamour Failure: How her true identity is first revealed to Kade, when her underlying emotions break through her fake persona during the brain-to-brain communication.

• Heel–Face Turn: While she wasn't really bad to start with, she was antagonistic to Kade and all transhuman technology users, until she met Mai, who helped her finally heal from her experiences at Yucca Grove.
• I Have Many Names: Sam has a number of aliases, and can slip into some of them completely with a code phrase.
• Mind Rape: Done to her by Shiva in Crux, forcing her to kill her adopted father figure Nakamura before Kade chased him out of her head. This experience has considerably soured her opinion on Nexus in general.
• More than Mind Control:The ERD can't fathom why Sam would fight them for any other reason than her being controlled by Kade or Shu. Nakamura needs it spelled out to him in Crux that Sam turned because she felt the deaths for several civilians caused by ERD crossfire, including her newly adopted little sister Mai.

• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Goes absolutely mental when Mai is killed in ERD crossfire.

• What Have I Become?: Feels this way about herself after using Nexus 5, and enjoying it.

Enforcement Devision Deputy Director Warren Becker

Sam's Commanding Officer

• A Father to His Men: Shows specific concern for Sam's saftey and tries not to put Sam in harm's way without backup. Unfortunately, this backfires in a horrible fashion when said backup kills Mai right in front of Sam, causing her to flip.
• Big Bad: Of "Nexus".
• Driven to Suicide
• Hauled Before A Senate Subcommittee: Faces this after his last mission to capture Kade causes an international incident. Is given an alternative by Barnes instead.
• Leave Behind a Pistol: Takes a heart attack pill to avoid damaging the ERD and the President.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: his actions are driven by a desire to prevent his daughters from growing up in a future controlled by posthumans.

Neuroscience Director Martin Holtzmann

• Dirty Coward: Feels this way about himself.
• Functional Addict: Uses Nexus to up his opiate and dopamine count to cope with PTSD in the wake of the assassination attempt on the President. Kade cuts him off.
• Ignored Expert: His objections to how the ERD is treating the Nexus users are brushed aside in the name of security. Not that he tries very hard most times.
• Leave Behind a Pistol: Subverted- Barnes pretty much forcefeeds the heart-attack pill to him when he refuses to take it willingly.
• Redemption Equals Death: His last actions in Crux are to orchestrate the release of Rangan and the autistic Nexus children, and then upload all his evidence against the ERD and Barnes to the internet. While the release was a compulsion placed by Kade, the rest was his own choice. Barnes promptly kills him.
• Reluctant Mad Scientist: Hates the hypocrisy of his job and knows he's too much of a coward to change

Maximilian Barnes (Special Policy Adviser, later Director of ERD (Zarathustra)

• Berserk Button: Do not go over his head. Holtzmann learns this after voicing his opinion directly to the president that they should be supporting the Nexus children, and not fighting them or looking for cures.
• Big Bad: The driving source of conflict in the series can be traced back to Barnes' activities
• Bio-Augmentation: Implied during his murder of Holtzmann, who cannot understand just how strong he is...
• Corrupt Politician
• The Dreaded: No one is happy to see Barnes show up.
• Engineered Public Confession: Pulled off by Holtzmann of all people.
• Evil Chancellor
• False Flag Operation: Barnes' MO is to use the Posthuman Liberation Front to stage some terrorist attacks that the ERD can stop just in time, and uses one at the start of "Crux" to drive up support for President Stockton (who is oblivious). Holtzmann is killed for figuring this out.
• Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide": Keeps suggesting "euthanizing" the autistic children who have Nexus.
• Leave Behind a Pistol: How Barnes deals with loose ends like Becker and Holtzmann.
• Think of the Children!: It has yet to be seen if he actually believes this or not.

President John Stockton

• Reasonable Authority Figure: Actually stops Barnes from interrupting Holtzmann when the later voices his opinion that they should embrace the Nexus children who are starting to demonstrate collective cognition. Stockton hears him out, but states that while he won't resort to euthanizing the children as Barnes suggests, he will do everything in his power to make sure regular humans are not replaced and made to go extinct.
• Think of the Children!: He really does want to protect the American People. He just doesn't want them to be replaced as a species.