Page 22 of Dark Sky

Marybeth chose not to tell Joe about a few of the comments she’d read at lunch. One in particular suggested it would be agood outcome if Steve-2 and all of the people with him were murdered, beheaded, and their heads mounted on the wall as if they were the game animals they were hunting.

“Joe?” Marybeth said.

“Yes?”

“Do you think you could convince Steve-2 just to stay off-line for a while?”

“I really doubt if that’s possible,” Joe said. “These people are glued to their devices at all times. It’s like their phones are part of them.”

“Please try. I don’t want you to be the target of all these people. And I don’t want your daughters to see what people are saying about you.”

She could hear Joe take a long breath. “I’ll try,” he said.

“Take his phone away from him,” Marybeth said. “Tell him it’s for his own good.”

“You haven’t met him,” Joe said. “He thinks he’s doing something noble.”

“He might be, but try to convince him to keep it to himself until he’s done with the hunting trip.”

“It’s not that easy,” Joe said. “He wants people to get a clue where their food comes from through this trip. It’s important to him, or so he says. I have trouble arguing with that.”

Marybeth glanced inside the restaurant and saw Griffith reach out and call for the check. She was ready to leave.

“I’ve got to go,” she said. “Call me tonight.”

“I will.”

“And try to convince Steve-2 to go dark. The world doesn’tneedto know everything he experiences. There’s value in solitude. Tell him that.”

“I kind of like that one,” Joe said.

“Love you.”

“Love you.”

—

Marybeth slipped her phone back into her purse and sat down at the table before the proprietor could deliver the bill to AnnaBelle Griffith.

“That was my husband. He’s high in the mountains where there’s no phone signal, so when he gets the chance to call, I need to take it.”

“Oh, I know all about that,” Griffith said with a loopy grin Marybeth hadn’t anticipated. “I saw his photo on my ConFab feed this morning. He’s up there guiding Steve-2 himself.”

Marybeth knew she’d recoiled. “You saw him?”

“Everybodysaw him,” Griffith said. “I got texts from friends in Casper and all over asking if I knew Joe or about the hunt with Steve-2.”

“What did you tell them?”

Griffith said, “I told them I’d met him in passing, but I was actually having coffee with his wife just this very afternoon.”

“I don’t think Joe has any idea what he’s gotten himself into,” Marybeth said. “Social media is a cesspool.”

“Maybe he’ll go viral.”

Marybeth briefly closed her eyes and tried to regroup.

“Where were we?” she asked when she opened them.