The Story Vault: Tab 2013-15: Tad’s Elf is a fantasy tale of a young boy who has a magical friend

Jack Driscol: The Ex Affair:

Chapter 9: A Knight in Dented Armor

Jack begins to investigate the activities of RV Enterprises and its owner, Ramon Vargas. He decides to visit El Amigo, a bar restaurant frequented by those who work for Vargas. There Jack meets the beautiful Bessita Alvarez, Manager of the bar who has moved to Central City from Panama with her father with financial aid from Vargas. An encounter with Vargas regarding Bessita, leaves Jack vulnerable to his gang as he leaves the bar. It is Bessita who distracts the gang while Jack makes a hurried exit.

Chapter 10: Everybody’s Fool

Jack is awakened by his mechanic Mo, asking if he still had the pickup borrowed from Mo the night before to go to the bar. Mo’s garage has been trashed and Jack’s Studebaker stolen. Upon arrival at the garage, the police are there with a warrant for Jack’s arrest for creating a disturbance at El Amigo from the night before. Back in jail, Homicide Lieutenant Martin comes to see Jack who fills him in on Vargas but warns him that there is someone in the DA’s office likely on Vargas’s payroll.

Chapter 11: Lady in Black

Freed again, Jack contacts Bessita and she agrees to meet him at the Mel so that they can discuss the Vargas situation. Bessita share’s with Jack what she overheard from Vargas and his men as he plotted to track down Jack the night before. She tells him the story of how Vargas has compromised her father and uses the bar as part of his money laundering scheme. She also tells Jack that Attorney Milton Porter was working with Vargas and that they were having a problem with Charles Gordon and needed a scapegoat. She agrees to help Jack overcome Vargas. It is clear there is a growing mutual attraction between the two.

1st Transcendence: Out of Order, Chapters 25 to 29

On board the Arcielle, Jonathon Cross begins to take charge as they upgrade the ship to prepare it for the meeting with Neologians. Jonathon’s nanobiotic evolution connects him directly to the hive of nanobots which service the ship. Fred is put to work developing offensive weapons while Ginger improves the engines. Fred begins to feel excluded and paranoid as Ginger and Jonathon work more and more together. Though major upgrades are made to the ship, Fred’s exhaustion requires Ginger to intervene.

Meanwhile on the Neologue 1,Baktor has been setting the stage to entrap the sinister Dolor Tranch. When the sabotage device planted by Baktor activates, cutting power to the ship chaos occurs. At the same time a message is sent across space to the Arcielle with a subtle warning about the leaders of the two planets. It requires those on the Arcielle to translate its meaning