Masterminds

Bigger and slightly older than the other kids in his class, Malik doesn’t exactly qualify as a bully, though his belligerent attitude comes close. Malik likes to exploit Hector, who is smaller, to do his homework for him. Despite Malik’s rebellious attitude, desire to leave Serenity, and indifference toward his classmates, he has a soft spot for Hector. He saves the smaller boy from colliding with a factory truck and later grieves when his friend is presumed dead after the group’s escape.

Malik is the star of the school’s water polo team, and his athletic abilities make him useful when physical force is required. He helps Eli disable the Surety guards who try to keep the kids from escaping, and he later helps his friends get away from the rail yard workers who try to detain them. Although he often mocks his fellow clones, Malik forms a genuine emotional connection with them by the novel’s end.

At 12, Tori is slightly younger than her classmates. She aspires to be an artist when she grows up and maintains an art studio in her family’s attic. She has been friends with Amber since they were very young. Unlike most of the other clones, Tori has formed a strong emotional bond with her parents, especially her father. When she learns about the plan to escape Serenity, she’s genuinely torn about leaving the caregivers whom she considers her family.

In addition to her artistic ability, Tori is a good planner and comes up with many ideas for getting to the bottom of the Plastics Works factory mystery. She claims that she can see what other people miss and seems to grasp the big picture effortlessly. Tori is a skilled climber, too, and at least twice in the novel, she’s on the verge of falling to her death but somehow saves herself through her physical agility and quick reflexes. Her desire to let Amber in on the clones’ secret is risky, but she trusts her friend and is eventually rewarded for her faith when Amber joins the resistance.

The runt of the group, Hector is small for his age, and Malik constantly makes fun of his stature, calling him “shrimp.” Despite this mockery, Hector isn’t dissuaded. He’s an optimist who believes that Malik is really his friend. Likewise, he believes that his parents care about him because his mother once referred to him as “valuable.” Later, Hector learns that the reason for his family’s detached behavior is that he’s merely a clone. Their lack of concern hurts him deeply.

Because of his small size and passive disposition, Hector is initially excluded from the plot to break into the factory, but he’s undeterred and tags along anyway. His persistence is rewarded when the others have no choice but to include him in their plans. Hector becomes useful to the group because of his small size and quick thinking. He can maneuver easily through the factory’s air ducts, and his alertness to danger keeps his friends from being caught. At the novel’s end, Hector’s fate is unknown, but he’s presumed to have died in the truck crash during the group’s escape.

At the beginning of the story, Amber is perfectly content with her life in Serenity. She feels fortunate to live in such a safe place and doesn’t understand why anybody would want to leave. Her main interest is ballet, and she’s the town’s only dance student. As the schoolteacher’s daughter, she feels that she must uphold a standard of excellence. Amber has always been Tori’s friend but is disturbed when Tori starts keeping secrets and spending time with Eli, Malik, and Hector.

When Amber accidentally finds out about the clone project, she doesn’t believe it but is loyal enough to keep from revealing Tori’s secrets to their parents. Amber becomes a part of the group only when she makes a final attempt to “rescue” Tori from the ill-advised escape plan. Amber’s own sickness when she reaches the city limits convinces her that the other clones aren’t lying. At this point, she becomes enraged at the deception of the adults in her life. More than any of the others, Amber wants revenge against Serenity. By the novel’s end, she’s completely on board with the group’s plans.

Eli’s best friend, Randy, is a prankster who never takes life too seriously. Unfortunately, he almost gets Eli killed when he persuades his friend to travel outside the city limits. Randy is punished by being sent away to a private school in Colorado. However, he’s loyal to Eli and leaves a secret message for his friend, warning him that something’s wrong in the town.

Randy is the first person to notice that some of the kids in town are special—and he recognizes that he’s not one of them. His message to Eli starts the investigation that leads the clones to realize who they really are. Randy isn’t an active character in most of the novel but returns near the end when the Osiris group seeks refuge with him at his school. Once again demonstrating his loyalty to his friends, Randy welcomes the group to stay with him.

Eli’s father—or at least the persona he wants his son to believe—is somewhat strict but seems to care about Eli as a person. Frieden’s dual role as school principal and mayor makes him the town’s leader. In reality, he’s a scientific researcher named Dr. Felix Hammerstrom. Together with a tech billionaire, Hammerstrom conceived the idea of cloning criminal DNA to see if the children with this genetic fingerprint were violent by nature or simply because of a bad upbringing.

When the ethics of his experiment are called into question, Hammerstrom resigns from his university and continues to conduct his research in secret. He designed Serenity as a virtual lab to observe 11 clones as part of Project Osiris. Hammerstrom takes a clinical view of his subjects and isn’t interested in them as people. He simply wants to prove his theory. By the novel’s end, Eli successfully foils Hammerstrom’s plan by escaping, but the clones haven’t seen the last of the doctor. He attempts to recapture them later in the trilogy.

The school’s new water polo coach, Mrs. Delaney, is an outsider who came to Serenity only because she married one of the Surety officers. She’s particularly kind to Eli after he loses the companionship of Randy. However, she detaches herself from the children’s problems. Mrs. Delaney hasn’t been fully informed of the scope of Project Osiris, so she doesn’t know the danger that the clones are facing. At a critical juncture, she rescues them when they all become sick while trying to escape Serenity. Unfortunately, Mrs. Delaney keeps her distance afterward and claims that she doesn’t want to know what’s really going on in the town.