Cyber Dawn (A Ben Raine Novel) by M.L. Adams Page A

bright morning sun. It was another beautiful Colorado fall morning.
    My phone buzzed.
    Dude, since you blew your chance with Katherine, can I ask her out?
    And:
    You missed the Civics exam.
    Despite how bad I felt, I couldn’t help but smile. Typical Mason, I thought, knowing he was probably kidding about Katherine.
    Probably.
    I started to type a simple two-word response, but paused before hitting SEND. Looking back out the window, for the first time since I’d woken, I wanted to get out of the house.
    After a few moments, I deleted the message and typed another.
    OMW.

 
    10
    Midway through fourth-period biology, I knew Sofia was right. I didn’t pick up much of what Mr. Smith said in class, but being around other kids—even kids that pretty much hated my guts—felt good. There was a unique energy in a high school, something I picked up right away on my first day two months earlier. Something I never felt being the only student on the CyberLife campus.
    After class, I made my way to the lunchroom and grabbed a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. As I searched for a place to sit, I glanced at the large table near the center of the room, where I used to sit every day with the football team. To my relief, it was empty. My hope was that, after four days, the school rumor mill had, or was at least close to, moving on. But I knew that didn’t apply to the football team. Not until the State’s athletic board ruled on whether or not Endo Valley had to forfeit the game.
    I chose an empty table near the large glass windows overlooking the school’s back patio. It offered a perfect vantage point of the football table and was only a few feet from an exit. If the team showed up, I could make a quick escape.
    After sitting down and taking a bite of a meatball, I pulled out my iPad and opened the browser. I craved more information about Megan. Short of calling Detective Frost, my only source was the Internet.
    I ran a search on Megan Reynolds .
    A page of results appeared, but none matched the right Megan. I filtered the search to include only news.
    Still nothing.
    I opened the website for the local newspaper. Across the top, a headline read:
    BROOKWOOD WOMAN, 27, KILLED DURING HOME INVASION
    I braced myself as I clicked on the link. To my surprise, the article was short and it was clear that the reporter knew less about Megan’s murder than I did. Her name had not yet been released and there was no information about whether or not the police had a suspect in custody. Basically, the article was useless. At the bottom, it read: Developing story. Please check back later.
    Frustrated, I pushed my iPad aside and spent a couple of minutes eating spaghetti. More than once, I wondered why I barely touched Sofia’s famous pancakes, and instead chose to eat dry meatballs and overcooked noodles. As I forced the food down, my mind flashed across the strange words Megan had whispered just before she died.
    You never had cancer.
    In the chaos of the previous eighteen hours, I had little time to really think about what she meant. Except that it made zero sense.
    Having cancer was the one thing I was sure about in my life. It placed a permanent mark on my body and mind. My parents, sisters, and I had learned more about cancer than we ever cared to know. Either my diagnosis was the medical blunder of the century, or Megan was confused from blood loss.
    But crazy or not, they were her final words. She didn’t say thanks for being such a great friend or tell my parents I love them . She chose:
    You never had cancer.
    The fact she picked those words over all the other things she could have said or asked me to do, meant they were important. I would have carried out any final request Megan had given me. I owed it to her to figure out what she meant.
    Of course, deciding to do so and actually doing it were two different things. Calling my former oncologist, or even asking Dr. Merrick, seemed like a ludicrous idea. They would know the details about my