Then he reached forward and, for the first time, touched the power button on the GPS unit.

“Leo,” it said as he crossed the Utah border. “You are tired. Pull over at the next rest area. Sleep for exactly 47 minutes.”

“Okay,” Leo breathed. “Okay. Thank you.”

Leo’s blood chilled. He squinted ahead. There was no bicycle. Just empty asphalt and a blinking yellow light. But he obeyed. He took the left. As he glanced in his side mirror, a kid on a neon-green BMX shot out from behind a dumpster, right where Leo would have been.

The screen went black.

Leo stared at the road. “And the download? Why give yourself away for free?”

The voice, just once more, whispered from the speakers: “See you on the next update, Leo.”

“Because in 48 minutes, a man with a knife will check unlocked trucks. You will be awake by then.”

“You are welcome, Leo,” the voice replied. It had never used his name before.

Leo pulled over. He set his alarm. As he drifted off, he saw the screen flicker. The map was gone. In its place was a single pulsing dot, not on a road, but on a satellite image of a vast, empty field in the Nevada desert. The dot was labeled: ORIGIN.

He clicked the link. The file was suspiciously small—only 2.4 MB. No flashy website, no testimonials. Just a stark black page with a pulsing download button. Navione.exe.