He clicked it. The browser opened to the Neural DSP store.

Elias looked at his firewall logs. They were clean. There had been no outbound connection. The message had been embedded in the code all along—a ghost in the machine, waiting for someone arrogant enough to break the lock.

Elias scrambled for the power button on his monitors, but the feedback evolved. It morphed into a rhythm. A heavy, polyrhythmic groove. 7/8 time signature.