His finger hovered over “Flash Firmware.”
Pip made a noise Leo had never heard before—a deep, resonant boop , like a ship’s sonar finding the ocean floor. The Google Assistant chime, crisp and clean as new glass, rang out.
Leo ran downstairs, grabbed his mom’s phone, and set a timer for 12 minutes.
It was midnight. Leo unplugged Pip, carried it to his desk, and connected it via a rusty micro-USB cable he’d found in a drawer of tangled chargers. The JBL software on his laptop recognized the device: "JBL Link 10 – Current FW: 1.04.2 – Status: Corrupted."