Page 21 of Dark Sky

“Are you saying he should be judged by a different set of rules than everyone else?”

Marybeth realized that wasexactlywhat she was asking, although hearing it in so many words unsettled her for a moment.

“Let me put it this way,” Marybeth said. “You’re new here. You’re obviously smart and ambitious.”

“Thank you, I guess.”

“In your job, you’ll likely make enemies.”

Griffith didn’t reply.

Marybeth said, “If somebody decided to hurt you, you’d want someone like Nate around.”

Griffith looked at Marybeth quizzically. “What would he do?”

“Whatever he had to. Nate has been looking after our family for a long time. I don’t always condone his methods, but it’s very reassuring to know he’s out there.”

“Isn’t that why we have law enforcement?” Griffith asked.

“It should be,” Marybeth conceded. “But it doesn’t always work out that way.”

At that moment, Marybeth felt her phone burr in her purse on her lap. She glanced down to check the screen.

“I’m really sorry,” she said. “I have to take this.”

—

Joe?” Marybeth said. She stood in the vestibule of the Burg-O-Pardner. “How is it going so far?”

“Let’s just say there’s tension in the air,” he said. “But I’ll tell you more later.”

“I’m surprised you called.”

“Yeah, me too. But there’s only one place on the face of the mountain that I can get an actual cell signal and I didn’t want to waste it. We’re way ahead of schedule, so I have the time. After this, I’ll have to call you on the satellite phone at night.”

“Thank you. I’m glad you took it with you.”

“Oh, we’ve got loads of gear,” Joe said wearily. “Sat phones,GPS units, PLBs, solar chargers, portable satellite broadband transmitters and receivers, and stuff I’ve never even heard of before. It’s quite a wilderness adventure.”

She laughed and could picture Joe grimacing at the sight of all that electronic equipment.

“That’s so Mr. Price can post everything you do on the trip,” Marybeth said. “But let me caution you. Don’t let him take photos of you or mention you by name. I looked on ConFab earlier and there’s already a lot of backlash.”

“Backlash?”

“Anonymous people say all sorts of horrible things on social media. You know that.”

“That’s why I avoid it.”

“I know, and it’s the right way to go.”

“What are they saying?” Joe asked.

“You can imagine, I think. People who are anti-hunters, vegans, people who call themselves humanists. They’re all flaming Steve-2 about going on this trip. They can get really vicious.”

“So there’s some bad stuff, huh?”

“It’s hard to remember sometimes that the people who comment are a really small percentage of the people on ConFab,” she said. “Only the worst ones actually post things, and they’re anonymous, of course. They’d never use their real names or say those things directly to Steve-2. But there are some good posts, too.”