Elflike creatures found in the Pass
Christian saucer, controlled by puppet
masters. They were assumed to be natives of Titan. All
died when the saucer was ruptured and their atmosphere escaped.
Asiatic Plague
Plague broke out in Russia and China probably as a result of the puppet
masters' unconcern about human needs, particularly hygiene.
U.N.S. Avenger
Ship that transported an armed force from Earth to Titan to
wipe out the puppet
masters.
Powerman second class in the tank that attacked the Pass
Christian saucer. She held the air lock open so that the puppet
masters could be destroyed, and died in the assault.
Alias used by the female Section
agent who accompanied Andrew
Nivens to investigate the flying saucer landing. Afterwards, she
apparently adopted the name permanently, using it when she married Sam
Cavanaugh. She was born into the Whitmanites
(her original name was Allucquere) and emigrated to Venus with
her family, where the entire community had been taken over by puppet
masters and mostly kept in suspended animation until needed as hosts; Mary
spent ten years suspended. The puppet masters, and all human hosts except
Mary, died in an epidemic of nine-day
fever. Mary was found by Venus
colonials and adopted into a mining colony. Her recollection of these events
under hypnosis
provided a means to destroy the infestation of puppet masters on Earth.
Sam Cavanaugh (a.k.a. Elihu Nivens)
Alias for an agent of a top-secret U.S. government agency called the Section.
He was assigned to investigate reports of a flying saucer landing in Grinnell,
Iowa. With Mary
Cavanaugh and Andrew
Nivens (his boss and his father), he discovered that the saucer was
real,and that it had brought intelligent parasites to Earth to take over the
population. Although briefly taken over by a puppet
master himself, he played a major role in defeating the invasion. He
seldom used his real name, Elihu Nivens, during the mission, preferring the
alias that he adopted when he first visited the saucer landing site.
Dr. Chamleigh (no first name)
Nonsectarian minister who performed marriages with "fertility rites and
everything, but with dignity." Sam
Cavanaugh and Mary
Cavanaugh declined his services.
Constitution Club
The membership "read like Who's Who in Finance, Government, and Industry."
Sam
Cavanaugh infected a member with a puppet
master and with his aid infiltrated the Club to "recruit" more members.
Mark Cummings
Junior Congressional Whip, whom the President had to order to remove his
shirt during a session of Congress to comply with Schedule
Bareback.
Communications officer at armed forces Supreme Headquarters during the
offensive against the puppet
masters.
Myrtle Doolightly, Ph.D.
[mentioned in passing] Stereo broadcast lecturer on "Why
Husbands Grow Bored.", sponsored by Uth-a-gen Hormone Company. Sam
Cavanaugh encountered the program while looking for a news broadcast that
might give some clue about conditions in Zone Red
(the area infested by puppet
masters).
Dotty
Section
agent and member of the clerical pool, who was in the headquarters when the puppet
master got loose.
The Entropy of Joy
[mentioned in passing] Book written by the prophet of the
Whitmanites.
Charity Evans
Congresswoman from Maine. Her response to Schedule
Bareback was to wear a low-backed evening gown.
One of the people present at Mary
Cavanaugh's hypnotic sessions.
Senator Gottlieb
(no first name) A member of the President's political party, he tried to
propose impeachment during the hearing on the puppet
masters. He was revealed as a puppet master host.
Graves (no first name)
Researcher in charge of the Section's
biology lab, and thus head of the puppet
master research.
M. C. Greenberg (no full first name)
Real estate agent who rented a loft to Sam
Cavanaugh. Sam infected him with a puppet
master and recruited him to help infect others.
Chimpanzee used as a puppet master host by Section
researchers. She learned to pick locks and transmitted puppet
masters to gibbons in neighboring cages.
"If You Mean What I Think You Mean, What Are We
Waiting For?"
[mentioned in passing] Song Sam
Cavanaugh encountered on the stereo while searching for a newscast from Zone Red.
Jake (no last name)
Washroom attendant at the Constitution
Club, whom Sam
Cavanaugh infected with a puppet
master. He died because "his master would not let him take time out for
necessities."
Also known as Old John, a hermit in the Adirondacks where Sam
Cavanaugh had his cabin. He was possibly the source of the puppet
master that infected Sam's cat.
Newspaper that Sam
Cavanaugh purchased to check the status of the city (in Zone
Red). It made no reference to Schedule
Bareback, but did have a headline explaining the disruption of
long-distance phone service.
Maurice T. Kaufman
Vigilante who pulled a gun on a "hagridden" police officer in Albany, New
York; the officer killed him.
B. J. Kelly (no other first name)
Security officer in the Section's
headquarters, "the greatest scientific criminologist" of his time.
Kwikfede
[mentioned in passing] Restaurant chain, either fast food
or an automat.
