“Too slow,” she grunted. “Again.”

She held the disconnected battery cable with tweezers. “On my count. Plug in USB. Now. ”

Leo held his breath. The phone vibrated once. The screen stayed black, but the vibration meant one thing: The bootrom is alive.

Mira closed the laptop. “No. You almost killed it. I just reminded the ghost that it had a body.”

She held Power + Volume Up. This time, the logo held. The phone booted to “Optimizing app 1 of 47.”