Sitting in the sudden silence of the darkened ballroom, Elias realized the true cost of the download. He had tried to save a few hundred dollars, and in exchange, he had lost his reputation, his data, and his future. The "full free download" had been the most expensive mistake he ever made.

The gala went dark. The charity organizers rushed toward him, their faces masks of confusion and anger.

The folder contained a single executable and a text file titled READ_ME_FIRST. Inside the text file was a registration key—a long, jagged sequence of letters and numbers that looked like a digital skeleton key.