The screen flickered. A grainy, pixelated image of the hardwood floor at OAKA appeared. It was lagging, the frames stuttering like a stop-motion film. In the chat box on the right, the username GreenGate13 typed: LAGGGGGGG.
Sloukas drove. The Maccabi defense collapsed. A kick-out pass to the corner. The shot went up. The stream froze. The chat box went wild. NOOOO! REFRESH! WHAT HAPPENED?
The hum of the server room felt like a heartbeat, a low-frequency vibration that Elias could feel in his teeth. He sat in a dimly lit apartment in Athens, three monitors glowing against the peeling wallpaper. On the center screen, the words flickered in a browser tab.
