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Erich Soders (also known as "the Operative") is the former Board Member and Training Director for the International Contract Agency. He is the secondary antagonist of HITMAN™, appearing as one of 47's targets in the Situs Inversus mission, and a central character in the comic book Agent 47: Birth Of The Hitman.

Background[]


Retired from the field in 1981, Erich Soders is still considered the best ICA agent of his generation.

Despite his superior skills, Soders was forced to retire at an early age, due to a congenital heart condition. One of his last missions was the legendary assassination of Jasper Knight, a U.S. chess master who was exposed as a KGB spy, a mission which is still studied vicariously by ICA Handlers for its craft and strategic purity.

Soders was appointed as Senior Supervisor in charge of recruitment and training of new ICA operatives and later joined the ICA Board of Directors.

Soders suffers from the rare condition, Situs Inversus, in which his internal organs are reversed. He received his first heart transplant in 1995 - a procedure that might have involved illegal, black market organ trading. However, being a sacred ICA cow, no formal investigation was made.

Intel suggests that Soders is once again dying and right-sided donor hearts are almost impossible to obtain. This, plus the fact that Soders is virtually broke from gambling, gives an indication of why he has chosen to betray ICA and become a mole for Providence. They not only have access to the best medical treatments that money can buy, but they also have the global reach and means to procure an illegal donor heart at short notice.

Soders cannot have been on Providence payroll for more than a few weeks. Otherwise, he would have warned them about the hits on their operatives in Italy and Morocco. He was likely turned shortly after the abduction of Thomas Cross from his son's funeral, when Providence realized that someone was using ICA to attack their operatives. Providence has presumably kept files on all ICA board members, in case they would ever need to infiltrate us. This explains why Soders' file was among the shadow client's research in Colorado.

Erich Soders is a survivor, plan and simple. Once a formidable assassin, he grew bitter and resentful after his early forced retirement and has now lost all sense of honor. This mission is regrettable, yet necessary. Soders must pay for his treachery and we must draw a line in the sand.
― Target Intel

Description and Behavior[]

Erich Soders is found undergoing surgery in GAMA's operating theatre, where he is being treated on an operating table machine. The right-sided donor heart can be found in a freezer in the morgue. The operating theatre is heavily guarded and protected by bulletproof glass, whereas the donor heart is protected by two bodyguards.

The surgeon performing Soders' operation, Nicholas Laurent, is the son of one of Soders' victims, Roman Laurent. A USB drive containing Soders' ICA profile can be taken from Yuki Yamazaki's room and inserted into Laurent's computer. If Laurent discovers that Soders killed his father and overdoses on his medication, he will exact revenge and kill Soders with the operating table.

Soders' donor heart was harvested from a murdered Brazilian child on the request of GAMA's chief mortician, Katashi Ito. The heart can be ripped from its machine or shot at, destroying it. As it is unlikely for GAMA to obtain another heart on short notice, Diana will mark Soders as eliminated.

He can be killed by stabbing him with the operating table, draining all of his blood with the latter, overpowering the robotic defibrillator arm, or poisoning his stem cell treatment. These, of course, require sabotage elsewhere.

If 47 confronts him while wearing his Signature Suit, Soders will realize that 47 was sent to assassinate him and immediately have a fatal heart attack.

Trivia[]

  • According to "Overachievers," Soders assassinated Jasper Knight with a rigged ejector seat, a similar method Agent 47 can use during The Final Test.
  • Soders acts as an inanimate object in Contracts mode.
  • Despite Soders being the secondary antagonist, he only appears at the prologue, and the ending of the game.
  • He recruited Diana into the ICA and was a personal friend of her parents.
  • As hinted by cutscenes in HITMAN™, Soders viewed Agent 47 as a threat due to 47's inhuman nature, capabilities and general lack of background - All of which can potentially harm ICA. While Soders rigged the mission with significantly more guards, Diana thwarted this attempt, resulting in 47 successfully joining ICA as a formal agent.
  • Along with Arthur Edwards, Erich Soders is considered one of the prime candidates for the identity of Mr. X. Soders is first introduced (and prominently shown) in the shadows, he has a motive for wanting 47 dead, he bears a physical resemblance to the Mystery Man, and he clearly knows a lot more about the facility in Romania than he lets on.
  • He is the first target that can be assassinated without being directly killed - The objective will be automatically cleared once the replacement heart has been destroyed, leading to Soders' implied death.
  • Poisoning Soders' stem cell treatment with emetic or sedative poison will also kill him. It will also cause the veins on his body to become more exposed.
  • A news report in Nightcall and 47's hallucinations in Untouchable show that Soders was canonically killed by the operating table. However, it is left ambiguous as to whether 47 or Dr. Nicholas Laurent did so, whether by means of the robotic arms going haywire, or his blood completely drained remains unknown.
  • An unused character model for Soders' younger self can be found in the files of Chasing a Ghost in HITMAN™ III.

Gallery[]

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