Since he was no one, he could be anyone.
He’d been an important part of the team putting together the International Data Bank, which would track every single move made by every single human being. As the project neared completion he realized that no one would ever truly be free again. At the very last moment he blanked his file, changed his face, and created a back door into the system. Now he was nameless, had no past, left no traces, according to the IDB he no longer existed. But he could become anyone at anytime for any reason. Not being in the system meant that he had to earn a living outside of the normal confines of human society. But there were people willing to pay cold, hard cash for a man who could be anyone and then disappear once the job was done.
Roger Zelazny was a science fiction and fantasy writer, a six time Hugo Award winner, and a three time Nebula Award Winner. He published more than forty novels in his lifetime. His first novel This Immortal, serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction under the title “…And Call Me Conrad,” won the Hugo Award for best novel. Lord of Light, his third novel, also won the Hugo award and was nominated for the Nebula award. He died at age 58 from colon cancer. Zelazny was posthumously inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2010.
“A storyteller without peer. He created worlds as colorful and exotic and memorable as any our genre has ever seen.” —George R.R. Martin
“. . . his performance was never anything other than dazzling.” —Robert Silverberg
“Roger Zelazny’s work excited me. It was intoxicating and delightful and unique. And it was smart.” —Neil Gaiman
Where a number of us had begun having second thoughts as the thing progressed, Dave had never been anything less than wildly enthusiastic.