Elias checked his hardware monitor. His CPU was at 99 degrees Celsius. His fans weren't just spinning; they were screaming, a high-pitched metallic whine that sounded like a tea kettle about to blow.

A shadow detached itself from the darkness of the alleyway.

The cursor blinked, a rhythmic green heartbeat against the black terminal of Elias’s monitor. He was three days deep into a "recovery" job for a client who refused to give their last name. The file was a massive, encrypted archive titled simply: devfoam_2_pro_project.zip .