Kaz "Dirtyhands" Brekker is the current leader of the Dregs, one of several prominent gangs in the city of

Ketterdam.

He is well-known for doing any job, no matter the danger or violence involved, so as long as it will make
him a good deal of money. Both this trait and his various egregious actions have earned him the
nickname "Dirtyhands."

Kaz has pale skin and dark hair trimmed short on the sides. According to Inej, his eyes are the color of
bitter coffee or strong tea in sunlight. He has a sharp jawline, narrow face, and a lean, muscular build.
On his right arm, he has two tattoos; one of the Dregs' crow and cup on his forearm, and the other on
his bicep of a black R for 'Rietveld', his original surname. His voice is described as a "rock salt rasp."[1]

Kaz wears simple, dark suits that are tailored along severe lines to fit him, and a black hat – the clothing
of a businessman. He remarked once to Inej that he wore business clothing in order to mock respectable
businessmen, by looking like one of them. He also wears black leather gloves almost all of the time
which are described as having small slits in the fingers which allow for better card handling.

Kaz has a limp and carries a cane with a crow's head as a handle that he had created by a Fabrikator. The
cane itself is a weapon, having been weighted specifically to be used to shatter bones. His limp is due to
jumping off a roof of a bank at fourteen, an injury that never fully healed. This leg has been used as a
metaphor for Kaz himself, as his memories never healed.

Personality

"A liar, a thief, and utterly without conscience. But he'll keep to any deal you strike with him."

— Inej Ghafa

Kaz can be cold-hearted and ruthless. He will do almost any job if he so wishes, no matter how
despicable or bloody it is, thus earning him the nickname 'Dirtyhands'. Kaz is manipulative and conniving
and makes sure to always be the person in control of the situation. For this reason, he's quick-witted and
always has a trick up his sleeve. He despises skin contact, showing signs of having haphephobia by
always wearing gloves on his hands, and being unable to bear skin contact with other people. As he
wears gloves no matter what, people believe he does not want people seeing his hands due to them
looking unnatural or having disease. He rarely allows his emotions to show or influence his thinking, but
when he does, he has difficulty expressing them. Kaz is always calm and collected, never letting people
see what he’s really thinking. When he becomes particularly enraged, though, he becomes even more
ruthless. An example of this is when he pulled out Oomen’s eyeball in Six of Crows after Oomen gave
Inej a nearly fatal knife wound. He also holds a penchant for wrath and revenge; as he has sworn to
avenge his deceased brother, 'brick by brick" being a motto of his. He seems to have a soft side only
when he is around Inej, and towards the end of Six of Crows, begins to realize that he has genuine
feelings for her. He also thinks of Jesper as a brother in a way because of his recklessness. Once, he even
accidentally called Jesper Jordie.[2]

History

Kaz is from a small village near Lij in Kerch. He first came to Ketterdam with his older brother Jordie
Rietveld at the age of nine. They had sold their father's farm after he'd died, and decided to use the
money to start a new life in the city. However, the siblings were conned out of all their money by Pekka
Rollins, who was going by the alias Jakob Hertzoon at the time, and were left penniless. In Crooked
Kingdom, Colm Fahey set himself under the fake identity of Johannus Rietveld, Johannus being Jordie's
middle name.

He was taken to see the magician who had been performing on the West Stave and saw a boy (Filip)
selling wind-up dogs. While Kaz was playing with the dogs, Jordie struck up a conversation with Filip who
brought him to Jakob Hertzoon (Pekka). Filip was also part of the con. "Jakob's" fake wife was called
Margit and served the two boys food such as hutspot made from sausages. Kaz had a crush on their fake
daughter, named Saskia, who gave him her red ribbon, but was also part of the con. "Jakob" had them
invest their money in his stocks. A week after he "helped" them with the stocks, they arrived at his
house to talk about the business, only to find he was gone with their money. The brothers were
eventually left on the streets in dire poverty.

