Panic flared. Elias slammed his laptop shut, but the audio didn't stop. It continued, vibrating out of the closed plastic casing.
He opened the text file first. It contained a single line of code that looked like a checksum, followed by: “Synchronization complete. Please do not look behind the monitor.” m3pd.rar
The reflection raised a hand—not to its own face, but toward the edge of the screen, as if trying to find a grip on the bezel to pull itself out. Panic flared