Page 68 of Dark Sky

“That’s a horse,” Joe mouthed. He pointed to the south where he thought it had come from.

Price shook his head. He hadn’t heard it.

Joe gestured that the two of them should go back inside the cabin. He thought that since the stove had been doused and there were no interior lights, it was very possible the Thomases might simply pass by in the timber. If itwasthe Thomas clan out there, and if what he’d heard was indeed a horse.

He knew for sure that it wouldn’t be a good idea to sit any longer and listen to Price talk. Sound carried on cold, still nights.

—

Because it had been so dark outside, Joe thought the interior of the cabin seemed more lit up from the glow of the heating coil than when he’d left. He ushered Price through the door and closed it behind them.

Boedecker still sat at the table. There was maybe an inch of whiskey left in the bottle. The speargun was reassembled and armed with the short projectile.

“You found him,” Boedecker slurred. “Too bad.”

Then he raised the speargun and pointed it at Joe and Price. It went off with a metallicthunk.

The spear tip embedded in a log over the doorjamb, a foot above Joe’s head. He looked over his shoulder at it and saw the shaft quivering.

“Damn,” Boedecker said. “Itworks.”

Joe growled, “Point that at me again and things are going to get real western, Brock.”

Boedecker giggled and waved his left hand around in the air to indicate he meant no harm.

He stopped laughing when Joe said, “I think I heard a horse out there.”

EIGHTEEN

Are we safe?” Price whispered an hour later. “Do you think they’re gone?”

“For now, maybe,” Joe replied.

“Or maybe you didn’t hear anything at all in the first place,” Boedecker said to Joe.

“That’s possible, too,” Joe said.

The three of them were huddled together in the dark around the hissing orange glow of the heating coil. Their knees were nearly touching. They’d tamped down the flame so there was just enough heat but not enough light from it to be seen from the outside. It was getting colder by the minute, and Joe feared the propane would run out and leave them with only bad options.

“Maybe we’re okay,” Price said.

Joe hoped that was true. But if the Thomas clan had passed by the cabin a few hundred yards below in the timber and hadn’t cut their tracks, his guess was they’d double back at some point until they found the cabin.

They might wait until morning to do that, he thought. He knew that if it was him on horseback in the dark in a night steadily getting colder, he’d stop, build a fire, and make a camp. But Earl was known for his determination. Joe was aware of a few of Earl’s clients who had gone home in the middle of guided hunts they’d paid thousands for because he drove them too hard. Joe didn’t think there was much of a possibility that the men would give up and go down the mountain. Joe looked at his watch. It was nearly midnight.

Price said, “We just have to stay alive until morning, right? Then we can hike out of here and get back to civilization. Or at least your version of it.”

Boedecker moaned and rolled his eyes. Joe could see the whites of them in the glow of the coil. The rancher had been uncharacteristically silent the past hour, Joe thought. As if he were either drifting away or plotting something.

“That’s what we want,” Joe answered Price.

“I can only imagine what my execs and followers are thinking right now,” Price said. “Not to mention my shareholders. They haven’t seen a post from me since last night. If they don’t see a sign of life within twenty-four hours, I’d anticipate alotof speculation out there in the online community.”

“You do think a lot of yourself, don’t you?” Boedecker said to Price.

“My life and my vision are worth billions,” Price said. “I’m not bragging. I’m just being realistic.”

Boedecker scoffed. “My life is worth thirteen cents on a good day, I reckon. What about yours, Joe?”

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