| “ | We are all part of this world, I have made the world part of me | „ |
| ~ Kaspar describes his tattooed appearance |
Magnus Payne, also known as Kaspar, is the secondary antagonist of the Alex Rider novel Ark Angel. He is the head of Force Three.
Origins
Magnus Payne comes from Eastern Europe, either Russia, France or Germany. He is a feared, ruthless criminal, and nothing is known about him.
Biography
Magnus is described by Max Webber as "wherever possible, he likes to push the button himself." Magnus Payne enjoys being a terrorist, and he will openly voice his pleasure at crime.
Magnus first appears when he meets Alex after kidnapping him from his hospital. Magnus Payne introduces himself as Force Three's leader, and that he believes in a planet free of rich businessmen exploiting themselves and the environment. Magnus Payne is odd, because he professes belief in saving the world, but he also has no respect for human life. He has the night receptionist shot for no reason other than pleasure.
Magnus imprisons Alex, intending to cut off his finger and give it to Nikolei Drevin their enemy, but when he realizes Alex is not Paul Drevin, he is Alex, he gets furious, and burns down the tower, impirisoning Alex in a pyre, but deliberately leaves room for Alex to escape.
Magnus Payne appears on Drevin's island in the Caribbean, acting as Magnus Payne, but Alex wonders where Kaspar has gone to. Magnus introduced himself to Alex as Kaspar, but on the island introduced himself as Magnus. Alex only realized that they were both one and the same when Magnus pulled off his face mask and revealed his true face after killing Force Three.
Magnus Payne also appeared in outer space, when Alex had gone beyond the Earth to stop Drevin's station destroying Washington. Magnus Payne had opened the hatch from his rocket and slipped in, but Alex believed he was imagining things because he was alone in space, wasn't he? But he got a shock when Magnus Payne appeared hovering before him with a knife in his hand. Magnus was determined to kill Alex even though Alex told him that he had lost and Drevin was dead, and the CIA were in control on the island. Alex and Magnus had a battle in space, with Magnus attempting to strangle Alex by cupping his hands round Alex's throat, but Alex eventually knocked Magnus off balance by opening an airdock window on the station, causing the Sun to come smashing into the room, almost blinding Magnus, who was sent flying back across the room, where the knife he had dropped was pinned to the wall. He went through the knife and died.
Personality
The personality of Magnus Payne is a divide between his identity and alter-ego, Kaspar. As Payne, he is a man of few words but is loyal, resourceful and efficient. Payne proves to be very intelligent as he was able to uncover that Alex Rider was an agent of MI6; he is also possibly sadistic as when he killed Force Three with a rifle he was smiling while doing such an act.
Payne's greatest ability was to deceive others around him. A master of disguise and manipulation, he proved to be completely loyal to NikoleI Drevin and his motives. He was even willing to put himself through massive physical pain to assist his boss, going as far to tatoo his skull to have it resemble the Earth.
As Kaspar, the leader of eco-terrorist group, Force Three he is extremely dedicated to defending the Earth, specifically pollution or risks to the environment but is the farthest thing from a sane or compromising man, he declares no concern over civilians safety and would even kill someone simply for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. A so-called "freedom fighter", Kaspar showed intense pride of his planet, to the point where he mutialted his face to reminisce his appearance in the shape of a globe. He was even willing to harm innocent children to help his goals and was fully prepared to cut off Paul Drevin's finger as to send a warning to his father. Kaspar appeared to have lost all sanity near the end of his life. While attacking Alex onboard Ark Angel with a knife he was described as having a maddened look in his eye and refused to listen to him that as Drevin was dead, there was no need of dropping the space station into Washington.
