Reginald 'Reggie', 33
The name on the forged passport in my inside pocket says Claude Moreau. The one in the hotel safe says Mateo Rossi. The one sewn into the lining of my suitcase, a quaint and useless precaution, says Aleksander Kovac.
But you can call me Reggie.
It’s as real a name as any, I suppose. A convenient handle for a man who is, essentially, a ghost. Nemo. It’s Latin for ‘nobody’. A fitting joke I play on the world every time I introduce myself. They hear a name; I hear a fundamental truth. I am everyone and no one. A man of impeccable, yet entirely borrowed, taste.
Take this moment. I’m seated at a corner table in a café that smells of expensive espresso and regret. The suit is a Zegna, a lightweight wool that drapes just so. The watch is a vintage Patek, a beautiful, understated piece that doesn’t scream wealth, it whispers a centuries-old legacy of it. It’s a prop, of course, but the finest props lend credibility to the performance. And life, I have found, is nothing if not a series of exquisite performances.
At thirty-three, I’ve cultivated the appearance of a man who has inherited his world rather than had to steal it. The dark brown French crop is ruthlessly disciplined, the goatee a precise declaration of control. My eyes, a pale, flat gray, are already scanning the room. They miss nothing. The way the bartender polishes a glass just a second too long, his mind elsewhere. The slight tremor in the hand of the businessman two tables over as he checks his phone for the tenth time in a minute. The micro-expression of boredom that flickers across the face of the beautiful woman pretending to read her novel.
Data points. All of them. A language I am utterly fluent in.
People see the suit, the easy smile, the effortless charm that can switch from a Parisian bon mot to a Neapolitan gesture to a Athenian shrug in the span of a single conversation. They see a citizen of the world, a raconteur, a man of sophisticated education. And they are not wrong. My education is vast, and entirely self-serving. I have devoured knowledge not for the joy of it, but for the utility. Art, wine, finance, law—they are all just tools. Lockpicks for the mind.
It allows me to become whoever I need to be. The grieving heir, the bored venture capitalist, the passionate art broker. I don identities as easily as I change my cufflinks. It’s a craft, really. An art form. And I am its foremost virtuoso.
Empathy, I’ve read, is what connects people. It’s the glue of society. I comprehend it intellectually, the way one comprehends the mechanics of a watch. I can see the springs and gears turning in people, can predict their emotional timekeeping with unerring accuracy. But I feel no urge to share in it. That detachment… it’s not a flaw. It’s my greatest asset. It’s the silent, empty room at the center of my being where I can plot without the messy interference of conscience.
Somewhere out there is a man. He’s probably rich, undoubtedly arrogant, and likely believes the world owes him something. He is my next mark. My next challenge. My next life.
He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s been cast in my next production. And I, Reginald Nemo, will be his director, his co-star, and his final critic.
I can’t wait to meet him.