The PC’s fans roared. The monitor displayed Alex’s own webcam feed, which he didn’t know he had. In the feed, his desk chair was empty—but the shadow of the Madcar driver sat in it, behind him.

He spun around. Nothing. Just the hum of the computer.

But on his desk, a small, greasy tire track now stretched from his mousepad to the front door. And every time he closed his eyes, he saw the driver’s shadow still pointing—now at the street outside, waiting for a car that would never be built.

Then he noticed the model’s shadow. It didn’t match the light. It moved on its own—a distorted silhouette of a vehicle he hadn’t built. He zoomed in. The shadow had a driver. And the driver was waving.

Instantly, a wireframe exploded onto the grid. Polygons twisted, extruded, and stitched themselves into a sleek, glowing car with rotating rims and a cockpit like a fighter jet. Alex grinned. This was magic.

Alex’s heart thumped. He tried to delete the object. The Delete key did nothing. He tried to close Max. The window froze. The shadow driver stopped waving. Instead, it pointed directly at the camera—at him.