When he looked back, a text file had opened on the desktop. Its timestamp: 10/17/1709. Not 2017. 1709. A century before computers.

The rain fell in sheets against the windowpane of the old server room, a relentless gray static that matched the flicker of dying monitors. Inside, Elias Chen, a digital archaeologist for a defunct tech giant, brushed dust off a terminal labeled "Project Spectre - 1709."

Ghost Spectre 1709 loaded. User: None. Status: Incorporated.