Insurrection: Resurrected Series, #2

Prologue

Let me tell you an incredible story about my best friend, Dietrich, and his dead fiancée. I know it sounds really morbid and depressing, but she doesn’t stay dead, and that’s why it’s such an incredible story. I met Dietrich and Lottie when they were eighteen and those two were always so crazy in love with each other. But when she was twenty-five, she and her best friend were killed in a car accident. Now, let me just say, Dietrich’s like a brother to me – the brother I always wanted because I have three sisters – and the next two years were an absolute Hell for him. I hated seeing him like that. But what I could do? I couldn’t bring her back to life.

So I spent those two years just trying to keep him alive. The first year, there were nights I would refuse to leave his apartment and slept on his couch because I was worried about what he’d do. But most of the time, he threw himself into his job and worked too hard which meant I was working too hard since we were partners. But if it kept him alive, I wasn’t complaining.

Anyway, one day, Dietrich tells me he saw Lottie – two years after she died – and she claimed she was like some kind of alien energy life force that had resurrected her body. But wait: it gets weirder. We tracked her down, and it turns out, there was something unique about Lottie’s body that allowed her memories and personality and everything that made her her to be resurrected, too, so she was both Lottie and this other alien woman.

This wasn’t supposed to happen though, and the assholes who run this show – sending these guys over from their planet – are really freaked out by Lottie’s resurrection because they’re worried it’s going to damage their reputation back home. I mean, who wants to wake up as both yourself and someone else? So they wanted her dead.

As long as we were around, these guys couldn’t touch her though, so they did the only other thing they could: they kidnapped her best friend, who had resurrected Lottie’s dead friend’s body. Shit, this is complicated. Dietrich could probably tell this story better than me. So Lydia – the resurrected best friend – was kidnapped and Dietrich and I led a pretty heroic rescue, if you ask me. Except Dietrich was shot saving my life.

Bastard.

It wasn’t the first time he’d saved my life, but it was the first time he almost died because of it. Do you have any idea what it’s like to see someone you love so much bleeding like that? We were on a yacht on Lake Charles and his blood was everywhere and then he fell over the side and honest to God, I thought I had lost him. I killed the guy who shot him and jumped in after him, but he was sinking so quickly and that water wasn’t exactly clear. I still don’t know how I found him.

Maybe it was luck, or maybe it was God – Dietrich would say luck, he doesn’t believe in God and after everything we’ve been through, I think he’s just being a stubborn ass about it – but somehow, as I was swimming down into that dark brown water, my fingers brushed against him and I was able to pull him up. He barely survived. But he did. He’s one tough son of a bitch.

When he was better, he and Lottie moved to Berlin. And I missed the hell out of him. I missed them both, but Dietrich and I were unusually close. Maybe a little too close. Some of the guys we worked with thought we were gay. Seriously, we’re not. I don’t know, over the years, all the shit we did together, all the time we spent together, how could we not be really close?

So he moved to Berlin and went from being the most badass guy I know to working on his PhD in physics. Physics. Six months ago, he was beating the shit out of people and solving international – and apparently, intergalactic – mysteries, and now he was going to be a doctor. In physics. Ok, I was secretly a little proud of him, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.

A few months ago, he and Lottie got married. Finally. Before she died, she had been planning this big, elaborate wedding. This time, Dietrich called me right after they moved and told me they were going to get married soon and I needed to get my ass over there. So I did. No elaborate wedding, no church, no big fancy reception. Lydia and I both went and that was the entire wedding party. And honestly? It was probably the coolest wedding I’ve ever been to. Sure, a big part of it was knowing what they’d been through, the impossible odds they’d overcome and the fact this was even happening, but if you could see the way those two love each other, you’d see what I mean – Lottie never needed any of that fancy shit. She was the most beautiful bride I’d ever seen, because I swear to God, she lit up from the moment she saw Dietrich waiting for her in that room.

And me? Mark, who helped us out with everything going down in Baton Rouge with Lottie and Lydia, was my new partner and he was good but it wasn’t the same. But I wouldn’t change the way any of this worked out. And, oh yeah, Mark was in love with Lydia who was still clinging to this crush on me. Dietrich called it the sci-fi love triangle of our group. Lydia lived with another friend of theirs in Nashville, but Mark and I still checked on her often. Mark more often than me.

