prompt: Write a story about a secret group or society.
available at Reedsy
They were always there, watching, waiting for the moment they needed to step in and fulfill their vow to keep The Secret. Alec hadn’t expected it to come so soon, though.
He’d been introduced to them a year prior, after what he’d learned was three years of research and vetting of him as a candidate. Professor Miriam Dragostine had made the invite. After three years of an increasingly weird university experience, he was ready to peek behind the curtain.
Less than a month after induction, Alec was called to an emergency meeting, not by the professor, but by the Knight General. He knew her only by voice, but she was there, at the university, along with the rest of the brothers and sisters.
Miriam met him at the door hidden at the back of the boiler room, unlocking it as he approached. “Alec.”
“Professor,” he nodded.
“Not here, Knight Commander, Sister or just Miriam,” she reminded him.
“Sorry, old habits.” He stepped in and she followed, closing the door behind her. He looked around the ornate lounge, a dozen people already in attendance, nearly half wearing hooded robes. “Am I late?”
“No. We’ve been going over this for hours before we decided to call general assembly. You’re the first to show.”
“But … the door?” Alec asked.
“Because you don’t have a key yet.” Miriam smiled. “It’s being made. I should have it to you by the end of the week.”
Alec looked at the key she held. At first glance it looked like an ordinary high-security key. The reflections as it turned, though, showed it had an intricate design of hair-thin holes and engravings that joined them in a constellation of design.
“Works for every door to a Temple.” She put the key in her pocket. “Our temples, that is.”
Others arrived, in ones and twos over the next hour. Aside from the five that were robed, everyone in attendance looked like any average person walking in off the street.
A small woman with greying brown hair and light brown eyes broke off her conversation with those wearing robes and stood. “Exalted Knights of The Secret Way,” she called out.
All those seated, except for the robed ones, stood. The entire standing assemblage snapped to attention. “The Knights hear and answer, Knight General,” they called out in unison.
“We have a dilemma.” She motioned to the robed figures, still seated. “The Knight Commanders and I have been trying to find a solution, but so far have failed.”
The Knight General turned to the cluster of robed individuals. “Agarta, would you like to explain the situation to the Knights?”
One of the robed figures stood, smaller than the Knight General, and nodded at her. “Certainly, Jess. I will try to be brief.” Her accent was unplaceable.
She pulled back her hood, revealing sun-bronzed skin, dark brown hair with sun-bleached ends, and tall, pointed ears. The others pulled off their hoods. Different shades of skin, hair, and eyes, and variation in the size and shape of their ears, but all were pointed.
“My name is Agarta, and I represent the kingdom of Samal. My associates represent the nations of Currander, Bridgeborn, Frantos, and the city-state of Lesser Mount Vault,” she introduced as each nodded in turn. “We are here to ask your aid. An illness is spreading, and the only available treatment is here in your world.”
Agarta crossed her arms, and her gaze fell to the patterned carpet. “If we don’t get treatment for the currently ill … fast … and vaccinate a major portion of the population, we run the risk of extinction.” She raised her head and turned to the Knight General. “I’ll let you take it from here, Jess.”
“We have a duty to maintain The Secret, that our world and theirs are connected and magic is very real, just not here. Although it isn’t written in the Rites and Orders, I feel we also have a duty to aid and protect our magical cousins.”
She clapped her hands once, the sound sharp and cutting through the sudden murmur. “We’ve already tried taking antibiotics and vaccines through to their world. Crossing over does the same thing to them as bringing magic potions here; turns it inert.
“I’ll leave you all to converse among yourselves and to meet our friends. Any ideas, pass them on to your commander. We’ll reconvene in two hours to discuss possible solutions.” She snapped to attention and all the Knights followed suit. “Knights, ho!”
“Ho!” they called out in unison before breaking into groups of conversation.
Alec looked at the crowds around the elves. “Prof … Miriam,” he asked, “are the Knights connected?”
“Connected to what?”
“Like, Hollywood, politicians, stuff like that?”
“Probably, at least tangentially. Why?”
“I might have an idea, but I need to figure out if it’s even feasible before I bring it up.” Alec pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I’m going heads-down to do some research. When I have something more concrete, I’ll find you.”
