The drive whirred. The screen flashed EA Games. Then the familiar, thumping bass of Riders on the Storm crackled through his speakers.
The screen went black. Then, white text, sharp as a razor, sliced onto the monitor:
He fumbled through a stack of burnt CDs. “NFSU2 – FINAL” was written in shaky marker. He’d downloaded it over three nights on dial-up. But the game had a new trick: SafeDisc copy protection. At the worst possible moment, it demanded the real disc.