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Posts Tagged ‘Tales of The Third War’

Bad Trip Into The Past

We were curious if Tessa was the first Xerian that Riley ever encountered. She wasn’t. When Jake was teaching him how to do regressions, he encountered his first Xerian without even knowing it. Enjoy!

“Bangers and mash?” Riley asked, lifting one eyebrow. “If Sully finds out, he’ll put you back on a diet. You know that.”

Looking at Riley sharply, Jake Adams said, “He did. He’s demanding I turn over a new leaf, but I’m having any of it this time. There’s only so much tofu and lettuce a man can take.” He raised one silver eyebrow at Riley. “You’re not going to tell him, are you?”

“No, I wouldn’t dare,” he said, laughing. “So, I take it you’re not getting many of Sully’s wondrous, gourmet meals lately?” Riley had partaken of enough of Jake’s partner’s lavish spreads and could sympathize with the man.

“Try none for the past three weeks.” Jake stabbed a sausage and took a bite. He closed his eyes and got a blissful expression on his face. “Aaaaah,” he sighed. Opening his eyes, he pinned Riley with a glance. “Enough about my culinary woes. What’s going on with that new client of you mentioned in your last email?”

Riley took a swig from his bottle of Drakes Hefeweizen before answering.

(more…)

Arrowhead

Ever wonder how Evelyn became Kier’s mother?
We thought you’d like to know how it happened. Enjoy!

Evelyn shifted nervously in her seat. The waiting room was chilly. It felt like any other anonymous doctor’s office. Not what she expected  adopting a child from China. Around her, the other adoptive couples chatted nervously with each other.

But she was all alone, except for Maeve. When Keith and I started this three years ago, at least we had each other through all the paperwork, financial probes, and home visits. But after he died…. She didn’t want think about losing him. It had been a year since the Oakland police showed up on her doorstep to tell her that he’d died on a building site he’d been overseeing in L.A. They said he’d had a heart attack, then fallen several stories off the new LeRoux Worldwide Center.

She felt a warm hand on her arm, reminding her of Maeve’s presence. She turned to find her friend/receptionist/mother figure  smiling at her.

“Brighten up, hon. Remember, you’re about to become a mother. You’re ready for this.”

(more…)

Hands Off

Riley is usually a level-headed guy.
But if you hurt someone he cares about, watch out.
You could end up like Aaron. Enjoy!

“Morning, Riles.”

“Rachel, you look like hell!” Riley said, rushing to take her backpack out of her hand. “What’s wrong with your arm? And where have you been? I called and called yesterday when you didn’t show up for school. Coach said you were sick.”

“Yeah, my dad would say that,” she said, twisting her locker combination in. She shrugged with one shoulder. “I just…tripped on the stairs. Sprained my elbow.”

When Riley placed a sympathetic hand on her good arm, she winced. He looked into her face sharply.

“Bullshit. I know you too well. You could run up and down those stairs blindfolded and never have a problem. What really happened?”

(more…)

One Thing Leads To Another

Alex makes a new friend at a conspiracy convention and sparks fly.
Keep an eye on the guy in the chair, you just might see him again. Soon. Enjoy!

The presenter pointed to several statistics on the overhead slide before turning back toward the audience. Ninety-eight pairs of eyes followed his pointer.

“As you can see in this illustration, the government has been reading all of our mail for over a hundred years. We’ve just made it easier for them in the digital age. Now they have computers to sort through all of our exchanges. Privacy has always been an illusion. They are just more blatant about it nowadays.

“That’s all I have. Any questions from the audience about the history of government surveillance?”

Alex considered the issues the presenter brought up. I agree with some of his points, but this guy is whackadoodle. Does he really think the US government used to steam open letters like someone’s nosy spinster aunt? The gossip from someplace like that would have been impossible to rein in. Let alone keep its existence a secret.

(more…)

Maybe the Glass Is Half Full

We wondered how James ended up in San Francisco.
Turns out his older brother Kevin had something to do with it. Enjoy!

“Another whiskey, laddy?”

Around him, the atmosphere of the bar muttered, clinked, and scraped as the afternoon crowd went about its business. At the back, around the bend of the long mahogany bar, Jimmy Cavanaugh stared morosely at the few remaining drops of amber in his whiskey glass.

Looking up at the man behind the bar, he shrugged. “Yeah. I guess.”

(more…)

Evelyn’s Big Adventure

Evelyn is definitely a city girl. Camping isn’t exactly an itch she needs to scratch.
But for Kier, she makes an exception. Bet she’ll never make that mistake again. Enjoy!

“C’mon, mom, keep up!” Kier yelled from a bend in the trail.

Evelyn, struggling with the aluminum folding chair she’d insisted on bringing, called back, “You could carry my chair for me, you know.”

With a put-upon air, newly teenaged Kier said, “You wanted the chair, so you have to carry it.” He turned to his best friend Barry. “That’s one of the rules of camping, isn’t it?”

Barry shrugged. “I guess so. I mean, you and me’re fishing, so we’ve got to carry the fishing stuff, right?”

(more…)

SnakeGrrrl

You met Tessa’s boa constrictors, Meg and Calvin, in Dreaming of Xeres.
This story tells how she got them, and
what happened when Riley met them for the first time. Enjoy!

“C’mon, Josh, it’ll be cool. You know the manager said we couldn’t have any pets ‘with fur’. Snakes don’t have fur so he can’t tell us no.”

“But they’re slimy. And besides, where would you keep it?”

Tessa batted her eyelashes. “In a terrarium, of course.”

Josh made a face at her. “I know that. I mean,” he said with an exasperated air, “where would you keep it in our tiny little apartment?” He shook his head. “I don’t think I could sleep in the same room as a snake. What if it gets out?”

“Are you seriously telling me you’re afraid of a teeny-tiny snake? This little girl’s hardly bigger than a pencil.”

(more…)

The Infamous Couch Story

In Dreaming of Xeres, you heard several times about what happened when Alex helped Riley and Tessa get their old, lumpy couch. Now you can find out for yourself what actually happened. Enjoy!

“We can’t afford a sofa,” Riley MacPherson protested from where he was finishing drying the supper dishes.

Tessa Connors, his girlfriend or ‘significant other’ as she preferred to be called, was sitting at the kitchen table with a dozen or so catalogs strewn across it. Looking up from one of them, she said, “Maybe I could talk my way into a discount at one of these places. My business with Diana is too small to get things at wholesale yet, but we’re getting bigger contracts every day.” She dug through the pile and pulled out a catalog. “Look at this one.”

(more…)