Wazir Kale, otherwise known as The Maelstrom (or "The Ghost"), is an infamous South China Sea pirate and the right-hand lieutenant of the Shadow Client. He appears as a target in the Chasing a Ghost mission in HITMAN™ 2.
Background[]
Post-carnage, Kale got out of Mumbai and ended up roaming around the Asian continent. Along with way, he picked up a rag-tag bunch of criminals whom he formed a sort of paramilitary unit. Together, they eventually ended up raiding commercial ships in the South China Sea, stealing transported fuel in highly coordinated hits and selling it on the black market. The pressure on Kale kept building as the constant obligations mounted. Each new raid forced him to find new waters, find new partners, relocate to another abandoned island. On top of that, the legend forged by the pirates who retired from raiding added more pressure than ever and gripped his crew in such a way that they began acting more carelessly, adopting more loose tactics and to some extent, chose more daring targets. They were, after all, with The Maelstrom. One night, while raiding the Hamsun Oil Freighter, a firefight ensued between the Maelstrom's crew and the ship's unexpectedly well-armed security force. Someone had tipped them off about the raid and the owner of Hamsun Oil had insisted that the pirates be dealt with - with extreme prejudice.
While Kale survived, most of his crew did not and from the wreckage emerged a darker, more menacing figure. Wazir Kale was gone and all that remained was the Maelstrom. This was the dark time for Kale who had not only lost his way but also control of his outfit - all that remained was a desire to destroy, to tear down the bastions of rich Westerners who had brought so much injustice to every single member of his crew. And then, a light was lit in the far distance. One of The Maelstrom's surviving crew members contacted him and let him know that a man of great importance wanted to see him. The Maelstrom agreed to the meeting and over the course of a few days got to know Lucas Grey and understand his agenda. While not an altruistic person, The Maelstrom saw something in what Grey was selling - a chance to find a new purpose. To solidify the legend of The Maelstrom into something beyond a modern-day pirate. He would bring liberation to the entire world, no matter the cost in blood.Description[]
Wazir Kale's bloody, brutal reputation precedes him. A ruthless modern-day pirate, he had terrorized the South China Sea until his fall in 2014. Beloved by some citizens, despised by others, he is the stuff of legend in the Mumbai slums.
Born in the Mumbai slums, Kale was an orphan who survived by joining and later, leading a streetgang called The Crows. He also had a house in the slums and gave it to a woman he loved named Neha. After the gang was decimated by the local mafia, a vengeful Kale would join their ranks and take his revenge in a similar manner. Following this, he left Mumbai.
Kale would then form a pirate gang, and terrorize the South China sea, robbing ships of transported fuel and selling it on the black market. The pirate colony known as Ambrose Island was one of his old ports of call. His alias 'The Maelstrom' was a name to be feared as he was the best at his job, coordinating properly planned and successful hits on trade ships. He was said to be the "scourge of the shipping industry during the post-Recession years." However, this reputation would be his undoing as he and his crew got careless and hijacked the supertanker, Frances King. Chinese elite forces stormed the ship and massacred Kale's crew.
While most of the crew was killed, Kale and some surviving members would manage to escape and take more prominent roles. Kale, at some point, was chosen by Lucas Grey to become his lieutenant and the leader of his militia's eastern cell. Kale returned to Mumbai and took control of the city alongside his two surviving gang members, Vanya Shah and Dawood Rangan. While his allies lived life as powerful well-known figures in the city, Kale decided to stick to the shadows due to the trauma and mental distress he had suffered over the years. He brought back his old gang, The Crows, who took control of the Slums and mostly kept to himself, either staying in the gang's underground hideout or wandering the streets, disguised.
After the death of some of the Militia's high-ranking members by the hands of Agent 47, Lucas Grey ordered the elimination of various Providence members. Kale and his gang carried out the assassination of a Providence CEO in Shanghai, which brought them in the sights of the ICA. Agent 47 was dispatched to Mumbai, where he finally eliminated Kale and his cronies Shah and Rangan, ending his career as a dreaded pirate and crime lord.
The man himself is surprisingly nuanced. Unassumingly dressed and polite, Kale seems content to blend into a normal life in the slums. He kept connections with the local people like Neha and had spies operating in the area, keeping him informed of the happenings of the city. Nevertheless, he is shown to still be ruthless when needed, ordering contracts on his childhood friends Vanya Shah and Dawood Rangan. Traumatized by the death of his crew, Kale was left mentally disturbed. He wished to have a purpose in his life and so, decided to join Lucas Grey and help him take down Providence, who he saw as the kind of people who ruined his life. He would also leave messages on tapes for his followers, explaining his ideology.
Shortly before Kale attends a meeting, he dons an identifiable uniform. This consists of a white tunic worn underneath a green army field jacket and a red fourragère around one shoulder. Kale can meet with either of the two primary targets as well as two local citizens of Mumbai. Depending on who he is meeting, he will proceed to the hilltop, the underground hideout, the barge by the construction site, or Shah's train station lair. The Hill and the Hideout will be guarded by a perimeter of Crow gunmen.
