Characters
Logan Langly: A thirteen-year-old at the center of the Markless protests. Logan escaped from his Pledge and broke into Acheron in order to find his older sister, Lilly, only to find that she did not want to be rescued.
Lily Langly: An eighteen-year-old military officer. Also Logan's older sister, Lily flunked her Pledge and was taken to the prison/military complex of Acheron. She resisted brainwashing and learned to pretend loyalty to the government, even as she began secretly plotting to destroy it.
Erin Arbitor: Logan's Marked best friend. Erin originally supported the government, and she betrayed Logan several times before coming to his aid during his Acheron break-in. An accomplished computer hacker, she is dying of the Project Trumpet virus.
Daniel Peck: The teenage leader of the Dust. Peck was Lilly's best friend in middle school and went Markless in response to her disappearance. Forming a Markless group called the Dust, he attempted to save other young teens from Lilly's fate. But Peck's world is changing, and in Sierra City he finds that he must follow a new calling—one possibly separate from that of Logan and the Dust.
Hailey Phoenix: A thirteen-year-old who is one of Logan's oldest friends. Hailey accompanies Logan, Peck, and Erin to Sierra City.
Eddie: A thirteen-year-old former member of the Dust. Eddie was captured and brainwashed as a result of the Acheron break-in. The brainwashing proved temporary, however, and Eddie becomes Lilly's assistant as she works to destroy the government from within.
The Dust: Peck's Markless huddle. Six of its members—14-year-old Blake; 15-year-old Jo; 13-year-olds Tyler, Shawn, and Meg; and 6-year-old Rusty—are left in Beacon City when Peck, Logan, Erin, and Hailey go west. Tyler is determined to locate Eddie, his best friend, despite the fact that Eddie is technically a member of the IMPS military force. The others are determined to keep Tyler alive.
Dr. Arianna Rhyne: The free-spirited scientist who invented the Project Trumpet virus. Dr. Rhyne created the virus as part of a test project, but when Erin contracts the virus from a different activation protein than the one Dr. Rhyne had planned, she struggles to determine a cure. Although Dr. Rhyne is Marked and largely agrees with Global Union policies, she saves Erin, Logan, Peck, and Hailey from arrest.
Charles and Olivia Arbitor: Erin's formerly separated parents. Erin's disappearance has forced them to work together in order to find Erin without giving away her location to the authorities. Charles suspects that Erin is hiding in Dr. Rhyne's laboratory, but he is forced to rely on his former nemeses, the Dust, to contact her, as well as to find the activation protein that could save her life.
Dianne Phoenix: Hailey's mother, and the co-producer of an illegal radio station. She suffers from a deteriorating lung condition as a result of her work in a nanomaterials plant.
Sonya Langly: Logan's grandmother, and Dianne's co-producer. Sophia uses the radio program to keep in touch with Logan and Hailey, ultimately helping them to complete Lilly's mission.
