- "You think this ends with me? There are twelve nations that stand behind The Engineers. Behind me. Are you ready to fight twelve wars? Kill me... Kill me! Those nations will rise up. Put me on trial and I will spill every secret I know. I've already won."
- ― Majid Sadiq to Sam Fisher following his defeat.[src]
Majid Harata Sadiq was the leader of The Engineers, a terrorist group that launched a series of attacks on the United States of America through an ultimatum called "The Blacklist".
Sadiq and The Engineers were so big a threat, so the President of the United States had given Fourth Echelon an order to stop The Blacklist and protect America. Eventually, Sadiq was captured at Site F by Fourth Echelon commander Sam Fisher, who executed Fifth Freedom to unofficially capture and interrogate him for information.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Born in London, England, into the third generation of a family of Pakistani origin, he was recruited into MI6 right out of university. They had deemed him as their perfect agent, as he was South Asian but not very political or religious. During a deep cover mission in Iraq, however, he was compromised when the U.S. military launched a drone strike that bombed an insurgent training camp near the Iranian border and a large portion of the village he had been stationed at was destroyed. MI6 burned Sadiq and attempted to apprehend him, but he escaped. They listed him as dead, but he was secretly titled the fifth most wanted man in Britain.
Since then, he has become the leader of The Engineers, a terrorist organization dedicated to remove American influence by recalling her troops stationed in 153 countries and bring down America's ranking position as a superpower.
2013: Blacklist Attacks[]
Majid Sadiq is first identified after Fourth Echelon agent Sam Fisher assaults one of his hideouts in Mirawa, Iraq. There, Sam discovers a video recording that shows Sadiq executing an American soldier, Miguel Garcia, before threatening the intended viewer (Fisher himself) and triggering Fourth Echelon's drone to attack the compound in a strike that destroyed everything in the area.
Later on, Sadiq makes an appearance in London at the Lansdowne Mill, one of the Engineers' European bases. He captures and attempts to interrogate Fisher, who had been exposed to VX nerve gas. Fisher refuses to talk, but Sadiq is able to make a number of inferences based on Sam's outfit and Karambit. Sadiq points out that both of them kill for a cause, making the two of them alike in some manner. Before going further, he is interrupted by Isaac Briggs, who, much to Fisher's dismay, refuses to go after Sadiq and instead uses atropine to stabilize Sam. Sadiq escapes the base with the nerve gas samples.
Upon discovering that Fourth Echelon has foiled another of the Blacklist attacks in Philadelphia and one of his most trusted commanders had died, Sadiq has not only pushed forward the timetable of the attacks, but also attempts to take down the whole squad (or at least keep them occupied) by activating a computer virus within the Paladin that had gotten into their secure network and had been used to take control of the plane. Although Fisher and his crew survived and managed to keep the Paladin in the air, Sadiq had managed to stall them long enough for The Engineers to successfully attack the Liquid Natural Gas facility in Louisiana and, therefore, accomplish American Fuel.
Following the tragic events, the continuity of government is issued and all high-ranking government officials moved to a bunker in Denver called "Site F". Sadiq raids the bunker, killing most of the resistance and attempts to gain access into the Secretary of Defense's account. Just as he is about to force the Secretary to comply and give him access, Briggs, who had intentionally turned himself in to give a diversion for Sam, grabs the SecDef and snaps his neck, exercising Fifth Freedom.
As a result, an outraged Sadiq makes a last ditch effort to escape via the Paladin while using the hostages as cover. However, his plan is once again foiled by Fisher, who triggers Delta Force's sniper attack after freeing himself as one of the hostages. Sadiq is able to avoid Delta's attack and shoots Briggs in his arm, crippling him. Fisher continues his pursuit and, after a brutal brawl, immobilizes Sadiq by cutting his leg open twice with his Karambit.
Even upon defeat, Sadiq claims that he has already "won", threatening Fisher that if he kills him, the twelve nations that stand behind The Engineers will rise up and attack America, or if he puts him on trial, he will "spill every secret [he] knows". Leaving him with no choice, Fisher employs Fifth Freedom and unofficially imprisons Sadiq.
To protect the public welfare, Sadiq is announced as dead by President Caldwell. He is last seen talking with a near-fully recovered Victor Coste, before Fisher comes into the room to begin interrogating Sadiq to bring down the rest of the Engineers.
Profile[]
Majid Sadiq is shown to be very intelligent and collected, using tactics of deception and mind games to play with his enemies. He uses fear and efficient planning to sabotage enemy operations, ambush otherwise covert operations and use chaos to fuel his vendetta. Being a former MI6 agent, Majid Sadiq is also trained in hand-to-hand combat and efficient with many forms of weaponry. Despite being very professional, it is shown that he underestimates his enemies sometimes, such as the moment when Isaac Briggs kills the Secretary of Defense, or when he is ultimately defeated by Sam Fisher.
Trivia[]
- Majid Sadiq's model is entirely based on his actor Carlo Rota.
- Majid Sadiq is an anglicized Arabic name. "Majid", originally «مجيد», means "glorious" or "supreme". "Sadiq" could have a number of origins. One is «صادق» (pronounced [saa-deq],) meaning "honest". The other is «صديق» (pronounced [sa-diq],) meaning "friend". Despite being of Pakistani origin, Sadiq mispronounces his own name, using the /dj/ sound to pronounce "j". (This sound doesn't exist in Arabic.)
- Sadiq is the first boss battle in the Splinter Cell series where the player must complete a series of quick time events (QTE) to defeat him.
- Sadiq uses names of chess pieces ('Queen', 'Rook', etc.) as codenames for the members of his team during Blacklist Zero.
- Sadiq's threats at the end of the game have been clichés of the spy films since 1970. The threat of revealing secrets is plain blackmailing; its strength comes from the secrets themselves. The treat of retaliation by backing nations, however, is a bluff. Nations that sponsor black-ops do so with the intention of covering their own involvement.
- Sadiq is one of the four Splinter Cell antagonists that Sam Fisher doesn't kill. The others include: Suhadi Sadono (Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow,) Toshiro Otomo (Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory,) and Tom Reed (canonically spared in Splinter Cell: Conviction.)
- Sadiq is one of five bald antagonists in the Splinter Cell series. The others include: Norman Soth, Douglas Shetland, Vyacheslav Grinko, and Emile Dufraisne.