Before she could panic, a knock came from her closet door. She lived alone.

A new text box appeared in the software, gray and ghosted:

She clicked yes. The installation was silent, too fast, and ended not with a chime, but with a low, resonant hum from her studio monitors.

The man’s card flipped over in the preview. On it, typed in perfect system font, were the words:

Update found: ManyCam 8.1.0.3 (Beta channel). Install?