Thomas Wade
Names: Thomas WadeWadePIA ChiefChief Wade
First appears in Book 3: Death's End, chapter 7 (Crisis Era, Years 1–4 Cheng Xin)
Appearances
What you know
Book 3: Death's End
- Ch 7Wade, an American, is the young, handsome, expressionless PIA chief; his office has a cold painting of early eighteenth-century New York and a bloodstained wreath picture.
- Ch 7Wade greeted Cheng Xin with an old intelligence-trade joke asking if she would sell her mother to a whorehouse.
- Ch 7Wade announced the PIA must launch a spy probe at the Trisolaran Fleet, reaching one percent of lightspeed, and demanded resources be thrown at the problem until physics bends.
- Ch 7Wade used military democracy to draw out ideas, singling out Cheng Xin because she did not laugh at him.
- Ch 7Wade refuses to let the PIA stop pursuing plans until he says so, and he screamed that they would advance at all costs.
- Ch 7Wade proposes sending a live human scout, in hibernation, to the Trisolaran Fleet as a representative of humanity.
- Ch 7Wade agrees the PDC is right about the Staircase Program's limited value, yet he does not abandon it.
- Ch 9Wade is the PIA chief; he demands that his staff 'advance, stop at nothing to advance' and disregard consequences.
- Ch 9Wade appears gloomy when others are happy and jokey when they despair; Vadimov believes he enjoys watching others lose hope.
- Ch 9Wade praised Cheng Xin for the first time after her flash-freezing idea, then proposed sending only a brain to the Trisolarans.
- Ch 11He persuaded the PDC to approve sending a bare brain, arguing Trisolarans could revive it and it would remain a ticking bomb of stratagems.
- Ch 11He pushed euthanasia laws through the PDC and UN so Staircase subjects could be legally killed; three permanent members passed them, limited to terminal illness.
- Ch 11His career was in the CIA, then deputy secretary of Homeland Security, then PIA; nothing is known of his private life except his mother and her kitten.
- Ch 12Wade, top administrator of the PIA, sits brooding over a lit cigar and takes cold pleasure in Cheng Xin's pain and despair.
- Ch 12Wade chose Tianming because he scored best on tests simulating a disembodied brain; he argues a loner adapts best to isolation.
- Ch 17Wade survived into this era, ambushed Cheng Xin with an old underwater-designed gun, and wants to become the Swordholder.
- Ch 17Wade admitted killing Vadimov because the Staircase Program needed him, and said his new plan does not need Cheng Xin.
- Ch 17Wade's right forearm was blown off by police fire, and his gun misfired on the third shot.
- Ch 19Wade nearly succeeded in murdering Cheng Xin, partly because the police were out of practice at preventing murder, and he had faked a call from AA.
- Ch 19Wade was a candidate for the Swordholder position; a rival candidate warned the police of his intent but had no proof.
- Ch 21Wade's line at the UN, 'We'll send only a brain,' changed Cheng Xin's life; AA considers him dark and perverted.
- Ch 31Trisolaran studies showed Wade's degree of deterrence was always one hundred percent; Sophon says had he been Swordholder, peace would have lasted.
- Ch 35Wade, a prisoner with one arm who refuses a prosthesis, remains well-groomed and has not given up his ambitions.
- Ch 35Wade secretly warned Cheng Xin to leave Australia before the resettlement is complete, then sent her away.
- Ch 48Wade was chief of the PDC Strategic Intelligence Agency and is seen by most people as a symbol of darkness in human nature; he almost killed Cheng Xin.
- Ch 62Released from prison a month before after a reduced sentence for murder, he is missing a hand and still wears his black leather jacket.
- Ch 62He wants lightspeed ships built and asked Cheng Xin for everything she owns, saying she lacks the skill and will to finish the task.
- Ch 62He has loyal followers, possibly a surviving secret organization, and promised to awaken Cheng Xin if the research found any danger to humanity.
- Ch 62Ten days after the deal, he became president of the Halo Group and took over all operations.
- Ch 63Thomas Wade sent Cao Bin to wake and collect Cheng Xin; her awakening was conditional on some event.
- Ch 65Wade, 110 years old and one-armed, never hibernated after taking over the Halo Group; he remains steady and unbroken by time.
- Ch 65Wade took profits from the Halo Group and reinvested them in lightspeed spaceflight research, leaving company management to others.
- Ch 65Wade led Halo City's resistance, aiming to build lightspeed curvature propulsion ships within fifty years and a research center hundreds of AU from the Sun.
- Ch 65Wade agreed to disarm after Cheng Xin demanded it, appearing broken, and ordered agents in other cities to surrender.
- Ch 65Wade was convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes, sentenced to death, and vaporized by laser three days after meeting Cheng Xin; he was 110.
- Ch 70Wade kept his promise to research lightspeed ships without knowing the effects of trails; Cheng Xin hates that he did so, believing he wouldn't have if he'd known.
