When Elias found the file on an old, salvaged server, it shouldn't have been there. Everything else had been wiped clean, but sitting in the root directory was 1597e666-2015-4609-86c7-270a27bb94de.mp4 . He clicked play.
Elias froze. His name wasn't anywhere on the server. He paused the video and checked the file properties. The "Date Created" field didn't show a day from the past; it showed . 1597e666-2015-4609-86c7-270a27bb94de.mp4
The video wasn't a movie or a home video. It was a single, static shot of a park bench in autumn. For the first three minutes, nothing moved—not even the wind. Then, a man in a gray coat walked into the frame, sat down, and looked directly into the camera. When Elias found the file on an old,