Meta 2: The Second Wave by Tom Reynolds

Author:Tom Reynolds [Reynolds, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781502574008
Amazon: 1502574004
Goodreads: 23291869
Published: 2014-10-30T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

The next morning, I wake up to a very quiet apartment. It's early, but I'm not surprised since I couldn't sleep last night. I lay in bed for a while, trying desperately to catch a couple more hours of sleep, but eventually, I have to give it up. It's useless to think that I can sleep in on a Saturday when there's so much on my mind.

The apartment is still a mess from Derrick's little impromptu date the night before, so I keep myself busy cleaning for a while. Even that only takes about a half hour, though, and I'm once again left with empty time to fill. It's too early in the morning to call or text Jim. Hell, that'd be true on a Saturday even if it were noon. I look at my phone for a long while with my thumb hovering over Sarah's number. Ultimately, I decide that not only does she probably not want to talk yet, but she probably also doesn't want to be woken up at seven AM, so that option is out.

Derrick must still be at the office. If he's there this late/early, it means either he's really busy, or he's asleep underneath his desk. Either way, I don't want to bother him right now and incur the wrath of either a busy or a sleeping Derrick. I learned that lesson a long time ago.

There's one person left whose contact number I have in my phone who might be awake, only because as far as I can tell, he doesn't sleep, and that's Midnight. Of course I don't actually have his phone number any more. After the new metabands fell from the sky a few months ago, his paranoia went to the next level, so now I have to contact him through a specially designed app. Excuse me, a specially designed app that he designed, naturally. Anything less would run the risk of having some flaw or compromise that he couldn't account for. It's a slight inconvenience, but much, much easier than the intermediary solution, which involved multiple phone numbers, anonymous posts to random message boards, etc. just to verify that I was who I claimed to be.

HEY. ARE YOU UP? I type out and then hit the send button.

A reply comes back a few seconds later: YES.

CAN I COME BY? I ask.

WHY? Comes the reply I could have predicted.

BORED.

There's a pause in the rhythm of the texts that implies he's thinking, or that I'm just not going to get another reply. Midnight isn't one for entertaining, especially when I'm being as upfront as I am that I'm really just looking for something to keep my mind occupied, at least for a little while.

After a full minute, I get my reply: OK.

I'm surprised and a little nervous that Midnight is taking that as an excuse for me to come by and just hang out. Maybe he's growing a heart after all?

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