Every time the download reached 99.8%, the connection would snap. It wasn't a standard timeout. His router would let out a high-pitched whine, the lights in his apartment would flicker, and his monitor would fill with a flat, static gray.

Elias looked down at his own hand. He was holding the same gear. He hadn't picked it up; he didn't even own such a thing. But there it was, cold and heavy in his palm.

Elias tried to move, but his joints clicked like plastic. He felt a strange, terrifying smoothness spreading across his skin. On the screen, his digital twin picked up a tube of cement and began to apply it to the cathedral.