The Cast of Redundant

Makes ugly operational facts legible. Believes careful framing can keep power honest. His signature has already been on one layoff deck. He swore never again. When the FBI addresses him as Mr. Coleman, the question is no longer about spreadsheets — it's about sabotage, national security, and who he's been working next to without knowing it.

• His cost review
• Never again
• Ask the clerk

Executive appetite with narrative control. Needs a clean automation story for the buyer. Asked for the bloodbath color back on the slides. His chief of staff, Marisol Reyes, is the one who actually summons Rob and asks him to hold on travel.

• The Opportunity Meeting
• Ask the clerk

Calm, transactional, dangerous. Sees hidden human infrastructure as leverage before obligation. Hints at a job for Rob — "supporting me on due diligence and financial analysis across my portfolio" — but doesn't formally offer yet. Hints at government work: "the FBI would also agree with me. I work with them quite a bit." Returns in Contingent as a Northstar principal.

• Later: Northstar scope
• Book Two

Turns concern into official knowledge. Her question is not "is this true?" but "what does the company know now that you wrote it down?"

• Communications guidance

Competent, tired, often right about constraints executives call edge cases. Their work is where "redundant" becomes dangerous.

• Items requiring caution
• Discussion kit

A right-wing America-First protestor who believes AI is a globalist plot to make working people redundant. Nazi content on his phone — manifestos, propaganda. Cayman Islands VMs, voice-disguised calls. Connected to the Alberta separatist (Wexit) movement and Christian nationalist affiliations. Quotes Steve Bannon. Uses sophisticated sabotage: a modified IDE tool, keystroke capture, a RAG/vector database, stolen service-account keys, sycophancy manipulation. Arrested at his house in Burnaby. Called right-wing media to film the arrest. "I'm not the only one. There are others who believe. And we will stop it. No matter what. You're not going to make us redundant. It's not going to happen."

• Ask the clerk
• The Reckoning

HR investigator. Glib, sarcastic, dangerous in a bureaucratic way. Arrives when the company's sabotage problem becomes a national security problem. "I've spent the last couple of weeks reading everything you've touched. You know how global investigations work." She is the bridge between the corporate investigation and the FBI's interest.

• Ask the clerk

Jack's chief of staff. The one who actually sends the emails that summon Rob and asks him to hold on travel. Her notebook says exec summary — Claude. She is the practical interface between Jack's appetite and the people it consumes.

• The Opportunity Meeting
• Ask the clerk

The agents who escalate the sabotage investigation from a corporate HR matter to a national security case. They address Rob as Mr. Coleman. The Canadian government gets involved. The investigation crosses borders because the saboteur's infrastructure does — Cayman Islands VMs, voice-disguised calls, connections to Alberta separatist movements.

• Ask the clerk