Avalanche Of Trouble. Cindi Myers

at his hip. “Stand back.”

      “You’re not going to sho—” But apparently, he was. The blast echoed through the woods and Maya covered her ears and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the lock lay shattered on the ground.

      Gage pushed open the gate. “Stay behind me, and if we meet anyone, I’ll do the talking.”

      She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him. She got that he was used to being in charge, but he ought to have figured out by now that she didn’t like being ordered around. She forgot her annoyance as she moved farther away from the gate into what looked like a long-abandoned ghost town. The remains of paved streets showed between patches of grass and even small trees that grew up through the asphalt. A few windowless concrete buildings crouched alongside crumbling concrete foundations or stakes topped with faded plastic ribbons that fluttered in the breeze.

      Maya moved up alongside Gage. “What is this place?” she asked, keeping her voice low. “It’s creepy.”

      “It was going to be an exclusive resort, with luxury homes, a country club and a golf course.”

      “Why wasn’t it built?”

      “Paige and a group of like-minded citizens got together and filed a lawsuit to stop the building. They convinced a judge that this was a fragile environmental zone that wouldn’t support that kind of development. The judge agreed.”

      “Do you agree?” she asked.

      He glanced at her. “I do. But I can’t say leaving it like this is much better. It’s an eyesore.” He led the way across one of the crumbling streets, toward a row of three curved ducts jutting up from the ground.

      “What are those?” she asked.

      “Probably air vents for underground storage, or possibly machinery—a power plant or something. They could even be venting gasses from an old mine.”