Leo opened a command prompt and typed netsh wlan show drivers . Scrolling down, he saw the line: Supports Monitor Mode: Yes. Supports Packet Injection: Yes.
“Ezra,” he said, voice steady but thin. “Don’t plug that adapter into anything with a battery.”
“Why?”
He ran it as administrator. Compatibility mode: Windows 7. The installer launched a command prompt that spat out lines of Japanese error text. Then it crashed.
Leo turned the screen. The numbers translated to: .
A wizard opened with a pixelated Netgear logo. It asked him to unplug the adapter . He did. It asked him to plug it back in . He did. Then it froze. A blue screen flickered— DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE . The computer rebooted.