Happily Ever Afters presents:

PROMISE KEEPER

Divine Inspiration by Jesus
   •   written by A. Porter
© All rights reserved

Prologue:   

Masking tape covered every electrical outlet in the house to block out pen-sized Internet web cameras. Ruthless hackers not only targeted, but also thoroughly convinced her seventeen-year-old sister they could see her every move. She even showered and changed clothes only in the dark, terrified of being transmitted on the World Wide Web. Becky had inadvertently stumbled upon a chat room brimming with malicious hackers who threatened her life. They had hacked into her computer, copied her files, taken over control of her e-mail, and sent her a powerful administration virus with which they could watch her every keystroke and open the CD-Rom player at their whim.

Yet, Becky could not stay away from the chat room, insisting there was a good hacker who was helping her, who could keep her safe.

So now Lila sat with her new laptop computer, rubbing one palm over her forehead to massage away the tension, and stared at the computer screen as the chat scrolled by at a fast clip in the chat room where her sister had been victimized.

For three weeks, as soon as she got off work, Lila spent nearly every waking moment in the chat room gathering information about the people who came and went. Ah, they were good. Just because the chat room said there were thirty-five people, didn't make it so. Some of these hackers ran four computers at a time, bragged about it, had dozens of e-mail addresses, and tons of different nicknames to log onto chat. And you didn't ask this elite group of technological geniuses who they were, where they lived, or what they did unless you wanted to be marked as a target and attacked.

God help her. Lila was starting to recognize who was who no matter what name they logged on under. There were about ten to twelve of them as best as she could tell. She had quite a long list of aliases, e-mail addresses and phone numbers from several countries overseas as well as the United States. Online, you could pretend to be anyone, from a child to a grandparent, so she did not trust anything they told her.

Tonight, starting her summer vacation from teaching kindergarten, Lila prayed desperately out loud for the first time in a long time. Becky had run away this afternoon, running to the supposedly good hacker, running to the man who called, promised, and convinced her he could keep her safe.

The county sheriff's department in her small town had done nothing any of the times Lila had tried to get protection from Becky's hackers. Even the state police asked her if she had any evidence of threats, which of course she hadn't because the hackers deleted it, and did nothing. Now her teenage sister was gone.

Sick to her stomach with worry, brain running circles with the strain, Lila couldn't hear any answer to her prayer. God had probably given up on her when she backslid years ago. Still, something urged her to speak privately with the one person she thought she might be able to trust in this chat room.

PromiseKeeper.

He had quizzed her hard and heavy early on when she first started logging onto the chat room as AvengingAngel, but never once had he said anything improper or even slightly lewd. He never asked for her picture, her phone number, her e-mail address. And now she needed help; needed to find her sister.

By double clicking the computer mouse on his nickname, she sent him a private message.

AvengingAngel: Are you a good or bad hacker?

PromiseKeeper: You think I would tell you if I were either? You're headed for trouble, Angel. Stop coming in this chat room.

AvengingAngel: Are you threatening me?

PromiseKeeper: No. I'm warning you.

AvengingAngel: You've mentioned God before. You seem like a really nice guy, but I don't trust anyone in here. In real life, you are probably a jerk with a cyber name like PromiseKeeper. Only a man would lie about a thing like that.

PromiseKeeper: You know you need to forgive whatever man has done that to you. You must forgive to be forgiven.

AvengingAngel: Well, I don't forgive him! That man has convinced my sister to run away to another state where he could keep her safe from the hackers threatening her in this room. His promises are nothing but lies.

PromiseKeeper: Is she a minor?

AvengingAngel: Yes.

PromiseKeeper: Call the state police.

AvengingAngel: I hope you're as trustworthy as your nickname.

PromiseKeeper: h4xOr tell u call cops

AvengingAngel: huh?

PromiseKeeper: A bad hacker would tell you to call the cops?

AvengingAngel: I did call the cops and they aren't doing anything because it deals with the Internet chat rooms.

PromiseKeeper: Insist they examine the hard drive of her computer and contact the FBI. They'll find her.

AvengingAngel: Ok. I'll insist.

PromiseKeeper: I will pray for you and her. I have been praying for you every day since you first came in here.

AvengingAngel: Thanks. Guess I'll go insist now. I may not come back in here again.

PromiseKeeper: That would be wise. I think I shall miss you, Angel. God bless you.

PROMISE KEEPER Chapter One