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friend in town. It felt good to know a stranger would offer kindness. She prayed she’d meet more people like him in Macon.
    “It’s okay. I’ll be all right.” She touched her belly, where a ten-week-along baby slept. Everything would be okay. Somehow. The man was right. God had given her this baby. “We’ll be all right.”
     

 
    Chapter Two
     
    One down, six to go, then this mission would be complete. They were all so stupid, the cops, the FBI, thinking they could stop the inevitable. Thinking they could prevent what had to be done, what he had to do. It wasn't as though it was his choice, after all. He followed the plan that had been set in motion long ago; he didn't start this, after all. Hannah did.
    Now the followers would start to understand. They'd know, and while they'd proclaim that it didn't make sense, that it wasn't a part of their existence, of the rules that they'd all believed and lived by, inwardly they would see the truth. Rules were made to be followed, and his plan ensured that they were, the best way, the only way. Too many of them had forgotten the wisdom of Brother Moses, the wisdom he’d shared before he too had doubted the plan.
    Like Moses, the current believers had also turned their heads and ignored the ones who didn't follow the rules. But he knew there were those among them who cheered his resolution to see justice served, to maintain that the power wasn't distributed to the sinners that hid their darkness beneath a veil of purity. They weren't pure. Hannah wasn't pure. She should have been pure; she should have been his. But she followed the darkened path, and she paid the price. Just like Cami Talton. And just like the other six, the ones who would be delivered to him at the appropriate times. Seven that would pay the price for the sins of so many. A shame he couldn't rid the world of all, but he was only one man. Still, he’d been selected to make a statement, to remind them of the destruction that would come to those who wrongfully take the power.
    He noted the people surrounding him in the Internet café. No one paid any attention to another coffee lover out to check his email and have a cup of strong java to start his day. He powered up the computer then logged on to the familiar site, noted the number of followers participating in an active session in the chat rooms. Did they suspect he'd returned? Did they know? And if they did, would they be grateful this time? Or would they slander him again for doing what's right? How many years would pass before they embraced the dedication he had to the goal?
    His generic screen name, TRUTHLUVR, blinked to life at the end of a long list of similar pseudonyms filling the active chat area. He'd never entered a single message under the identifier he'd selected so long ago, yet he used it to lurk within the depths of the believers and to see how close they were to the truth. In the chat room, an aggressive discussion ensued regarding the return of the "Anti," their preferred reference to him during the predestined years. Anti. As though he was the opposite from all of them, rather than the same. Or rather, better than the same. He fulfilled the plan, reminded the sleepy town of Macon of a greater power and rules to be followed, rules that they embraced so long ago, back when they embraced Brother Moses and his teachings. Before he too went astray.
    He watched as another visitor to the site logged on and the new screen name displayed beneath his own. PROTECT&SRV had entered the chat room. Smiling, he relished the thought that he'd brought the high and mighty individual out of hiding once more. As if every believer online didn't realize that the one man on the Macon PD who had served dual duty as detective and suspect on the case had now entered their midst. "Welcome back, Tucker."
     
    Detective John Tucker thumbed through almost three decades of reports regarding Macon’s Sunrise Killer. Twenty-seven murdered women, or twenty-eight, if Cami