The BIOS recognized the disc. The familiar, throbbing gray Windows logo appeared, but the loading bar didn’t move like it should. It stuttered, hesitated, then lurched forward.
Mar 22, 2008: Aero Glass is showing me things. Reflections of a room that isn’t mine. A man in a gray coat standing behind me. I live alone. Windows Vista Home Premium -32 Bit-.iso
He didn’t turn around.
That night, in his basement workshop, he fed the disc into a vintage 2007 Dell OptiPlex. No internet. No network. Just a clean, 160GB hard drive spinning with nervous anticipation. The BIOS recognized the disc