Page 126 of Black Reign

Money.

Languages.

But married to Stella and apparently obsessed with her.

Not Ghost.

Leo Holt?

Another candidate.

Polished.

Old Newport ties.

But married too.

Besides, Ghost doesn't speak about domestic life like a married man.

Leo's father becomes my favorite possibility for nearly an hour.

Divorced.

Wealthy.

Connected.

Old enough to possess the cultural knowledge Ghost has accumulated.

Young enough to still have the physical confidence suggested by the photographs if genetics have been kind.

That possibility nearly makes me cancel the entire operation.

Falling for someone's divorced father through an encrypted network would be difficult to explain at dinner parties.

Then there is Xavier Blackwell.

I dismiss him almost immediately.

Everyone knows the rumors.

Cold.

Secretive.

Possibly gay.

Rarely photographed with women except at formal events.

He looks at cameras as though they personally disappoint him.

And Xavier Blackwell is not some self-made European hacker who spent childhood rebuilding computers at a kitchen table while his mother made pasta.

Xavier Blackwell was born inside a surveillance empire.

Blackwell is the kind of company Ghost mocks.

Inherited wealth.