At 4:22 PM, the restore finished.

Leo Strauss, the IT director for a mid-sized architectural firm, felt the familiar cold drip of dread down his spine. E:\ wasn't just a drive. It was the tomb of fifteen years of blueprints, client contracts, and the notoriously temperamental rendering software that three partners swore by and nobody knew how to reconfigure.

"Exactly. So go make coffee. Strong."

The blue screen POST appeared. Then the Windows logo. Then the login screen.

"Don't you dare," Leo muttered.