Immunity, page 1
Author Comments
I’ve been trying to write a couple of collections of short stories, one of sexy bedtime stories and the other of horror stories, Robin Roseau style. This story was supposed to be a short (which I seem to be largely incapable of writing), and a horror story besides.
Along the way, it turned into something else entirely.
I kept the very basic premise, and this book includes at least one character being rather naughty. But it’s neither a short nor a horror story.
I do hope you enjoy.
Robin Roseau
August, 2022
Hoax
When we heard the first reports of portals opening to the fae lands, everyone thought it was a hoax. There were disappearances. There were strange creatures. Some of the people who disappeared came back with fantastical stories.
Some of the people who came back kept their mouths shut.
But then a portal opened outside Taipei, and dozens of Taiwanese smart phones videoed the resulting chaos. The portal was only open for four hours, but the creatures that came through caused an estimated two billion Taiwanese dollars in damage before they were destroyed by Taiwan’s squadrons of F-16 fighter jets.
In fairness, the monsters didn’t cause all the damage themselves, although the Taiwan military was quick to shed any responsibility.
Most of the portals that opened had far less dramatic effect. It is assumed most weren’t even noticed, as many of the portals were only open for brief periods. Others remained open much longer.
And a few seem to be permanent.
That was 25 years ago.
* * * *
“Professor Amelie Newman, please,” said an unfamiliar woman’s voice.
“Speaking.”
“Dr. Newman, please hold for the President of the United States.”
I thought it was a joke. Who wouldn’t? One of my students attempting a prank. It wouldn’t be the first time, but thankfully, it was rare. I wondered how much they’d had to drink.
There was a click, a pause, and then another click. “Dr. Newman. Keira Moss.”
It sounded like her, just in those first words. I played along. “Madam President. Was I expecting your call?”
“That would be unlikely,” she replied. “Do you watch the news, Doctor?”
“Is there something breaking I should be watching?”
“No, no. Just generally.”
“Yes, Madam President.”
“Perhaps you are aware I sent a delegation to Elgonae.”
“The media didn’t report much, but one of my colleagues mentioned that. It was some time ago.”
“Six weeks. It’s a challenging journey. They were sent back. Rejected.”
It still sounded like the president. Whoever was doing her voice was good. “I see.”
“Do you think you could speak plainly, Doctor? Why do you believe Raymond McLean was returned to us?”
“I imagine because he opened his mouth.”
She laughed, just briefly. “So you know Raymond.”
“I’ve had the so-called pleasure, yes. You said I should speak plainly.”
“Of course.”
“Whoever you are, you do a good job with her voice. You sound just like her.” And I clicked off.
I thought that would be the end of it. I was, of course, wrong, or this story would hardly be worth telling.
* * * *
There was a knock at my office door, and then it opened without pause. Two people stepped in, a man and a woman, looking very Men in Black. I stared at them, but my attention was redirected when another woman stepped between them and approached my desk. “Dr. Newman.”
She didn’t look Men in Black, but she looked very Federal Government. “Either this is a very, very elaborate joke, or I hung up on the president.”
“Yes, Doctor,” said the woman. She pulled a computer tablet from a messenger bag, tapped at it a moment, and then turned it to face me.
“Madam President,” I said.
“I should have anticipated your reaction, Doctor. Do I have your attention now?”
“Yes, Madam President.”
“Excellent. I need an ambassador to Elgonae. They’ve asked for you.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’d like you to come to Washington. Hillary can escort you. I’d have come to you, but it’s such a bother to everyone when I do.”
I stared at the leader of the free world. It still felt like a joke. “When?”
“Perhaps we can bring you home and you can pack a bag,” said the woman holding the tablet.
“Now. As in. Um. Now?”
“Yes, Doctor,” said the president.
My mind was spinning. I didn’t discount the chance this could still be a hoax, some sort of impersonator. “I have commitments.”
“The college has been informed,” said the president. She leaned forward. “For some reason, I tend to get what I need. It is a power I strive to use judiciously. I’ll see you in several hours.”
Without waiting further, she clicked off. I stared then slowly lifted my gaze to the woman holding the tablet. She was watching me, but then she slipped the tablet back into her bag. She smiled and held out her hand. “Hillary Bender,” she said. “I am to be your aide.”
I stood and accepted her hand, reaching across my desk.
“There is some urgency,” she said. “I can brief you on the flight.”
“I think,” I said slowly, “I’d like to see ID.”
“Of course.”
They were well-prepared. Ms. Bender had a white house pass. It looked legitimate. The two Men in Black were secret service. I set all three IDs on my desk, pulled out my phone, and photographed them. No one tried to stop me. I then photographed each of the people facing me. The woman secret service agent called me paranoid. “I like it,” she added. “We’d rather you not post to social media.”
“I suppose that wouldn’t make you very secret anymore.”