[mentioned in passing] Program that Sam
Cavanaugh encountered while searching the stereo from newscasts from Zone Red.
MacArthur Station
Location of a washroom booth through which the Section
offices could be reached.
Malcom MacDonald
Police sergeant who was controlled by a puppet
master. When he was challenged by a vigilante, he killed the man but was
torn to pieces by a mob, along with his puppet master.
Malone
"Mr. Malone wants this car-immediately" is Section
code for "destroy the evidence", in this case the car that "the Cavanaughs"
drove to Des
Moines to check the flying saucer reports.
Secretary of Security in the Unites States Cabinet.
McDonough (no first name)
Assistant to the United States President, who acted as a buffer between
him and people trying to reach him.
Dr. McIlvaine (no first name)
Comparative psychologist with the Smithsonian Institution, author of Mars, Venus, and
Earth: A Study in Motivating Purposes. He was involved in the puppet
master research.
George and Vincent McLain
Farmboys who were blamed for the "hoax" after the flying saucer landing,
and who acted as tour guides for the fake saucer that Sam
and Mary
Cavanaugh investigated. They were almost certainly puppet
master hosts.
Mercy Hospital
Hospital to which Davidson
was sent to have his wounded arm amputated and replaced with a graft.
Apparently the site of the new Section
headquarters after the puppet
masters learned the old location; it was itself infested with puppet
masters. (By implication, the original city of Philadelphia was destroyed
during an atomic war.)
A Venerian
disease fatal to nearly all humans, but even more quickly fatal to puppet
masters. It was used to destroy the puppet masters after a cure was
developed for humans.
Andrew Nivens
The head of the Section.
(This name is never used explicitly in the book, but the President calls him
"Andrew", and his son's real surname is Nivens.) He used the alias "Charles M.
Cavanaugh" while investigating the saucer landing, and is usually called
simply "the Old Man" by his employees.
Amoeba-like extraterrestrial parasites that invaded Earth to use humans as
their hosts, completely controlling mind and body. After the Earth
infestations were destroyed by infecting infested regions with nine-day
fever, they were traced to Titan, and
an expedition sent to wipe them out.
Rare Stamps and Coins
Hole-in-the-wall shop through which the Section
offices could be reached.
Location of a launch platform, presumably in the Washington, D.C., area.
Ronald (no last name)
Lounge steward in the Section
headquarters, who was on the premises when the puppet
master got loose.
Roscoe & Dillard
Jobbers and manufacturers agents in Des
Moines. Sam
Cavanaugh sent a message to them while hagridden, apparently to have more
puppet
masters shipped to Washington D.C.
Ape introduced into a puppet
master-infested chimp group to satisfy the scientists' curiosity about how
the puppet masters multiplied. He was used as a test case for nine-day
fever as a weapon against the invaders.
Schedule Bareback
First phase of Operation
Parasite. It required everyone to stay exposed to the waist to ensure that
they were free of puppet
master control.
Schedule Counter Blast
Offensive against the puppet
masters that involved taking over all news media in infested areas. The
infestation was much greater than suspected, and the plan failed completely.
Schedule Fever
Operation to infect people in areas infested by puppet
masters with nine-day
fever, hoping the kill the parasites and administer the antidote before
the disease killed the human hosts.
While Schedule
Bare Back was in effect in Zone
Green, a fake air-raid made it possible for puppet
master hosts to "recruit" fellow air-raid shelter occupants, and general
chaos resulted.
Seagraves Expedition
[mentioned in passing] Space expedition that disappeared en
route to the Jovian moons.
Scientific research mission that took place some time before the puppet
masters invaded Earth.
Section
Quasi-governmental intelligence organization for which Sam
Cavanaugh worked. It acted in the forefront of the battle against the puppet
master invasion.
One of two police officers who stopped Sam
Cavanaugh and Mary
Cavanaugh after they returned from their "vacation", and stripped them to
search for puppet
masters. They provided a car to take Sam and Mary to their destination
because of the bandages on Mary's back.
Anarchist-pacifist sect evicted from Canada; their settlement failed in
Little America, and the survivors emigrated to Venus. They
used an artificial language, even for personal names. The Venus colony was
infested with puppet
masters; both masters and hosts died in an epidemic of nine-day
fever; Mary
Cavanaugh (Allucquere) was the only survivor.
"Why Husbands Grow Bored"
Stereo lecture encountered by Sam
Cavanaugh while looking for a newscast that would give some clue to
conditions in Zone Red.
World War III
[mentioned in passing] It occurred before the invasion of
the puppet
masters.
The Heinlein
Society was founded by Virginia Heinlein on behalf of her husband, science
fiction author Robert Anson Heinlein, to "pay forward" the legacy of Robert A. Heinlein to future generations of "Heinlein's Children."