Cast of Characters
The following lists details who the major players are in "Denial of the 
Human Condition".  Some of the more important minor characters are 
included as well.  Seeing as how the second book isn't even finished yet 
and the third not even started, expect the descriptions to change in time 
as plot turns shuffle the characters about.  To help visualize (and cause 
I think it's spiffy) I've tried to place an appropriate image with each 
of the major characters.

	_Mars_
	Mars is an old-time hacker from back when Space was new and untamed.  
	He was the brains of a partnership with his contemporary, Fang.  
	Getting on in his years, Mars is still one of the best at running the 
	Net although with each system he cracks and each security daemon he 
	outwits, he knows his days are numbered.  
	Old hackers don't die, nowadays they just get fused by smarter, 
	faster ice.
	
	She is Tap's girlfriend and sometime punching bag.  Confused, 
	dependent and terrified of being alone, she seeks any man's 
	attentions, real or imagined, regardless of the consequences.  
	She tunes out from reality whenever she can, the alternative being 
	unbearable, living out the role of eternal victim.  She stays with 
	Tap because at times, he says he loves her, and he's always 
	sorry the next day.
	
	_Oslo_
	Living the hard and unappreciated life of a white man in a dominant 
	foreign culture, Oslo is trapped by the glass ceiling of japanese 
	corporate stucture.  He holds a rare position with a little 
	authority in Kamashi Electronics, Inc. though knows he will never 
	advance to any level of real authority; the only reason he persists 
	in the company is through his friendship with the CEO.  Seeking to 
	secure his future, he plans to sabotage the company's new contract 
	with the Cuban government and profit off the ensuing chaos.  
	Unfortunately for him, no one trusts a round eye, and business is 
	business, never personal.
	
	_Tap_
	Tap is a black man trying to assert himself in a cruel, 
	misunderstaning world.  Problem is, rather than work through the 
	system, a path becoming harder and more impossible to do, he uses 
	his moderate gift for code and natural cleverness to commit the 
	equivalent of petty theft through Space.  One time apprentice to 
	Mars, he took what knowledge he could from his mentor and struck 
	out on his own.  Struggling to deal with responsibility, racism, 
	and the question self-identity, he sometimes takes his frustrations 
	out on whoever is pliable and nearby, ruining whatever he touches.

	_Smitty (Clive Archer)_

	_Tsuru ("Crane")_
	One of the several, indentical cloned assassins for the underworld 
	organization, the Blue Locust, Tsuru was made to kill and then 
	self-destruct.  He is not necessarily cold, as he is unfeeling one 
	way or another; he has his mission and that fills his life.  He is 
	Pinnochio who has yet to learn what a "real boy" means.

	_Shinji Matsuya_
	He is head of the Blue Locusts, a house of assassins for hire by 
	the zaibatsu corporations to conduct industrial espionage, hits, 
	political problem solving, etc.  He has been hired by Kamashi, Inc. 
	to handle Oslo's indescretions and to clean up any of the mess he 
	tried to make.

	_The Caterpillar_

	_Fang_
	Fang is an aging middleman in the wetware business; drugs, organs, 
	synthetic hormones.  He is bears the "scars" of his wilder days as 
	a young punk trying to make a reputation for himself.  He used to 
	work with Mars as the brawn half of the pair, saving his money for 
	fashionable reconstructive surgery which has since gone out of style.  
	Fang is basically a good person, trying to end his years with a 
	little self-respect and the same soul he started with, if not the 
	same body.  He knows Tap through his association with Mars.  Though 
	he and Mars split on bad terms, he is the kind of spirit that 
	won't bear another man's grudge.  He takes him in as he took in 
	Mars, and later Slinger, though he finds that honor and decency 
	don't get you as far as they used to, it they ever did.

	_Slinger (Ellen)_
	She is Fang's young metalhead, bodyguard.  Slinger came to the city 
	as a runaway from an abusive home, remaking herself into a dangerous 
	killer.  She has replaced most of her body in an attempt to distance 
	herself from the trama. With her past haunting her still, she is 
	becomes disillusioned with the prosthetic mystique; it has not 
	helped her forget who she was.  She is in a strange sort of denial 
	over her attachment to Fang, her surrogate father figure, choosing 
	wild and reckless bravado to truthful intimacy.

	_Ellen Kamashi_
	The only daughter to the CEO, she is the coddled princess of Kamashi 
	Electronics.  She is spoiled and devious, though quick and beautiful 
	enough to avoid the consequences of her actions.  Ellen acts as a 
	messenger between KEI and the Blue Locust and so, she knows and 
	understands all too well, the lengths to which powerful men will go 
	to attain what they want and preserve what they have.  She views her 
	father as petty and weak, planning to wrest his power for herself 
	somehow.

	_Presidante Jorge Corazon_

	_Clyde_

	_Gabrielle_

	_Virus_

	_Artie_

	_Self_