Ramses is the primary antagonist and the CEO of the Eastern U.S. Retrieval Center. He embodies the corruption of power, using the time retrieval program, originally established for humanitarian purposes, as a vehicle for immense personal and financial gain.
Ramses presents as an authoritative figure who is highly capable of maintaining a facade of legality and control, even as he orchestrates criminal acts.
The Bureaucratic Authority: He is a tall, slender man in his mid fifties with gray hair and an olive, Middle Eastern complexion. He occupies the position of CEO, which grants him immense power over retrieval missions and data integrity.
A Master of Deception: He is “too good at pretending” and maintaining a calm, corporate demeanor even while coordinating murder and the manipulation of time. He can speak “in a stern voice” or “authoritatively” when confronting subordinates or issuing orders.
Unscrupulous and Calculated: He is entirely focused on self preservation and profit. He attempts to “calm Reed’s rage so they could both focus on a resolution” and plots ways to maintain the appearance of following rules. He is willing to stall the return of Sera James to buy himself time.
Ramses is fundamentally driven by greed, control, and a total disregard for human life, especially for those he deems “goody two shoes” agents like Shatner and Don.
Greed and Classism: His motivation is explicitly tied to wealth and social standing. He manipulated the timeline so that “all the CEOs, including Ramses,” were “rewarded” with “very young, subservient, and extremely attractive wives, along with huge deposits into their accounts”. He turned the retrieval system into a “club for billionaires”.
The Puppet Master: He views time travel as a tool to control the world and eliminate ethical opposition. His goal was to change the timeline to gain “control over time travel by eliminating the virtuous agents”.
Indifference to Crime: He began “pushing the limits, turning a blind eye to changes in the world as long as they didn’t affect him and his rich friends directly”. His complicity escalates to arranging the deliberate “clocking out” of agents who weren’t “part of the club”.
Ramses’s main challenges are maintaining his authority and controlling the fallout from his own corrupt schemes.
The Threat of Discovery: Shatner and Don filed reports against Ramses, establishing themselves as a “line between law and chaos” in their region. This ethical threat forced Ramses to try and eliminate them.
Controlling Reed: Ramses must manage his volatile, bleach blond accomplice, Reed, who acts outside of their agreement. Reed’s desperation to keep his family and his violent actions (like murdering Don and trying to kill Sera ) create logistical messes that Ramses has to “cover for”.
The Unraveling Timeline: His attempts to change the past are not fully stable. He is surprised when Shatner survives his intended assassination. He must constantly worry about how the other office heads are faring and whether he can consolidate enough power to declare “martial law type of scenario”.
