The city of Phoenix is growing like a cancer. The Bureau of Land Management is trading land to make room for growth. Bankers, developers, and lawyers are making fortunes. Then some small—time miners cook up a scam to get their cut of the action and all hell breaks loose in the desert.When Tom Kreuger, a BLM wildlife biologist, finds a lunatic miner buried in sand and partly eaten by javelina, he soon uncovers a quicksand plot. Then a co—worker disappears, and another body turns up in a plane wreck. Gold mines, aliens, water theft, and conspiracy theories abound. Tom is in over his head and doesn't know it.