A few weeks before Christmas, Dietrich told me he and Lottie were coming to Houston to visit for New Year’s. I tried to play it cool and act like I wasn’t actually really excited about it. It would be the first time they’d been back in the States since leaving. Lydia was coming, too, so apparently, we were going to ring in the New Year with one big Close Encounters of the Third Kind party. That was our plan anyway. Because we really thought all of this shit with these bastards who wanted Lottie and Lydia dead was over with. Even if Dietrich had left the intelligence world behind him, Mark and I were still here. We thought there was this mutual understanding that if they left us alone, we’d leave them alone. But we were wrong.

Chapter 1

Iwoke up earlier than I needed to since their flight wasn’t getting in for another three hours but I couldn’t sleep. I had a spare bedroom in my apartment so Dietrich and Lottie were staying with me. I even had a six-pack of Budweiser for him in the fridge, just because I was a good friend like that. The flight tracker on my phone told me their flight was on time so I decided to go to the florist to get Lottie flowers. The last time I’d gotten flowers for her had been to put on her grave, so it was probably time. Which reminded me – I needed to go clean up her grave. There was no body there, obviously, but we were still keeping up the illusion that there was. I’d kind of been slacking lately. I mean, it was late December. It was really damn cold outside.

Besides, I liked plants. Dietrich thought that was weird but he was working on a PhD in physics for Christ’s sake, so what did he know? So I always picked out my own flowers at the florist rather than buying one of their prearranged bouquets. I bought Lottie some violets and sweet alyssum, and drove over to George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Mark was picking Lydia up later today at Hobby and I was a little surprised he hadn’t flown to Nashville to pick her up himself.

This time of year, I expected the airport to be crazy. It took me twenty minutes just to find a place to park that wasn’t out in The Woodlands. By the time I figured out which concourse they’d be exiting, I didn’t have that long to wait, and as I noticed one of the other people waiting for someone to get off a plane, I knew the time would pass quickly anyway. She was pretty damn hot. I left one seat between us so I wouldn’t seem like some perv trying to pick her up in an airport even though I was trying to pick her up in an airport.

Excuse me, I said to her, do you mind if I put my friend’s flowers here?

I pointed to the empty seat between us.

She looked up at me and the flowers I was holding and offered me a smile. That was a good sign.

Of course not, go ahead. She eyed me then the flowers for a few more seconds before looking down at her book again. Those are beautiful. Your girlfriend’s going to love them.

Score.

Ah, no, just a friend. She and her husband are like family to me. They moved to Germany about six months ago though.

Oh, hell, yeah, I was going to milk this. And it was working. She totally had that sympathetic look going.

Aw, I’m so sorry. I’m Sasha. She extended her hand and I took it.

Eric, I told her and flashed her what I hoped was one of my sexier grins. It usually worked so I was assuming so.

By the time they announced Dietrich and Lottie’s flight had landed, I had gotten her number – without even having to ask for it – so I’m guessing it did. But once their flight landed, I was starting to lose interest in Sasha. That wasn’t entirely fair: I wasn’t losing interest in her, necessarily. I was just anxious for the plane to taxi to the gate and for them to start unboarding. I mean, I had her number. I’d call her later once Dietrich and Lottie were on their way back to Germany and I was in Houston by myself.

Alone.

Again.

I had other friends here, of course, but it wasn’t the same. I was trying not to be a big baby about it, being thirty-four and all, but I didn’t have a girlfriend or even the prospect of one and I was getting painfully aware that I wanted a family one day. Maybe I was too picky. Thing is, after almost twenty years of dating, I still didn’t know what I even wanted in a woman I was willing to spend the rest of my life with, so how the hell was I supposed to find someone when I didn’t know what I was looking for? And I met Dietrich and Lottie over ten years ago, so having to be around them with their we’re-so-perfect-for-each-other relationship all the time hadn’t made it any easier. Who wouldn’t want that?

The plane had finally docked next to the jet bridge and would be unloading soon. I grabbed Lottie’s flowers and told Sasha I would call her after the holiday madness was over – which I absolutely intended on doing, I mean I’m not a complete asshole – and waited with other anxious friends and family members.

