On the other end of the line, a groggy voice answered. "Hello?"

NET USER Administrator /active:yes NET USER Administrator "April2008!"

Leo, the night shift sysadmin, didn’t hear it at first. He was on his third cup of vending-machine coffee, scrolling through logs that all read the same way: Event ID 7036: Service entered running state. For seven hours, nothing had happened. That was the goal.

At 00:00:00, the screen went black. Then, a single line of green text:

Leo’s hand moved to the network cable. He yanked it out. The plastic clip broke, but he didn't care. The screen went momentarily quiet.