The game never crashed. The crack never failed. And for a boy with no money and no console, that illegal, desperate, 14-hour download was the closest thing to magic he would ever know.

But this was an emergency.

Leo stared at the flickering CRT monitor, the dial-up tone still humming in his ears like a ghost. It was 3:00 AM. His older brother, Marcus, was asleep in the bunk above him, but Leo knew the rules: no internet after midnight. The phone line was for emergencies only.