Suddenly, his screen didn't show updated drivers. Instead, a lime-green terminal window popped up, scrolling lines of code faster than he could read. His webcam light flickered on, a tiny, judgmental green eye staring back at him.

Leo lunged for the power cord, ripping it from the wall. The room fell silent, the smell of ozone and hot plastic lingering in the air. He sat in the dark, looking at the black reflection of his own panicked face in the monitor.

He had wanted a shortcut to a faster computer. Instead, he’d just handed the keys to his digital life to a ghost in the machine.