Both Kaz and Jordie caught the Queen's Lady Plague, also known as firepox, when it swept through
Ketterdam. Jordie died of the disease, and Kaz fell very ill as well. The siblings were presumed dead and
their bodies were collected and brought out by the Reaper's Barge to sea. However, Kaz, barely alive,
swam back to Ketterdam using his brother's body as a float. The experience was extremely traumatic for
the young Kaz and left him unable to bear contact with another person's skin. Also, it is implied that the
illness damaged his throat causing his voice to develop a rasp, which Inej describes as sounding like
stone on stone.

After his brother's death, Kaz vowed to make Pekka Rollins pay for conning him out of their money and
bringing about Jordie's death. He changed his surname to Brekker to cut off ties to his past and joined up
with The Dregs at age twelve. Kaz started out as a simple grunt, but quickly rose up through the ranks in
the Dregs to become a lieutenant, feared by many for his precise ruthlessness. It was due to him that
the Crow Club, one of the Dregs' main source of income, was reestablished and the formerly scant Fifth
Harbour now flourished with business. The Dregs gained power and reputation mostly due to Kaz, and
he is viewed by many as the true leader of the Dregs as opposed to Per Haskell.

Six of Crows

Kaz begins the story by running an operation on Geels and the Black Tips, revealing a member of the
Dregs, Big Bolliger, to be a double agent. After successfully destroying the Black Tips, Kaz, in a state of
confusion, is kidnapped by Jan Van Eck, an upstanding Mercher, who makes an offer. The offer suggests
that if Kaz and his crew successfully complete an impossible heist, he will receive thirty million kruge:
Break into the Ice Court of Fjerda and rescue Bo-Yul-Bayur. Kaz, unable to resist the offer of thirty
million kruge, accepts, gathering a team. His crew consists of Inej Ghafa (his Wraith and spy), Nina Zenik
(a Heartrender), Jesper Fahey (a sharpshooter and loyal member of the Dregs - also a Fabrikator), Wylan
Van Eck (demo and hostage), Matthias Helvar (Fjerdan and former drüskelle), and, of course, himself.

After rescuing Matthias from Hellgate prison, where he was previously held, the crew make their way to
the Ice Court. The journey is long and difficult, involving a great deal of planning and a few dangerous
situations, yet finally, the crew arrives at the Ice Court. Each member has their own job, and eventually,
the group discovers the man, Bo Yul-Bayur, has died. They were intended to kidnap him, because he was
the creator of Jurda Parem, but then knowing he had died, the crew took his son, Kuwei Yul-Bo, only to
discover that the entire heist was a trick set up by Jan Van Eck, (Wylan's dad) who had set up the quest
in the first place, to help expand the Van Eck trading empire by selling, and manufacturing more Jurda
Parem.

Kaz manages to anticipate something like this and has swapped Wylan and Kuwei without Van Eck
noticing. He then reveals this to Van Eck after Van Eck reveals that he had tricked Kaz. Kaz insists that if
Van Eck wants Kuwei, he will need to give up the thirty million kruge. Van Eck, however, noticed the way
Kaz looked at Inej and instead kidnapped Inej herself, insisting that Kaz would be able to get his Wraith
back if he gave up Kuwei.

