Elias didn't turn around. He didn't have to. The zip file hadn't just been a download; it was a door. And on his screen, a new line of text appeared in the terminal: Extraction complete. We’re in.
He hovered his cursor over the link. His room was silent, save for the rhythmic hum of his cooling fans. With a sharp click, the download began.
His heart skipped. He hadn't entered his name anywhere. He scrolled up through the extracted data. There were logs of his keystrokes from three years ago. There were audio files of conversations he’d had in private. There were photos taken from his own webcam—images of him sleeping, working, and staring at this very screen.