BENJAMIN PIERCE is a young SCANNER, telepath, and a minor character.
Pierce is a lonesome artist, selling his art to the curator ARNO CROSTIC and refusing to "meet his public". At the age of ten, Pierce attempted to kill his family because of the misery of being a Scanner. He was admitted to a prison for the criminally insane, however he was released and allowed rehabilitation through art.
He meets the Scanner CAMERON VALE and is subsequently assassinated by a group of Scanners sent by DARRYL REVOK, a renegade Scanner planning world domination. Before he dies, however, he tells Vale to never join Revok; all of his Scanners are violent, robotic killers. The real safe haven, Pierce tells Vale, is with another unaffiliated Scanner — KIM OBRIST.