Memoirs[]
- Manifesto #1: You know... These are the truths that you must accept and embrace to become that which is needed. They expect you to act without rebellion. To know your place. To accept it it as inevitable. Karma. Fate. destiny. They call it many things. Do not allow this. Rage against it. Tear at it. Rip the lips from your eyes and the obedience from your souls. Lay your body and mind bare and carve at them until the marks they have placed upon you have been erased. This, my warriors, is what you must do.
- Manifesto #2: They will tell you that you are wrong. They will vilify your motivations and your actions. You know, they have burned marks of stigma on your bodies and your minds, poisoning your perception of what is truth and what is lie. My warriors, they have been doing this for centuries, manipulating you and everyone around you. Forcing you to accept their truths as yours. Well, there is a storm coming! And it will uproot everything they stand for. Ruin is upon their empire. I am calling to you, warriors, to be the force that sweeps the landscape clear of them forever.
- Manifesto #3: To achieve victory, you must become fear. Become what torments you-- to understand it, to master it. Only when you have merged entirely with the enemy will you fully fathom him. This is what is needed to win the war. Be cruel. be merciless. Become their worst fears. Only then can you truly tear down that which opposes you. Wazir Kale revolted against the oppression. He bled. He died. And from his ashes came The Maelstrom. So too, will you return. The fury and the anger and the torment and the suffering will be what eventually annihilated them.
- Manifesto #4: We were in a small shed. It was down by the water and I could hear the gentle waves lapping against the harbor front. Then, the smell of petrol and the whimpering of the others as they realized what was about to happen. The men started yelling at us, threatening us. They wanted to know who was in charge. Eventually, one of the young men broke. So, I was dragged out. Beaten senseless. As I lay there, I looked upon these men of basic violence. Their shifty eyes and nervous laughs. And it dawned upon me. The brilliance of it. Become that, which they could not. They didn't want to burn down a shed with children in it. They weren't monsters, just brutal men with simple ambitions. So, I showed them the monster. All it took was a lighter and the will to do what they couldn't. That, my friends, is when The Maelstrom was born.
- Manifesto #5: They took me in after that. Thought they could tame the beast, use it for the things they didn't dare do themselves. I got to know them. Intimately. And when the time came, I slaughtered them. Intimately. I tore down the walls of oppression, left Mumbai to tear down more-- out there, in the world. I found like-minded people and together we showed those that would have us serve what it meant to be masters of our own fate. And now, my fellow warriors, now even bigger walls need to crumble and be reduced to ashes. Join me and form your own destiny in this world. It is your right and your privilege. Become the rage. Become the storm and sweep the Earth clean of this pestilence. Together, my warriors, we shall rebuild.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Kale is the only target to disguise as a civilian.
- The easiest way to track down him in the slums is by looking for the Holy Man. He will usually be followed by Kale whenever he goes around. He always start his route at the skywalk and will walk past a moped with the Holy Man.
- Another way to spot him is he walks notably faster than all other NPCs, made easier to see in Instinct Mode.
- When meeting Rangan, Shah or the Kashmirian, Kale will change out of his civilian attire to a more dignified outfit. Oddly, his beard will disappear and reappear.
- Kale's walking animation is shared with Sean Rose.
- Kale is mentioned twice in HITMAN™.
- In World of Tomorrow, a scientist inside the field lab mentions wanting to use the virus on The Maelstrom as revenge for holding his cousin hostage during the Frances King hijacking.
- In Freedom Fighters, various soldiers mention him by name when discussing Maya Parvati's backstory.
- If held at gunpoint, Kale might express disappointment at meeting his end at the hands of a "lowlife", claiming 47 does not have the right to kill "a living legend". Alternatively, he will try to pass himself off as unimportant, and claim that surely 47 wouldn't want to ruin his nice clothes just to kill "a nobody".
- The crew member who introduced Kale to Lucas Grey was Maya Parvati, as she was a former member of the crew and was already allied with Grey.
- Kale planned to kill his former friends Dawood Rangan and Vanya Shah in order to protect his legacy; he claims that the duo have lost their ways once they returned to Mumbai. Kale thus regrets having left them behind.
- His obsession with his legacy and legend can be observed elsewhere in the mission as well. Five recordings of the Maelstrom's Manifesto, detailing his past and his philosophy, can be found spread across the map, and during his meeting with his former lover Neha, she will denounce his actions and say he has been consumed by his own legend.
- Kale has civilians and guards spying on Rangan and Shah.
- Four photographs exist of Kale: one in Rangan's tower office, one outside Shah's lounge car, one in the Crow's underground armory, and one belonging to a local resident who happened upon Kale purely by chance.
- According to Grey, he almost recruited Crystal Dawn agent Zana Kazem but chose the Maelstrom instead.