It took a while for passengers to start trickling off the flight and making their way to the concourse, and I saw Dietrich’s tall blonde head long before I was able to see Lottie. She was short and petite, spritely even, like a little fairy, and despite the twelve-hour flight they’d just endured, they looked to be in a good mood. Lottie’s face broke out into a big smile when she saw me. She let go of Dietrich’s hand and ran into my open arms.

I couldn’t help it. I lifted her off the ground in a huge hug, trying not to crush the flowers I had so carefully picked out for her. When I set her back down, I handed them to her and explained I had chosen those for her because they were winter flowers so it seemed appropriate. That earned me an eye roll from Dietrich. And then I turned to my best friend and hugged him. He hugged me back in one of those tight embraces that may have lasted just a few seconds too long because we both suddenly became aware just how close we were to each other. And that our bodies were still touching. So we let go.

I can’t imagine why some of our coworkers thought we were gay.

I bent down to pick up Lottie’s carry-on for her and that’s when I noticed something seemed a little off. Different. Lottie was just a little different. And they were both watching me.

Holy shit, I said.

Lottie was beaming, and I swear to God, Dietrich was even beaming. I’d never seen Dietrich beam.

How… I stammered.

If Dietrich started being a smartass about how this had happened, we were going to start fighting here in the airport. But they hadn’t told me, and she obviously hadn’t just found out.

Almost four months, Lottie answered before Dietrich could give me the smartass answer I knew he wanted to. He looked really disappointed. We wanted to surprise you.

I ran a hand through my hair and stared stupidly at Lottie’s small little belly, that new life growing inside of her that she had wanted for so long.

Holy shit, guys. Man, I was a real wordsmith today. Everything’s ok? I mean, obviously, or you wouldn’t have traveled halfway across the world, right?

I wasn’t a complete idiot when it came to babies. I was an uncle. All of my sisters had kids by now.

Lottie nodded and told me everything was going great, and yes, of course they’d brought ultrasound pictures that I was going to see whether I wanted to or not. But it was Lottie and Dietrich’s baby. Of course I wanted to see their ultrasound pictures, even if I did half expect it to be part alien or something. Lottie assured me it was fully human. I told her it wasn’t her half of the baby’s genes I was worried about.

By the time we got back to my apartment after making it out of the labyrinth of the airport, Lottie was exhausted and went to their room to take a nap. There were too many college bowl games on for Dietrich to worry about sleeping now. And he’d even managed to make it back into the country in time to catch LSU playing in their bowl game. I didn’t think it was a coincidence.

He wouldn’t even take one of the Budweisers though and told me he’d rather drink water. I handed him a Shiner Bock instead.

We made it through the first quarter with just our normal complaining about bad calls and bantering when I suddenly said, Jesus, Dietrich. I think I kind of surprised him.

Jesus… Christ? he finally asked.

"You’re going to be a father."

I wasn’t sure what was more difficult for me to wrap my head around: the whole thing that had happened with Lottie and Lydia six months ago or this.

That’s usually what happens when your wife gets pregnant and has a baby. He was such a smartass.

And knowing Lottie, this was planned?

Dietrich nodded. We were both ready. We’ve got money saved. And Germany’s pretty good about helping new parents out. We just realized we weren’t going to plan for our future anymore. We were just going to do the things we wanted to do. Dying and almost dying will make you think about a lot of shit.

I wasn’t eager to test either of those theories. Does Lydia know?

Dietrich shook his head. Nope, we wanted to surprise you both. By the way, if you have any crystal lying around, put it someplace safe.

I must’ve looked confused but Dietrich didn’t offer an explanation, just one of his I-know-something-you-don’t-know smirks. About an hour later, when Mark showed up with Lydia, who was as beautiful and sweet and angelic as ever, she insisted we let Lottie sleep, even though we all knew she was dying to see her. That’s just how Lydia was.

But even though we were trying to be quiet, we couldn’t help cheering a little every time Alabama was scored against, and Lottie finally woke up and joined us in the living room. Lydia was much faster than I had been in noticing the change in Lottie. And then she started squealing. It was kinda cute actually, but that’s only because I didn’t actually have any crystal in my apartment.

