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Elias felt a cold prickle on his neck. "What is this?" he whispered. He typed back.

> CONNECTION ESTABLISHED. > PROTOCOL: GUEST_ACCESS. > KEY VALIDATION: ARCHIVAL_ACCESS_GRANTED.

Elias’s hand moved toward the power button. This was a virus. A rootkit. He needed to kill the network connection.

Elias had been putting it off. He had budgeted for the software, but he had forgotten the "Parallels tax"—the virtual machine software needed to bridge the gap. The accounting department was a black hole of paperwork; getting a purchase order approved took weeks. The project deadline was tomorrow morning.