Forever Peace

Doctorate in Leisure Arts; dismissive of restraint, rationalizes killing with academic detachment; foil to Julian

Survives the kamikaze attack with cardiac arrest; perceptive about Julian's hidden emotional life; selected for empathy

Dies in cardiac arrest from the feedback overload of the kamikaze attack; remembered fondly; had a taste for snuff jack strings

Survives the kamikaze attack with cardiac arrest alongside Candi; excluded from Candi's whispered exchange with Julian

Last to check out after the attack; shares tamales and beer with Julian at the airport before departing to California

Identified as a mechanic in Portobello, stripped, beaten, raped, and left brain-damaged; her jack was torn out and violated

Arly's close friend and implied partner; grief-stricken to the point of combat-readiness concern; visits Arly daily

Julian's friend who calculates the catastrophic casualty cost of mass humanization and plays devil's advocate in the group debate

Dean of sciences at University of Texas; appears on news broadcast dismissing Amelia's Jupiter Project paper as irresponsible nonsense, antagonizing Doherty.

Senior scientist and architect of the humanization plan; performs jack surgery on Julian with a known risk of permanent jacking loss; organizes the coup of Building 31 and mass conversion of officers; revealed as creator of the soldierboy safeguards he later subverts.

Member of the Twenty, old friend of Marty since graduate school for whom Marty was best man; killed by Gavrila prior to this chunk; his death is delivered as news to Marty here.

Ngumi-aligned mayor captured by Julian's platoon; wakes during helicopter extraction in pain and terror; exchanges sharp words with Julian about monstrosity

A humanized soldierboy operator; refuses to kill Blaisdell even to save the world; protects Julian after the killing; helps secure Building 31 and is present for the symbolic moment with the POW girl.

Protagonist; permanently loses his ability to jack after surgery; kills Gavrila in ambush; kills Blaisdell in cold blood to save the world; grapples with psychological transformation and suicidal ideation throughout.

Julian's partner and physicist co-worker; saves Julian after his suicide attempt; has a brief sexual affair with Peter during Julian's crisis; travels to Washington to work on the Jupiter Problem.

Member of Julian's social circle present at the club table.

Soldier in Julian's platoon with a propensity for violence; goes berserk during the Liberia riot and kills more than a dozen civilians before being forcibly deactivated.

Julian's opposite number in Fox platoon; coordinates the show-of-force operation and the subsequent riot response with Julian.

Leader of Charlie platoon; relatively inexperienced, loses control of his unit after the children are found in the rubble.

Civilian therapist in the observation unit who helps Julian reframe his guilt over the boy's death without condemning him.

Washington-connected physicist obsessed with the Jupiter Problem; sleeps with Amelia during Julian's absence; hosts Julian and Amelia for a two-day mathematical marathon.

Military psychiatrist who tracks Julian to North Dakota; reveals Peter has likely been captured; ultimately brought onto the conspiracy's side and kept continuously jacked in the converted bus

Group member who challenges Marty's plan on moral and practical grounds, questioning the military's awareness of the humanization effect

Group member who correctly intuits the humanization effect before Marty explains it; older figure with a dark, pragmatic outlook on human nature

Defrocked priest convicted of rape and murder; now humanized member of the Twenty at North Dakota; guides Julian into the group jack and accompanies the move to Mexico

Member of the Twenty; former contract killer who murdered three people to fund a drug habit; now a commodities arbitrageur; perceptively notes Julian's idealism during the group jack

Youngest member of the Twenty; beautiful with prematurely white hair; desires Julian intensely during the group jack and urges him to remain longer

Member of the Twenty whose perspective combines with Mendez's in the group jack to clarify the shared information structure

Member of the Twenty; chess master and wife murderer; stays outside the circle to answer the phone and alerts the group to Jefferson's arrival

The Twenty's covert leader; supposedly dead, now operating under a new name and face in a senior Pentagon position; Marty reveals his identity to Julian as a critical secret

Hammer of God assassin; escapes custody after killing Ray; tortures Ellie Morgan to find Amelia's location; killed by Julian in Building 31 corridor ambush; mails warning letter to Blaisdell before dying.

High-ranking antagonist who leads the assault on Building 31; controls JPL under presidential order; frames universal destruction as divine rebirth; killed by Julian.

Military officer who revealed information about the Hammer of God to Marty; kept continuously jacked in the converted school bus during the move to Mexico

Cook and covert hostile in Building 31; unable to be fully jacked due to migraines; learns Blaisdell's identity through secondhand jacking; goes AWOL to betray the group to Blaisdell.

Recently humanized convert described as formerly aggressive; explains humanization subjectively as becoming more oneself; provides secondhand intelligence on Thurman through jacking chain.

Ranking officer in Building 31 during the assault; initially defiant toward Blaisdell's soldierboy but stands down under threat of vomiting agent.

Scientist and longtime associate of Blankenship; appears on news broadcast validating the Jupiter Project threat, arguing destruction of the solar system is certain if the experiment proceeds.

Elderly POW who leads the humanized prisoners to Building 31 carrying a portable jack transfer box; struck unconscious by a shoe; cradled by Claude in a scene the world will witness.