Marnes, a main character of the Silo Saga, is a deputy in Silo-18, and is introduced in Wool 2 - Proper Gauge.
Biography[]
Marnes is introduced to us as the 60 year old Deputy of the Silo. He is close friends with Sheriff Holston and Mayor Jahns. He has also been in love with Mayor Jahns for most of their lives and she speculated that he refused being promoted to Sheriff because it would mean they could never be together. They didn’t begin seeing each other until right before she died because Jahns had been married to Marnes best friend Donald decades ago and although Donald died, they never crossed that line.
Marnes is the one who Holston commits the ultimate crime of saying he wants to go outside and he has to lock up his friend. He is shown to be distraught by what happened and on the verge of tears when thinking of Holston on multiple occasions. The day after the cleaning, Marnes present Mayor Jahns with the three candidates for the Sheriff position. He’s honest and says that he wants Juliette and the other two options serve as fillers so he wouldn’t look biased. They decide to make the journey to the lower third of the Silo to offer Juliette the position. On the way down they make a few stops. One to see Juliette’s father on the 20th floor and ask why they hadn’t seen each other in 20 years. The next stop is around floor 50 and they stop for food and for the night. They converse briefly in Marnes room before going to their separate rooms for the night.
They then see I.T the next day where they discuss the candidates with Bernard who expresses disdain at the fact that they want Juliette. Bernard has already offered the position to one of the other candidates, Peter Billings, and implies Juliette is nothing more than a stupid greasy mechanic. The Mayor lets him know she plans on offering it to Juliette still and goes to leave. Bernard offers to top off their waters and they continue on their way.
When they get down to Mechanical, Marnes is able to follow the conversations better and they are able to convince Juliette to take the job. Mayor Jahns notes that Marnes is like every other man when it comes to taking directions and acts like he knows where he’s going even though he doesn’t and then they get a laugh out of it when he has to follow the guide.
On their way back up to the top floor, they stop at the mid level deputy’s office and sleep there for the night. Marnes crawls into Juliette’s bed and holds her for the night but when she wakes up he’s gone. They continue on their walk until they have to stop at I.T again for Bernard’s signature. He’s upset and tells his shadow, Lukas, to sign whatever they need and make copies. He then tells his other shadows to get them food and top of their water so that their decrepit legs can get them out of there and back to where they belong. Unknown to Marnes, his water has been poisoned as Bernard is particularly upset with him. They continue on their way and Jahns is chugging the water and seemingly weaker as they go. When they stop at the nursery, she asks to go to the bathroom and on her way back Marnes notices blood. Mayor Jahns dies telling him she’s always loved him.
We then switch to Juliette’s 3rd person pov a few days after Jahns death. Juliette mentions that Marnes refuses to let go of the case file and is obsessive over finding out who killed Jahns.
The next day when Marnes doesn’t show up on time for his shift, Juliette goes to check on him. She finds him in his apartment and it seems that he hung himself with his belt.