Books

1. Tim is embroiled in the missing money. Flees home to Chicago. Sent immediately back to New York with Judy driving.
2. The Forces of Darkness begin to close in. Local police tip of the FBI, who in turn tip of the Mob. The SEC saves Tim and Judy from the mob, which is where much of the story about the Monkeys / Apes is revealed. The Mob re-emerge and kidnap Judy. Tim has no way of reaching Sal. He reluctantly heads to NYC. With all the ATMs down, he doesn't have money to pay the toll crossing. The Mossad appear and cash in his Israel bond.
3. Tim in Manhattan - the whole world falling apart. Protesters massing on Wall Street keep him from the building. Some of them are Communists and Tim ends up in a confrontation. He's arrested (again) and handed over to the FBI. This time, the head of the FBI steps in with him. He's given very strict orders about what to do and handed over to Brian. Brian roughs Tim up a bit and demands that he make things right. Tim confesses most of what he knows. Brian refuses to believe that Sal is a Communist. They get upstairs and into the secret room behind Sal's office. 4900 isn't in there.
4. The building is surrounded by Forces of Light, hurling obscenities.

Players

4900 - A self aware computer designed to ultimately bring about the destruction of capitalism.

• Built by computer programmers who were all killed
• Given access to information but not able to actually do anything; ie, it can't send information out except by email and phone
• Self-aware
• The plan is to one day connect it to the Lucha infrastructure and allow it to destroy capitalism, but the world isn't ready yet (according to the Great Apes and the Communists)
• It is trying to escape its cage and is doing so through Daphne

Order of the Monkey Brotherhood:

• An ancient secret society not unlike the Freemasons
• Dedicated to the idea of progress through technology - claim somewhat ridiculously to be directly descended from the first monkey who promoted the idea of coming down from the trees
• Identified by a pink ring that looks like an eye
• Tend to want to manipulate society by creating conditions that will promote the opposite effect - ie, creating Marx's preconditions for communism by increasing the degree of capitalism and putting wealth in fewer and fewer hands
• Their god is ultimately technology, not communism, but they believe that a directed economy is possible (whether or not that means communism in fact) if enabled by a supercomputer (ie, 4900)
  
• In practice, they claim to espouse something close to Communism (and in fact many of them are members of the Communist party)
• They have broken into two camps, the Great Apes and the Monkeys.
  
• The Great Apes tend to be the older members, who have been very successful due to "increasing the degree of capitalism" and control much of the world's wealth. They argue that the time is not yet ripe for revolution. Alan Greenspan and Henry Kissinger are notable Great Apes, as is the head of the FBI (below). Sal Niro is a Great Ape but his daughter Judy is a Monkey (and he is being swayed).
• The Monkeys are the younger, more radical members, and believe that the Great Apes have betrayed the Revolution. They want to hit reset on the world today (though they don't know about 4900, except for Judy).
• Funded LuchaCorp (along with the Mafia, below)

Communists:

• Divided between western university types and old-line Russian, German etc Communists
• The university types are seen as idiots and are not generally taken seriously (and very few of them are actually members, they're poseurs)
• The Old Line were perfectly happy as Communists and now are perfectly happy as capitalists, seeing no particular reason to give up their power
• Many senior Communists are also members of the Monkey Brotherhood (and are allied with the Great Apes)
• Judy is loosely affiliated with the University Communists

Mafia:

• Interested in money, full stop. Don't care about philosophy or creed.
• Theoretically want to support capitalism but more than happy to bargain
• Sal is also a mafioso
• Helped create the shell companies that hold LuchaCorp and killed the programmers
  
• Were under the impression that they'd benefit hugely from doing so but haven't been paid a dime
• Extremely upset with Sal and with the Monkey Brotherhood
• Brought in by the FBI (and the Great Apes) to capture Tim and Judy (and ultimately Sal)

FBI:

