He thought for a moment with his fist to his mouth then ran a search on ‘Elias Khartoum’ and found an article on TZ Daily. It was written by a journalist named Jochen Weisman. The headline was ‘21st century Illuminati under our noses.’ Frederich read with curiosity as Weisman referred to Khartoum’s remarkable acquittal rate in the German courts as the tip of a sinister iceberg. Weisman speculated that Khartoum had a guardian angel protecting him, then detailed an interview given by an unnamed source-in-hiding who claimed to have been tortured by Khartoum. According to Weisman’s source, Khartoum was a member of a worldwide criminal organisation, one equally as obscure as the Illuminati. The source claimed that Khartoum had stabbed his associate to death and had been extorting him for years before he refused to continue paying. The source had been tortured for hours in an abandoned warehouse in Zehlendorf until he was able to undo his bonds and escape. The dots could not be connected, admitted Weisman, and Khartoum had an uncanny ability to avoid prosecution. But the clues spoke volumes. Finally, Weisman quoted a name which gave Frederich a jolt and made his hairs stand up: Kalakia. The alleged mastermind of the organisation. Frederich could scarcely believe it. His lips parted and he put the computer down on the coffee table.
He recalled what he knew about Kalakia. There was the usual hearsay. Kalakia was a crime boss with deep ties to the Russian and Italian Mafia who tormented governments and murdered politicians to assert his power. To others, Kalakia was a modern day urban legend which was spread using the power of the internet, a symbol intended to distract from the real people behind the killings. Frederich paid no attention to the talk. He knew better. He turned his mind to the story Kraas had told him when he was 17.
It was in the middle of a harsh winter when he was still living in Tartu. He and Kraas were spending long periods of time by the fireplace after exhausting days of training in the snow. On one particular evening, they were discussing the corruption of lobbying in government and Kraas hinted that even lobbyists answered to somebody. When Frederich pressed him to explain further, Kraas topped up his glass with Vana Tallinn before settling in to tell Frederich about a group known in intelligence circles as The League Of Reckoning.
According to Kraas, the fall of The Berlin Wall had not only created space for a counterculture revolution, but also left behind a breeding ground where organised crime could thrive. An up-and-coming syndicate figure, known only as Kalakia, had emerged and established a base in Berlin for his unique brand of enterprise; extorting the world’s politicians, bankers and billionaires. Kraas described Kalakia as a sociopath and brilliant tactician who commanded the loyalty of some of the most gifted killers in the world.
Kraas explained how The League originated in central Europe in response to rising wealth inequality and currency debasement in the capitalist world, eventually spreading to the United Kingdom and the United States before moving into Southeast Asia and then South America. The League’s doctrine stated that concentration of wealth and power was inevitable in both the First and Third World, and that the State was unfit to resist it. A counterforce was needed to both police and tax the plutocracy. Using force, and murder when necessary, The League Of Reckoning would take excess money from the elite and funnel it back to the lower and middle class and the third world through proxy organisations. Word spread quickly. People were charmed by The League’s principles, despite its brutal methods. Droves of criminals, military personnel and even civilians abandoned their lives and swarmed to join the organisation. The League’s power grew exponentially and cast an ever-increasing shadow over governments and companies all over the world.
At first, the major powers resisted. A bounty of $250 million was offered for information leading to the capture of Kalakia. Kalakia responded in ruthless fashion. In a day which became known as ‘The Worldwide Horror,’ various government figures and heads of companies were simultaneously assassinated on three continents, with the United States, the United Kingdom and newly-capitalist Russia hit the hardest. The death toll crossed 1,500 and shocked the world. A warning had been sent. The League would not be threatened. It was lethal, ubiquitous, highly organised and untraceable. The governments reluctantly fell into line, and the major media companies were instructed to report on League activities as mafia rivalry gone global. The world economy was forced to adjust. Suddenly, no man or government could touch Kalakia, or even acknowledge him in public.
From then on, the name Kalakia was relegated to myth status while The League continued to hold the who’s who of power hostage. Kalakia’s loyal soldiers were everywhere, hidden among every population, ready to martyr themselves for The League. Kalakia had risen to become the most powerful man in the world. Any attempt on his life would lead to an apocalyptic upheaval involving the unhinged, wholesale slaughter of the world’s elite.
How Kraas knew so much about The League, he did not reveal. At the time Frederich was deeply impressed by the story. He too felt compelled to become a soldier against corruption,
