Bob Page

	"I will be the one to merge! The one to see and know everything, to rule, to rule everything..."
	— Bob Page, regarding his attempted merge with the Helios AI.

Bob Page is a wealthy industrialist and the founder and owner of Page Industries. He was amongst the ruling Council of Five in the Illuminati and one of the leaders of the Illuminati's Majestic-12 division until some time prior to 2052, when he used MJ12 to overthrow the Illuminati. By that time, Page became the wealthiest and possibly most powerful man in the world.

Background

Early life

Bob Page was a special protégé to Illuminati leader Morgan Everett. Although Page was a good student, he was also impatient and short-tempered. In 2027, Bob Page participated in a secret Illuminati conference during which the satellites in Montreal, the Illuminati's biochips and Megan Reed's discovery were discussed. Later that year, he participated in a similar conference regarding the distribution of Riezene in Panama and Ben Saxon and Anna Kelso's interference in Geneva. He also told Picus TV he used nanotechnology to cure AIDS in lab mice. Shortly afterward, he berates Jaron Namir and Sam Duarte for failing to kill Saxon when they had the chance. Sometime later in the same year, Bob Page discusses the Morpheus initiative with Morgan Everett and the nanite virus chimera with Megan Reed, who has seemingly come to work for him at Page Industries.

Based on their work in creating Morpheus, Page and Everett developed Daedalus, an AI program that would help the Illuminati keep track of and control all global communications. The pair began research into nanotechnology which led to the creation of nanites; a technology that would be later exploited by Page to create the Gray Death virus. Page was a major power behind the push for nano-augmentation and was involved in the enhancement project that JC and Paul Denton went through.

Page grew impatient with Everett's unwillingness to use the technology and the Illuminati's slow, gentle ways, and rebelled by leading Majestic-12 in a coup that saw the Knights Templar obliterated and the whole of the Illuminati infrastructure taken over by Page and his allies. The final blow to the Illuminati was when Page gained almost total control of the information infrastructure through the Aquinas System at Area 51 and the Daedalus AI, thereby making it unsafe for the Illuminati to communicate over the Internet and instead forcing them to communicate by other means.

Wanting to Become God

In 2052, publicly, Bob Page is the richest man on Earth; a trillionaire and head of the massive Page Industries, Page likes to groom his image in the public eye as a great philanthropist by donating millions of credits to the needy while still managing to remain very mysterious. In secret, he schemes to plunge the world into chaos in order to promote the conditions that will allow him to create the perfect world of his visions.

Page plans to perfect the use of nanotechnological augmentations through the Denton brothers and his chief lieutenant Walton Simons so that he could use the perfected version on himself. Instead of turning him into something akin to a super-soldier, Page's modifications would allow him to link himself to the Aquinas Router (which monitored all communication technologies on earth) and then merge with the Helios AI. He would then unite his system with a series of Universal Constructors, which would allow him to physically create anything he desired on an unimaginable scale. With this completed, Page would be all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-powerful; essentially, he would be a god.

Notes

In two of the three possible endings of Deus Ex, the player is required to kill Bob Page. In Deus Ex: Invisible War, he is dead.
Bob Page appears to have basic nano augmentation in 2027. By 2052, he has the Light augmentation (his eyes are glowing like Paul and JC Denton's but are atypically red), an Infolink, a framework allowing him to be merged with the Helios AI, and other nano-augmentations that amplify his intellect and connection to the world.

Trivia

Stanton Dowd reveals that Page did not rise up the ranks of the Illuminati in the conventional way, saying that he "resisted the degrees of Illuminism, as they were implemented". He never made it past "Master of Tyre" because he slept through Hatha Yoga lessons in the mornings. It is likely that he made his way onto the Council of Five due to Everett's influence.
Bob Page has a "cyber-assimilated" form, encountered in the last mission of Deus Ex, when he prepares to merge with the Helios AI and the universal constructor. In this form, he has control over an army of nano-creatures and fairly amazing power over the elements themselves.
During Deus Ex, Helios gives JC Denton the login details to a security terminal in Area 51. The login is Page and the password is UberAlles. Über Alles is the German for "above all else" or "more than anything else". Essentially the login details state "Page above all else", epitomising his egocentrism.

Behind the Scenes

One of Bob Page's greatest personal heroes is Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism. Once Page would merge himself with the Aquinas Router, he would become similar to what the Catholic Church believes God to be, with the exception of whereas God's world consists of flesh, emotions, and belief, Page's world would consist of machine, logic, and information.
Warren Spector said he originally wanted there to be a fourth, "bad" ending to the game where the player sides with Bob Page (who, realizing JC Denton may actually foil his plans to merge with Helios, offers the player control of a major continent in exchange for allowing Page the time to complete his merger with Helios), but this ending was scrapped due to time constraints in the game's development.

Quotes

"Aquinas spoke of the mythical City on the Hill. Soon that city will be a reality, and we will be crowned its kings. Or better than kings. Gods."
"Intimidation through violence is the last resort of the weak."
"You were just a prototype, Denton, a prototype for me..."
"Do you see the pieces coming together? UC, AI, and soon Helios will interface directly with my mind. I will be able to see anything, build anything, DO ANYTHING!"
"All I have to do is find a very large prime number and multiply."
"Jump! You can make it!"
"A moment more, and I will be like nothing you've ever seen, a new life-form, everywhere and nowhere, like air or radiation, redundant, self-replicating, always evolving..."
"I've arranged an appropriate fate for you through the hallway to the north - a poetic death - just a few yards away from where you were created."
"I will burn like the brightest star."
"Soon I will leave this body and death will have no meaning."
"Go ahead! Blow this place sky-high... You might get rid of ME, but you'll take down Aquinas, the power grid, the whole electronic infrastructure. Is that what you want? Are you completely nuts?"
"All right. I get the picture. You want a piece of the pie, or you're going to toss the whole pie out the window."
"You can have anything you want. How about Europe? Your own continent..."
"But please. Call me Bob."