Morgan Everett

Morgan Everett is the CEO of Picus in the, and among the Council of Five who lead the Illuminati prior to Majestic 12's coup. After this coup, he becomes the acting leader of what is left of the Illuminati.

Everett is an antagonist in the games and media of the Deus Ex series set in the 2020s, when the Illuminati are in power, but serves as an ally to the protagonist in Deus Ex, set in 2051.

Early life
Everett is born into a life of wealth and power, growing up under the shaping influence of the Knights Templar. He mentions a childhood memory of taking Catholic communion in Cathedrale de Payens alongside "two Rockefellers and a Rothschild".

Everett joins the Illuminati and finds a place on its ruling council, the Council of Five. He becomes the protégé of the Illuminati leader Lucius DeBeers, who grooms Everett to succeed him as leader.

Illuminati years
As well as being a member of the Council of Five, Everett is one of the leaders of Majestic 12, the Illuminati's technological division. Everett brings Bob Page into the Illuminati, training him to be his successor. He is instrumental in bringing the younger man into the leadership of the Illuminati, and Page later becomes another leader of Majestic 12. They share a close relationship, and Everett treats Page like a son. Together, they pursue various projects, some of which that have not been approved by the other Illuminati members. After Page establishes his company Page Industries, it is Everett that advises him to invest in the failing pharmaceutical firm VersaLife. This proves to be good advice as the company makes billions from Neuropozyne, and is key to the Illuminati's plan to control augmentations.

In the 2020s, Everett is based mostly in Montreal due to him being the CEO of Picus Group's Montreal branch. The city is home to Picus' headquarters, Picus Communications, which includes offices for Everett's secret propaganda division, Picus Confidential. Picus Confidential allows him to implement the Illuminati's "Icarus Effect" plan, which seeks to control "destabilizing" elements and individuals within society via careful media manipulation and covert monitoring of data. He creates the artificial intelligence Eliza Cassan to aid in this process of manipulating the news.

As a member of the Illuminati's Council, Everett has a part to play in causing the Aug Incident, most likely by using Picus' satellites to cause the glitch experienced by mechanically augmented people. In the same year, Everett helps to hide VersaLife's and Bob Page's role in the Rifleman Bank Station experiments. He has the Hyron Project equipment removed from the sea-floor lab before it becomes known to the public. Following the Aug Incident, Everett directs Picus to spin the reporting on the disaster to prevent the Illuminati's role in it being exposed. Everett also has to deal with his AI Eliza, who turns rogue during the Incident. He eventually restores Eliza to an earlier version of the software which he believes will prevent her from going rogue again. However, he fears that the original Eliza has escaped his control and attempts to recapture her in 2029.

As part of his work for Majestic 12, Everett creates the AI Morpheus, likely from modifying the code to Eliza. Morpheus is a prototype for another of Everett's AIs, Daedalus, that he creates to replace Echelon III. He also develops nanites, nano-scale robots crucial to various technologies including nanotechnological augmentations and nano-based weapons. Everett has a hand in creating what is later known as the Gray Death virus, although his work is related to nano-augmentations. He creates the "eutactic" component of the virus, but this work is later modified by his protégé, Bob Page, to make the deadly nano-virus.

When DeBeers falls mortally ill, Everett constructs a cryogenic storage device designed to keep the Illuminati leader alive well beyond his normal lifespan. Although Everett justifies it out of humanitarian reasons and respect for his patron, it is actually a strategic power move that goes against DeBeers' own stated wish to die naturally. By keeping DeBeers alive and nominally still in charge of the Illuminati, Everett is able to take over all of his power and authority within the organization while avoiding the costly power struggle that would come from the death of the ruling leader.

Page's coup
Everett is warned by DeBeers that Page does not believe in the Illuminati's secret mission of ensuring world stability from the shadows, and that he is stealing information for his own selfish uses. However, Everett is too attached to his protégé, and DeBeers' warnings fall on deaf ears. These suspicions become reality in 2035 when Page turns on Everett, and ousts him and the other leaders from the organization. Page loses respect for Everett and the Illuminati, and considers their calm, secretive brand of global leadership to be merely a sign of cowardice and weakness. Page also steals credit for the creation of the AIs Everett created for Majestic 12, and by controlling them, becomes the most powerful person in the world virtually overnight. Due to Page's new-found control over virtually all electronic communications, Everett is forced to go into hiding and cease almost all communications with the outside world. He resides in Paris, although the exact location is kept secret to all but his most trusted accomplices, such as Toby Atanwe, his maid Carmela, and his mechanic Pierre.

Hiding
"Among the elect group that knew anything about the Illuminati, everybody know that Morgan Everett was the man to watch. There was no question that he was being carefully and personally groomed to take over the organization when Lucius DeBeers died or retired. Then fate intervened to shatter the massive Illuminati power structure. Everett's own protégé turned against the organization, and Everett (partially from his own choice) never did ascend to the ultimate seat of power. He did, however, manage to come through the sea-change more secure in his fortune and influence than any of the rest of the council except one. Nonetheless, he was greatly diminished from his glory days.

But after all, what's the point of being a gray eminence at all, if you can't keep plotting when the chips are down? His enemies think he's out of the great game, and for now that suits Everett just fine. When he's ready to strike, then they'll know."

- description of Morgan Everett While in hiding, Everett remains in contact with Beth DuClare who is said to be his mistress. They by-pass MJ12's surveillance of electronic communications by using a code and key system that has designated a meeting place with a particular code-key combination. The two frequently discuss how they plan to take back control from Majestic 12 and restore the Illuminati to its former glory.

Everett has figured out every plan of Page's, but has not had the power to stop any of them. However, this changes when he is contacted by JC Denton from DuClare's secret routing station in her home. To prove his loyalty, JC is told by Everett to open access to MJ12's network at Cathedrale de Payens in Paris, allowing Everett to complete the Gray Death vaccine. Everett subsequently allows JC into his residence and sends him on a mission to meet X-51, a group of scientists who stopped working for Majestic 12 at Area 51 for moral reasons. They are the only people besides MJ12 capable of producing the Gray Death vaccine on a large scale due to the X-51 Universal Constructor. When JC is in Vandenberg Air Force Base, Everett tells him to connect to MILNET in order to allow Daedalus to take control of Icarus, only to have the plan backfire with the merger of the two AIs into Helios.

He later makes contact again when JC is at Area 51, and tries to persuade him to return power to the Illuminati by killing Page.

Notable quotes

 * "I once knelt in this chapel for communion, with two Rockefellers and a Rothschild. Since the time of the Crusades every leader in finance has prayed for the continued stability of Templar banks, founded on gold."
 * "You see the need for global organization. Someone has to bring these disparate groups together."
 * "You and me, JC. We'll rule the world in secret, with an invisible hand, the way the Illuminati have always ruled."

Trivia

 * Everett's treatment of Lucius DeBeers in keeping the latter as a think-tank, with no intentions of reviving him despite the availability of technology to do so, was meant to show that "no one (in our world) is innocent, even the 'good guys,'" according to Deus Ex game designer Harvey Smith.