Connections
- leadsPDC Strategic Intelligence Agencyreferred to as Chief Wade
- enemy ofCheng Xinshoots her to eliminate her as a Swordholder competitor
- enemy ofMikhail VadimovWade killed Vadimov
- leadsHalo GroupBecame president after the deal
- ally ofCao Binacts on Wade's request
- leadsHalo City self-defense force
Key moments
- Book 3 · Ch 7Cheng Xin joins the PIA
Cheng Xin leaves chemical rocket design to become aide to Vadimov at the PIA, meets him and the chilly chief Wade, and sees the distrustful new staff gather.
- Book 3 · Ch 7Wade proposes a spy probe
At the first all-hands meeting, Wade announces the PIA must launch a probe at the Trisolaran Fleet reaching one percent of lightspeed, and experts doubt it is possible.
- Book 3 · Ch 7Cheng Xin presents en-route propulsion
Mocked at first, Cheng Xin explains distributing nuclear bombs along the route to push a light sail probe; the experts take it seriously and Vadimov names it the Staircase Program.
- Book 3 · Ch 7Staircase Program voted down
Feasibility studies show the probe must be only 200 kg, and Wade reveals that the PDC rejected the program for its minimal intelligence value.
- Book 3 · Ch 7Wade proposes sending a person
Wade explodes that they will not stop and proposes sending a live hibernating human into the Trisolaran Fleet. The group sees that sophon transparency could work in the plan's favor.
- Book 3 · Ch 9Cheng Xin's hibernation research and flash-freezing proposal
After visiting Sanya, Cheng Xin reports hibernation is too heavy, then suggests launching a flash-frozen body instead of a live person, which Wade praises.
- Book 3 · Ch 9Wade proposes sending only a brain
Facing the half-kilogram payload limit, Wade rallies his despairing team and announces a new plan: send only a brain to the Trisolarans.
- Book 3 · Ch 11Mass missile launch
Peacekeeper, Topol and Dongfeng missiles are launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral and elsewhere to supply power for accelerating the Staircase probe; Cheng Xin watches in tears.
- Book 3 · Ch 12Tianming refuses the oath
At the UN ceremony Tianming refuses to pledge loyalty to humanity, which proves to Wade his suitability. Joyner also refuses and dies soon after, so Tianming is chosen.
- Book 3 · Ch 12Tianming's brain removed
Cheng Xin arrives too late to see Tianming; his brain is sealed in liquid helium. She asks to send seeds, Wade refuses, and she agrees to go to the future.
- Book 3 · Ch 17Wade's ambush
Lured to ruined buildings by a faked call, Cheng Xin is shot twice by Thomas Wade, who wants to be Swordholder. Police, with AA, blow off his arm and rescue her.
- Book 3 · Ch 19Cheng Xin's recovery and cultural introduction
While recovering from Wade's attack, Cheng Xin learns how rare murder is. AA shows her a film and takes her to art shows and concerts, where Cheng Xin admires the new culture.
- Book 3 · Ch 31Sophon confronts Cheng Xin at the crater
Sophon reveals Cheng Xin was kept alive as a safety shield, that Gravity was destroyed, and that Wade would have been feared. She then leaves, telling them to prepare for Australia.
- Book 3 · Ch 35Wade warns Cheng Xin
Cheng Xin visits Wade at his prison work site; he whispers that she must leave Australia before resettlement is complete, then dismisses her, leaving her terrified.
- Book 3 · Ch 48Cheng Xin proposes thanking Wade
Cheng Xin credits Wade for the Staircase Project, but the room falls silent and no one supports her.
- Book 3 · Ch 62Bunker Project simulation test
A hydrogen bomb detonated among asteroid stand-ins for the planets. Volunteers sheltered behind the fake Jupiter survived unharmed, and the broadcast brought cheers on Earth.
- Book 3 · Ch 62Wade asks for Cheng Xin's empire
Wade met Cheng Xin behind the Jupiter fragment, asking her to give him everything to build lightspeed ships and warning her not to repeat her past mistake.
- Book 3 · Ch 62Cheng Xin hands over Halo Group and hibernates
After Wade accepted her condition to awaken her if the project becomes dangerous, Cheng Xin transferred her authority. He became Halo Group president, and she and AA entered hibernation.
- Book 3 · Ch 63Cheng Xin awakens in Bunker Era
Cheng Xin wakes in Asia Hibernation Center #1 in a plain, low-tech world, recovers quickly, and is visited by Cao Bin, who says Thomas Wade wants her.
- Book 3 · Ch 65Curvature propulsion demonstration
In a sophon-free lab, Wade and Bi Yunfeng use Cheng Xin's hair to demonstrate curvature propulsion, moving it two centimeters, and argue lightspeed ships are near.
- Book 3 · Ch 65Cheng Xin forces Halo City's disarmament
Shown the antimatter bullets, Cheng Xin demands Wade surrender them and stop resistance. Wade relents, the soldiers pile their bandoliers, and agents in other cities are ordered to surrender.
- Book 3 · Ch 65Aftermath and Wade's execution
The Federation reveals the captured bullets, dissolves the Halo Group, arrests its leaders and sentences Wade to death. Cheng Xin visits him; he thanks her for cigars, and is executed by laser.