Zeljan Kurst

Zeljan Kurst
Biographical Information
Name	Zeljan Kurst
Relationship Information
Occupation	Head of SCORPIA

Zeljan Kurst is an antagonist in the novels Snakehead and Scorpia Rising.

Career

Kurst is the head of the criminal organization SCORPIA (his position in SCORPIA is the same as that of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of the criminal organization SPECTRE, in the James Bond series). He owns a funeral parlor business with a secret room which is used as SCORPIA's conference room. He also gives Major Winston Yu the assignment of carrying out Operation Reef Encounter, and they regularly have meetings throughout the novel so that Yu can brief Kurst on the operation's progress.

Life

During the early 1980s, Kurst was the head of police in Yugoslavia but he eventually left after his country began to break up. He had no family or friends, and nowhere to live - he desperately needed work, and he knew that SCORPIA was his best option. He worked successfully with the organization for many years, rising up through their ranks until, before long, he was their chairman. Kurst has a love of classical music, particularly Mozart, and while he was the head of police he would interrogate prisoners with a symphony playing in the background. Kurst also has a passion for extreme violence.

Kurst admires Alex Rider for the fact that he was able to foil Operation Invisible Sword in the novel Scorpia; he even tells Major Yu not to underestimate Alex just because of his age and to exercise caution during Operation Reef Encounter.

In Scorpia Rising, Kurst organizes a plot, with the help of terrorist Razim, to backmail the British government into returning the Elgin Marbles to Greece and also to kill Alex Rider. The plot ends with Razim dead and Kurst arrested by INTERPOL. It is more than likely that Kurst was executed for his crimes.