Last Island

by M. H. Callway

About the Author: M, H. Callway is an award-winning crime fiction writer. Her work has been won or been short-listed for the Debut Dagger, CWC Award of Excellence (formerly the Arthur Ellis Award), Derringer and Bony Pete awards. In 2013 she co-founded the Mesdames of Mayhem, a collective of crime fiction writers who have published four critically acclaimed anthologies: Thirteen, 13 O'clock, 13 Claws and In the Key of 13. The Mesdames are the subject of a CBC documentary which can be viewed on GEM and YouTube.

Excerpt

Danny Bluestone sighted down the barrel of his rifle. He breathed in, long and deep, anticipating …

Fire! His distant target jumped.

“OK, so you can shoot,” Lara Foxnard grumbled beside him.

Danny glanced down the line of wannabe Rangers, all ten belly-down like himself, all intent on their practice targets, their identification armbands like the strokes of a red pen against their white parkas.

“My turn.” Foxnard picked up her 303 Lee-Enfield rifle. She worked the bolt action and fired.

White crystals spurted from the snow ridge holding the targets as her bullet hurtled across the frozen expanse of Rainy Lake.

Wonderful, Danny thought. What if her stray shot streaked across the border into Canada’s sister to the south? That’d kill the Fort Frances Northern Rangers pilot project right there—if it didn’t rekindle The War of 1812. Luckily only the empty forest of Voyageur National Park stretched along the opposite shore, though a stray American deer might get a nasty surprise.

“I’m turning into a brass monkey here,” Foxnard said. Frost silvered the red curls escaping her hood. “How’d I do anyway?”

“Sorry, can’t see too well in this light.”

Story Comments