“I’ve been seen on national television a time or six,” she said. “But we don’t advertise.”
I forwarded everything to a colleague. I was just locking my office, the others waiting, when my phone rang. I wasn’t surprised. “Are they carting you away?” Sarah asked.
“If it’s not a hoax, I’ve been summoned to Washington.”
“No shit?”
“If you don’t hear from me, you have photos of the lead suspects. Gotta go.”
“Give a one-fingered salute if you see our Senator.”
“Don’t worry; I will.”
* * * *
They led me to my own car. Ms. Bender waited by the passenger door. The secret service disappeared, but I’d see them later. “They’re not here to protect you?”
“No. They were here to convince you it’s not a hoax.”
“Do you blame me?”
“You spoke to the president.”
“Did you ever see Tina Fey impersonate Sarah Palin?”
“Ah. Well, wait until you see the giant mock-up we built of the White House.”
* * * *
I stared at her. She smiled, the smile that had charmed half of America, barely. It had been a close race. “Did you vote for me?”
“No.”
“Many of your female colleagues did, statistically speaking.”
“You ran to the middle after the primaries.”
“Have I been the monster you feared?”
I gave it an honest consideration. “No, but your party long ago sold their souls to the devil.”
“I have no doubt if we were to search sufficiently, we would find pentagrams in many DC basements. I haven’t fulfilled all my campaign promises, but have I broken any yet?”
“I’m sure your base thinks so.”
“Name one promise I’ve broken.”
I considered her again. “You vetoed three bills from your own party.”
“I did,” she said. “I told them I was going to. I made a campaign promise to reach across the aisle. I told Congress I would veto any bill that didn’t include bipartisan support.”
“During the primaries, you promised to crush opposition to the party platform.”
“That’s not what I said, though,” she replied. “I wrote that very carefully. I would neutralize opposition. Not crush.”
“My mistake.”
“And I have.”
I stared. She waited. “No, you haven’t,” I said finally.
“Oh? Those three bills I vetoed? They’ve been revived. They’ll pass with bipartisan support, and I’ll sign them. I’ve signed a dozen in the last three months, all with bipartisan support.” She smiled. “And I dare say I’ve done more to advance your political preferences than that pompous ass who ran against me would have.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I detest tyranny of the majority,” she said. “The best laws consider all views, or at least all reasonable views. Good ideas can come from both sides of the aisle.”
“You said that in a few of your speeches.”
“I certainly did.” She paused. “Well, enough about that.” She gestured. “Sit.”
I moved to what was probably the most famous seating arrangement in the world, looking around the oval office for a moment. There was a coffee service waiting, and Madam President surprised me when she poured for both of us, then added just the right amount of cream to mine before setting it before me. She used far less cream in hers.
Well. I have thirty minutes to convince you to travel to another world. Tell me what you know about Algonae.”
“One of the fae worlds,” I said. “Well. One of the alternate worlds, populated by fae with a significant human contingent. There was a portal from Persia; no one is quite sure when and where, but it collapsed in antiquity. More recently, there was some sort of ongoing civil war, probably lasting longer than we realize, and the human rulers were finally evicted seven years ago. Or so.”
“Or so,” agreed the president. “Your information is not fully accurate. The portal was in a small mountain range near Sahl in northeast Iran. It did not collapse in antiquity, but our side was lost during a cave collapse. The portal itself collapsed nine years ago.”
That couldn’t be right, but I wasn’t going to call the president a liar, even if I hadn’t voted for her.
“You doubt me.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Oh, I wish you would, Doctor.”
“You are looking quite smug, Madam President.”
“Am I? Does it look good on me?”
“Not when it’s at my expense.”
She barked a laugh. “Please humor me,” she said.
“Fine. How do we know the portal has remained open all this time?”
“Some portals – not all, but some – allow Earth technology to operate in the fae worlds.”
“For a limited range.”
“Five hundred years ago, that would hardly have mattered,” she said. “But imagine the defensive capability of modern weapons.”
“The portal collapsed, and two years later, the government collapsed.”
“Of course, we know all this because another portal to Algonae opened.”
“Fifteen years ago. Our end is in Spain.”
“And the other end is some distance from…” She trailed off.
“From Algonae City.”
“A difficult journey. Do you ride, Doctor?”
“I bet you know the answer to that.”
“I may have watched a video or two of you,” she said.
“Why is this so important to you?”
“Publicly?” she asked. “Trade.”
I eyed her. “And less publicly?”
“Are you going to make me use my entire remaining twenty minutes, Doctor?”
“Why me, and what’s your real reason?”
“Why you? I don’t know. The Algonaese asked for you. They know what I want. They suggested if I send you as my emissary, they would be open to discussions. I couldn’t exactly get on the phone and ask for details.”
“I suppose not.”
