Thaddeus J. Wentworth III - Tad's father. A small town lawyer, killed by mistake by an off balance Fantod from the black sheep side of the family.
Katherine Wentworth - Tad's mother. Killed when Tad's father drove across a railroad track into an oncoming train.
Jesse Fantod - Julie's father. Tad moves in with Jesse's family after the accident.
Julie Fantod - Tad's childhood sweatheart who finds him again after twenty five years.
Ralph Fantod - A mentally unbalanced lowlife from the wrong side of the tracks. Accidentally kills Tad's parents when trying to scare them.
Enos Fantod - A poor cousin of the Fantod family. Tries to help Ralph cover up the mistake.
Anjali "Angel" Chakravarthy - Haggerty's teaching assistant helping with network administration.
Scheherazade "Sherry" Johnson - Hired by Wentworth to help on the Intercontinental project.
Robert "Smitty" Smith - Patience's romantic interest, also helps out tracking down the hackers.
Paul Prasad - a professor of organization behavior and development and very much a 'people' person.
Margaret Xhtsosee - a professor of information systems with a strong background in social philosophy.
Sonia "Sonny" Chakravarthy - Angel's mother. Is only mentioned in this story but will show up again in Confidence.
Gershom Oxenstein - A shady character from the dark shaddows of the underworld. Introduced here to foreshaddow Along Came a Spider.