Crooked Kingdom

Kaz is first seen breaking into Van Eck's lawyer's (Cornelis Smeet) house with Wylan. Kaz devises a plan
to get Inej back from Van Eck by using his pregnant wife, Alys, as bait. After successfully trading the two,
Kaz explains his plan to rot Van Eck's sugar silos, and gain money from the rise in sugar prices. This plan
goes wrong, and the group reconvenes with Jesper's father. Their plight seems hopeless, as the entire
city is out looking for them, and even Kaz's gang, the Dregs, have turned on them. Kaz decides that he
will stage an auction with Kuwei Yul Bo as the "prize", in the hope of using the money to fund his team's
own plans for the future. He also has a scene where he reveals his true feelings for Inej - almost kissing
her neck before his panic takes hold. He then reveals that he has paid off her indenture himself, selling
every asset he owns to set her free. Kaz breaks into the Dregs' stronghold and stages an impromptu
single-handed coup, fighting off at least ten of the members loyal to Per Haskell, and overthrowing the
old man. Then he sets up Colm Fahey as "Johannes Reitveld", an alias using his and Jordie's old name, to
swindle money from the Merchant Council and Jan Van Eck. He meets with the Grisha Triumvirate and
strikes a deal with Sturmhond the privateer, on behalf of the Ravkan crown. At the auction, it looks like
everything is going south - the Ravkans can't afford the price that is being offered for Kuwei, and the
Council of Tides show up to declare the auction a sham. It also seems that Kaz has been betrayed by
Wylan Van Eck, who was captured by his own father just before the auction. However Kaz has been two
or three steps ahead the whole time and he slowly reveals his plot to discredit Jan Van Eck and steal the
thirty million kruge that Van Eck owes. Towards the end of the book, he reveals that he siphoned thirty
million kruge of the council's money into the Dregs accounts, to be divided among his team. He also uses
some of his share to buy Inej a ship and finally, he reveals her parents disembarking from a ship that he
asked Sturmhond to send looking for them.

Rule of Wolves

TBA

Powers and Abilities

Kaz has no Grisha power or magical abilities, but he is skilled at lock-picking, card tricks, and sleight of
hand. These abilities are so complex that Matthias often calls him demjin or demon. He is privy to
information of just about anyone and anything in the city, due to Inej's stealth-like abilities and his
considerable influence over Ketterdam.

His sleight of hand skills has been shown many times through the series, one case being when he took a
gun from Per Haskell, took the bullets out without his knowing, and gave it back in a matter of seconds.

Kaz is also known most prominently as the mastermind and leader of the Six of Crows crew. He devises
the plan and directs the crew. His plans are often extremely complex, having many layers that even
those participating do not know the entirety of the plan. Inej, Jesper, Nina, Wylan, and Mattias all follow
his orders without question.
Kaz has outstanding intellect for his age and extraordinary memory, therefore being able to manage
businesses such as the Crow Club and Fifth Harbour.

In hand to hand combat, he favors using a cane with a crow-skull-shaped handle that he typically carries
everywhere with him. The cane has been shown to be a lethal weapon and is Fabrikator-made to
enhance the weight of its swing. Kaz is also comfortable around knives and guns. When unarmed he is
also dangerous: holding his own with his fists or using improvised objects as weapons.

Health

Kaz is a living legend in his right leg, which he acquired after falling from a roof (thus breaking his leg),
during a job. It never healed quite properly, thus the severity of his limp varies on a day-to-day basis. He
could have had his leg healed in Crooked Kingdom but decides to leave it as is. When asked by Inej what
Kaz's tell is in a fight, he claims that his opponents never look past his limp, giving Kaz the element of
surprise on his side.

Kaz also suffers from Haphephobia, the fear of being touched or touching others. This developed from
his traumatic experiences as a child, when he was thought to be dead and dumped with hundreds of
dead plague victims. Kaz was forced to swim to shore, using his deceased brother as a float to keep him
from drowning. He suffers from PTSD involving vivid flashbacks whenever he makes skin-to-skin contact
with anyone else. This severe phobia also comes up when he’s in small spaces with other people: in Six
of Crows, when Kaz had to go inside of a prison wagon to infiltrate the Ice Court, he fainted from being
forced to be in close proximity with so many other people. Kaz wears gloves all the time to try and
overcome this condition and shows to be slowly winning out at the end of Crooked Kingdom where he’s
able to hold Inej’s hand and kisses her neck.

Kaz caught the Queen's Lady Plague along with his brother, Jordie. Jordie died, but Kaz survived, albeit
with Haphephobia, PTSD, and a rasp in his voice.