chapter 1 : reassignment stranded in oasis ( excerpt ) oasis series # 1 romance in the grand canyon state veering off the u.s. 93 onto the off-ramp , maximilian rutherford iii , ground his teeth and slammed his three quarters-of-a-million dollar rv to a halt at a stop sign with graffiti declaring , `` hot as hell , '' and then turned onto a narrow , two lane road with dips that even an outrageously expensive rv could n't disguise .