Main characters II


 * Ulysses Brock (Hooch Palmer) - A whisky trader. A down-to-earth and confident person, Hooch is a "Spark", capable of setting materials alight, a fact he kept to himself. He treats his gift as the ultimate tool for revenge and has a simple policy that, if something goes terribly awry, he'll resorts to setting things aflame. However, ironically enough, Hooch himself is afraid of fire. His main goal is to simply become rich, one way or another. He owns a flatboat he uses to transport kegs of whisky and always has one keg filled with gunpowder as a safety measure in case Reds attack him. Palmer is killed by Fink, one of his hired poleboys who is bribed by Harrison when relations between the governor and the trader become heated. In his last seconds, Hooch tries to set the gunpowder keg on fire in order to take everyone in the vicinity with him, but Fink had already filled the keg with water before they arrived in Carthage City. At one point in the novel, Harrison refers to Hooch as having a mind like a snake and a mouth like a hog'.

 
 * Mike Fink - A poleboy hired by Hooch, but who later ends up joining Harrison, betraying and then strangling his former boss to death. Known for being mean and strong, Mike has a habit of chewing off ears of people he wrestles, he's the one you send to deal with Reds after Alvin and Measure, but it's never stated in the book. Working for Harrison, he almost kills Measure just before the Tippy-Canoe massacre, breaking every bone in his body. However, he becomes somewhat disgusted with what he's done and leaves the battlefield, as the hunch suggested. He is eager to fight, but has rules, a code of conduct he obeys. For instance, he is not a knifing type. When he was not even a month old, his mother had both of Mike's buttocks tattooed, one to defend him from harm and the other to help him make a fortune.


 * Hickory Jackson (Andrew Jackson) - A lawyer and general of the American army, Jackson resents Reds and intends to drive them west of the Mizzipy. He's a strict and upright demeanor with little sense of humor. Andrew sees himself as a honorable warrior, unlike Bill Harrison, whom he calls an assassin and a poisoner'. Jackson led the American army during the assault on Fort Detroit and won rather easily, dealing with Reds. It's implied he wants to become president one day.