Elias looked at the screen one last time. The progress bar was at 99%. The final name on the list wasn't a friend or a family member. It was his own, followed by a status update:
He ran it in a virtual machine—a "sandbox" meant to keep his actual computer safe. The screen flickered. A command prompt opened, but instead of the usual system text, it began scrolling names. Satanic_Grabber.zip
: Elias tried to kill the process. The "X" button dodged his cursor. He pulled the plug on his machine, but the monitor stayed lit, powered by a residual charge that should have lasted seconds, yet stretched into minutes. The prompt changed. Elias looked at the screen one last time
: As Elias watched, a progress bar titled "Harvesting" began to fill. A webcam window popped up, but it wasn't his. It was a grainy, low-light feed of his sister in her apartment three cities away. She was sleeping. It was his own, followed by a status