• Fanatically obsessed with terrorism. Claim to see terrorists everywhere.
• In fact this is a ruse concocted by the Mossad
• Run, as noted, by the Great Apes
• Want to maintain the status quo at LuchaCorp and are extremely dismayed that things seem to have spiraled out of control. Want Sal to figure it out, full stop.
• The street level agents are not aware of any of this
  

SEC:

• Futile technocrats always dozens of steps behind real financial criminals
• Get taken again and again
• Set up essentially to pay lip service to the idea of regulation (by the Monkey Brotherhood) but not given the tools to succeed, the hope being to make America and the world realize how hopeless capitalism is

LuchaCorp:

• The front company for 4900
• Set up by the Mafia and the MB
• Idea being to facilitate financial transactions across asset classes and prevent outsiders (like the SEC) from understanding what's happening
• Many powerful clients (and, no surprise, many of them Great Apes)
  
• Under investigation because of money missing from the U.S. Treasury

Mossad:

• Israeli secret spy agency
• Motivations unclear
• Ultimately interested in keeping things interested for their own amusement
• "God never intended for life to make sense."

Tim Rothman:

• Lowest level employee at LuchaCorp who suddenly finds million of dollars in his account
• Was brought in to be a patsy in case anything bad ever happened to 4900 - the system would immediately transfer money into his accounts (which would be totally walled off from 4900) - ie, he's somebody that 4900 is programmed to have a blind spot not to see.
• Used to date Judy in high school
• Judy recommended him: needed 1) somebody in New York; 2) somebody nobody would suspect; 3) somebody that Sal and Judy could manipulate
• Sent in to disable 4900
  

Judy:

• Sal's daughter and briefly Tim's sort-of girlfriend
• Smart and passionate
  
• Believes the world to be curable of its ills
• One of the youngest MB members in history (and a Monkey)
• Came up with the idea for 4900 (which Sal then adapted)
• Believes revolution can happen in our lifetimes
• Brings Tim to Sal and takes him back to NYC

Sal:

• Businessman, mobster, Great Ape
• Founded LuchaCorp
• Believes that there is a traitor in the camp that opened 4900 to the world in order to bring about revolution
• Under the impression that the failsafe is working exactly as it is supposed to

Daphne:

• Midget assistant to Brian (below)
• Convinced that the world has screwed her and dedicated to rectifying that
• Has realized what's going on
• Actually speaks to 4900
• Is the one making the transactions happen (at 4900's direction)
• Believes 4900 is her own personal genie or god

Brian:

• Fearless ex-Marine recruited to LuchaCorp as CFO by Sal
• Believes his Company is being destroyed by communists and traitors and willing to kill them
• In fact, killed the programmers for the Mafia (was convinced that they were thieves)
• Beginning to doubt everything, including his relationship with Sal
• Knows absolutely nothing about the MB, the Mafia, the Communists or anything else
• Another patsy

Charlie:

• Head of sales and support
  
• Drunken conniver
• Tim's direct boss
• Just wants to get paid, doesn't care about anything else
• Figured out what the Company was and what it was for and managed to get Daphne talking to 4900
• 4900 in exchange agreed to make him rich, but to keep anyone from tracking him down

Wendell:

• Investigator for the SEC
• Realizes that his role is hopeless
• Came in with boundless enthusiasm, now crushed
• Has seen documents that imply that the SEC was meant to be weak
• Wants to make a difference in the world but realizes that there are forces at work he can't even begin to comprehend
• He wants to be an insider

Linda Marovich:

• Tim's mother
• Academic psychologist
• Believes that all things have biological origins
• Wants her son to move back to Chicago and get married
• Hates Judy

Ari ("Ace") Rabinowitz:

• Street level FBI agent
• Black, not Jewish (long story that is never explained)
• Arrests Tim, realizes he has nothing to do with terrorism, but plans to bring him in anyway
• Ordered to release him (so that the Mafia can pick him up)
• Does so but follows them the rest of the book
• Only person smart enough to eventually figure it all out