Alec spent time researching on his phone, stopping every few minutes to ask questions of whoever happened to be nearest him at the moment. He typed away on his phone for several long minutes before jumping up and making a beeline for Miriam.
He explained his ideas, got her feedback, and followed her around, taking notes on his phone as she led him from Knight to Knight, filling in details. By the time the two hours ended, Alec had gotten to the point where he was going over the same calculations for the third and fourth time.
The Knight Commanders talked with the Knight General for a few minutes before she clapped once and the commanders all said, “Aye.”
“We have an idea from our newest Knight. Alec, please share the plan.” The Knight General stepped aside and motioned for Alec to take her place.
Alec cleared his throat. “Okay, um, I’ll start with a little explanation of my thinking. When I first saw the elves, I thought of cosplayers and conventions. But there’s no way we could stretch a convention long enough to do what we need.
“However, a large space is the only thing that would make this possible. Handling a few dozen vaccinations a day in a cabin in the mountains would take years, assuming we could even get in front of it.
“That’s when it hit me. There’s an abandoned mall fifteen minutes from here, and a bunch of people dressed like elves would not seem out of place for this.” Alec began scrolling through his phone. “The cost to put a temporary privacy fence around the mall—”
“Brother Alec,” the Knight General interrupted, “you can connect to the screen so we can all see.” She pointed at the bookcase that slid down into the floor to expose the large screen monitor.
Once connected, Alec continued. “I’ve figured the costs for putting up a privacy fence, plus a one-year lease of the entire property with a renewal option. We’ll need some equipment to pull it off, but this will work.”
He showed them through his flowcharts, graphs, and diagrams, how they could treat up to 600 of the sick at a time, and vaccinate two to four thousand a day. The plans included how many trucks of supplies would need to arrive each day, how much catering, and how many people would need to be working around the clock.
Alec paused, then looked up from his phone. “I know our mandate is to protect The Secret, but I think the best way to do it in this case is by being publicly secretive.”
He put the mall floor plan up on the screen and moved closer to point out his thoughts. “If we move two gates to the elves’ world here and here, in the old Macy’s,” he said, “we can process as many as four thousand vaccinations a day, if we keep entry flowing this direction to what used to be the housewares department and back out through garments. Notice that it leaves us a clear shot to the center of the main concourse, and we have three other major stores right there, all two-story, that we can use for our temporary hospital.”
He switched to a view of the docks. “We can bring supplies in here, including the lights, cameras, computers, stage sets, and green screens that we’ll use to block off viewing into the hospital and vaccine ward. We’ll also make that our only entrance and exit from outside the mall.
“The public story is that we’re making a movie. The working title is Elves, and we’ll need a script, but it should be a dog. We won’t actually make a movie, of course, but it should look, from the outside, like someone’s pet Hollywood production that exists only to lose money and be a tax shelter. That gives us plausible deniability for anything other than spending a year making a movie. All this relies, of course, on a covert supplier for the vaccine.”
Alec disconnected his phone. “That’s … all I’ve got so far.”
There was a long pause while everyone thought about what he’d just shown. Then, as if a switch had been flipped, suggestions started flowing, along with lots of, “I know a guy,” and “I can get ahold of one of those.”
The Knight General clapped her hands loud enough to silence the room. “Brother Alec, Sister Miriam, this is your operation as of this moment. I will create an LLC for the production company that will handle all the financial details. Let’s plan on having the lease secured and a construction company to put up the fences by the end of the month.
“Before you get too far into this, though, Brother Alec has not had his mal magicum vaccination and will need to cross with the elves to get that. We don’t want you breaking out in spark-shooting chicken pox. Is that something we can handle today?” she asked, turning to Agarta.
“Absolutely, Jess. I would like to speak with the young man some more to get details about what medical cadre we will need to provide, and how we should prioritize the vaccination rolls.”
Alec looked to his side where Miriam wore a satisfied smile. “I knew you were a good pick,” she said. “So, who’s the director? Maybe we could get Robert Rodriguez.”
“Is he a Knight, too?” he asked.
“Is he? Couldn’t tell you even if I knew,” she answered.