The Last Resort

Novelette by Alec Nevala-Lee

A group of eco-terrorists trade in their "eco" for an extra dose of terrorism. Two Forest Service personnel try to figure out what happened, and wonder about their own "virtuous sense of helplessness" about trying to change things as compared to the obvious harm the terrorists cause, inadvertently or otherwise. They also spend an odd amount of time being questioned, bullied, and ordered around by a ski resort employee. I don't care how much construction you oversee, I don't think you're allowed to confiscate phones off of government agents. The amount of shit they took from this guy Frank actually distracted me from the mystery, right before it was solved in a big infodump. And the ending was bizarre; I would not be as easily satisfied with life as the protagonist, and I certainly would be more upset about a dangerous psychopath putting my children and others at risk. And should I for some reason have my cellphone confiscated by some random construction overseer during an emergency, I'll have the bastard arrested. Still the story draws you in and is good as far as mundane thrillers go. 2.5 out of 5 people have heard the herpetology joke at the beginning before, but laugh anyway.