Predator Read Online Free Page B

evil. She had to stop it.
    She went to Carla’s office, unlocked the door, and stepped inside. The cable modem and wireless router sat on a table in the corner, next to the jack in the wall that fed them the Internet. She unplugged the router, took off the cable connecting it to the modem. Then coiling the cable up, she went to her own office and shoved it into her desk.
    It would knock the Internet out of commission until she could convince Carla that this part of their work needed to end.
    She heard the front door open, the welcome bell chime. She stepped out of the office.
    Carla was coming in with a box of supplies. “Krista, you’re back!”
    “Yeah, I needed to come by and get something.”
    “What, hon?”
    Krista hedged. “Um…Just something I left here…”
    “Then you’re not staying?”
    “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
    “Good. You need more time.” Carla put the box down and kissed her like a mother. “You can’t give to these girls if you’re sapped for strength yourself. Give God some time to heal you. Don’t come back until you’re ready.”
    “Thanks, Carla.”
    Carla’s eyes misted over. “Is there anything I can do for you or your dad?”
    “No, I don’t think so.” She drew in a ragged breath and suddenly felt guilty. Carla was so compassionate, such a loyal friend, that she couldn’t deceive her. Krista stepped into her office again, and got the cable. “Carla, I can’t lie to you. I really came here to do this.”
    Carla frowned and stared at it. “What is that?”
    “It’s the cable connecting the wireless router to the modem. I took it off to disable the Internet connection.”
    Carla’s face changed. Her voice softened a degree. “Sweetie, you know that’s going to make the girls crazy. It’ll keep them from coming here. And it won’t keep them off the Internet. They’ll just go to the library to get online.”
    Krista blinked back her tears. “Maybe not. Maybe they’ll still come.”
    “Hon, I know what you’re thinking. You think that Ella would still be here if it wasn’t for the Internet.”
    “She would be, Carla. It’s not just what I think. It’s a fact.”
    “But there are good uses of the Internet. The girls are learning important skills. They’re learning how to write to express themselves, how to read better. They’re making friends who have higher ambitions than anyone they know. On GrapeVyne, everyone is equal. There’s not an upper class and a lower class. They can have relationships with people who would never give them the time of day. They’re communicating, which is something some of them couldn’t do before. And they’re on your GrapeVyne page and mine every single day, reading the Bible studies we post, interacting with us about Christianity. It’s too useful a tool to do without.”
    “They don’t understand how dangerous it is,” Krista said. “At least let me disable it until I have time to talk to them about predators and what happened to Ella.”
    “They all know what happened to Ella. And Krista, some of these girls are prostitutes. They live in horrible danger every day, from people in their neighborhoods…or their own homes.”
    “But they haven’t been stalked by murderers, or they wouldn’t still be here. What if we got them off the streets into this safe, comfortable, caring place…only to be exposed to predators…maybe even the same one who killed my sister?”
    “We educate them so that they won’t be.”
    “But can’t we just let the computers be about taking GED prep classes and Bible studies?”
    “We can, Krista, but I don’t want to. We can’t throw out all the good with the bad. They come because of the computers. What we’re doing here is working.”
    Krista’s face twisted, and pain throbbed through a vein on her temple. “But it won’t matter if they’re dead!”
    Carla wiped her own tears and took the cable from Krista. “All right, how does this sound? What if we just keep it