“What I am about to tell you would normally require a security clearance.” She turned to look at a secret service agent, who stepped to the door and opened it. Ms. Bender stepped in. She didn’t say anything, but she sat beside me and set a folder in front of me. It wasn’t one of the folders we’d discussed on the flight. She opened it.
It was the mother of NDAs. I picked it up and read it. I set it back down and looked at the president. “It sounds like you need me.”
“Are you really horse trading with me?”
I gestured. “I don’t have to sign that.”
“No, you don’t. But if you don’t, this conversation terminates.”
“And you don’t get what you want.”
“We don’t know that,” she said. “I’ll send someone else and tell the Algonaese you turned down their invitation. Doctor, you’re practically bursting with curiosity. If you sign that, there’s exactly one topic you can’t discuss. If you don’t sign it, you won’t even know what that topic is.”
“I think I hate you,” I said. The president laughed. Ms. Bender handed me a pen and I signed the agreement. I looked up. “What could I have gotten from you?”
“Not a thing. I don’t respond well to someone trying to back me into a corner. I respond very well when people work with me. Thank you. Most fae magic does not work on Earth.”
“Oh shit,” I said.
She smiled again but then said, “Most Algonaese magic is on the list of magic that doesn’t work here.”
“Most.”
“Yes. The Algonaese freedom fighters have a form of magic that allows them to bypass security protocols.”
“Oh, shit.”
“They can’t necessarily open electronic locks, or at least, we hope not. But they could, for instance, get an assassin into the White House.”
“Oh, shit,” I said again.
“They also can counter it, which is why their war lasted as long as it did.”
“And you want them to give it to the United States.”
“Almost. I want them to give it to the United Nations.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I don’t want North Korea using it, but I also don’t want Beijing telling North Korea we’re going to use it. Everyone gets the counter measures, and no one gets the infiltration magic. That’s what I want.”
“I bet the CIA hates you.”
“Undoubtedly,” she said. “Doctor, I want to send you to Algonae. Hillary will go with you. You will openly negotiate a trade deal and quietly negotiate this far more important agreement.”
“I’m hardly a diplomat.”
“Perhaps not, but I want to send you, regardless.”
“For the United Nations.”
“For the UN,” she agreed.
I held my hand out to her.
Journey
It all happened so fast. We would be traveling lightly, but we had funds – actual gold and silver – to see to our needs on Algonae.
I had a small team, six of us in all, three women, three men. Hillary Bender would serve as my personal aide. Taylor Wilson was introduced as my deputy ambassador. He was older than me, a career diplomat, and looked like he was accustomed to getting what he wanted from the women around him. I wasn’t interested in his charm.
I didn’t fully understand the roles Aniyah Cobb, Rhys Elliott, or Bailey Dean would fill, but from the looks of them, I wondered if they were active-duty special forces. They were introduced with various civilian titles, but they all had That Look.
We flew into Madrid, where the Spanish authorities were very polite. We took a smaller plane to Zaragoza. From there, we had a small convoy of three SUVs that took us into the Pyrenees, the mountains that separate Spain from France. We stayed overnight at a lovely mountain resort.
In the morning, we climbed back into our SUVs, drove another half hour, and then had a two-hour hike.
* * * *
I’d never seen a portal. On Earth, there were two types of portals. One could be formed in a fairy ring, a naturally occurring circle of mushrooms. It required magic, and the ring must have formed naturally. You could not cultivate mushrooms in a circle to achieve a fairy ring. And, of course, humans didn’t have the magic to form a portal.
The other type occurred only in remote areas and nearly always in something that formed a sort of natural portal such as a cave or an arch. If it was isolated and vaguely looked like an open door or window, it could form one end of a portal.
Getting to the portal wasn’t easy or at all obvious. It began with falling through the Earth.
* * * *
I stared. “No way.”
“It is entirely safe,” said our Spanish guide. “The caves are well understood and very stable.”
I eyed the hole. “I have to go down there. I don’t know the first thing about this kind of thing.”
“Which is why you have us,” he said. “We will lower you as if you are a babe in your mother’s arms.”
The hole was only about four feet across, rough, and looking down, it was dark. There was a shaft that descended more deeply than the light did.
“Madam President didn’t mention holes in the ground.”
No one spoke, but then Ms. Bender stepped forward and said, “I’ll go first.” She didn’t wait but grabbed one of the harnesses. “Help me with this.”
It wasn’t the guide that helped her. It was Rhys Elliott, and he looked like he knew what he was doing. He got her buckled up and tested everything, and then he snapped her into the winch system. Ms. Bender stepped to the hole, put her weight into the winch, and then let herself drop, all of about a foot. She hung, grinning, her legs dangling into the hole. “Let her go.”
“Light,” said Rhys. He handed her a flashlight. But it was the guide who operated the winch.
It wasn’t until Ms. Bender was all the way down, slack on the winch, that the rest of my team turned to look at me. No one said a word. They just waited.