It was weird, but there we were, this incredibly impossible group of friends who had experienced some of the strangest shit that’s probably ever happened in recorded history – if this counts as recorded history – but we were also really happy to be together again. With no one trying to kill us this time. The only crying was because Lottie was going to have a baby, and my sisters all did that too. First time my oldest sister announced she was pregnant, there was a lot of squealing and crying, and you’d think growing up with three sisters, I’d understand women better, but I think they just traumatized me, honestly.

So we spent the next day doing a lot of the same thing: watching football, drinking beer, giving each other a hard time – well, that was pretty much entirely Dietrich and me – and we took Lottie and Lydia shopping at the Galleria. I found myself thinking the next couple of weeks were going to be amazing: I’m off work, my friends are all in town, there’s always a football game on, I’ve got a hot girl’s number to call when they leave, Happy New Year to Eric.

But on the third day, things started changing, and it started with Lottie asking to go to her grave. Do you have any idea how bizarre it is for someone to ask you to take her to her own grave? What could we do though? For Dietrich, I was convinced it was physically impossible to tell Lottie no. He’s never been able to. The closest he’s ever come is making her leave the room one time when we were about to torture this asshole who wanted Lottie dead and he wasn’t being cooperative.

Anyway, Lydia was there, too, and after Lottie decided she wanted to go to her grave, Lydia decided she wanted to visit Jamie’s. She didn’t have any of Jamie’s memories or anything. She just thought it would be the respectful thing to do.

So there we were: pulling up into a cemetery with the two women who were supposed to be buried there and we guys had no goddamned clue what we were supposed to do. I stayed with Dietrich and Lottie, while Mark followed Lydia to Jamie’s grave. Lottie had gotten me to help her pick out flowers, and we all knelt around her grave, cleaning it, clearing away the dead flowers and grass and leaves and dirt.

Her mother must have come around Christmas because there was a little basket with these beautifully hand painted glass ornaments in them. Lottie said her mom painted those herself, every year, for friends and relatives. I wanted to take them with us so she could keep them, but she said no, her mom had wanted them here. And then I had to concentrate on pulling up some weeds that were growing near the headstone because, yeah, my eyes were threatening to water and I didn’t want to look like the biggest loser on the planet.

When Dietrich was in the hospital, we had a rare moment alone. Lottie almost never left his side. It took actual physical emergencies to get her away from him – like having to pee or breaking down and deciding to shower. So in one of those moments when she was trying to hurry through a shower – I really think she had been so scared he was going to die that she was convinced she could lose him in those five minutes apart – Dietrich told me he had always looked up to me. And I was kind of floored.

I mean, we never talk about emotions and shit, but I guess almost dying makes people want to say things they normally don’t. I told Dietrich when I first met him, I thought of him like the little brother I had always wanted, but soon after, I realized he was really one of the most extraordinary people I’ve ever known. And then things got kinda awkward in that we’re-guys-we-shouldn’t-be-talking-about-this-shit way, so Dietrich just smiled and told me to stop hitting on him.

So that was kind of the extent of our emotional bonding through talking about actual feelings. I mean, telling him he’s not being such an asshole today is pretty much the same thing, right? I didn’t know how to translate This whole cemetery expedition with the dead women who are no longer dead visiting their own graves is creepy as hell, let’s get out of here into Eric language though.

Not to mention even being here with Lottie just reminded me of the whole issue I’d been having with all of this, and her resurrection specifically, because Lottie was back – she was a little different, but she was back – and if she could come back from the dead, then what does that mean about our souls? And then I started having an existential crisis in the middle of a cemetery.

I brushed the dirt from my hands and told them I’d wait for them in my car, making up some really lame excuse about being cold. I turned the heater on as soon as I got in my car, because it actually was cold out there, and I could see Mark and Lydia on the other side of the cemetery. They were talking, not even looking at Jamie’s grave. Mark was holding something, and he looked pissed off. Lydia looked frightened. Goddamn it. So much for my perfect New Year’s.

I didn’t want to get out of my warm car, though, so I sent Mark a text message to let him know where I was and asked him to come join me. I could tell something was wrong. He and Lydia started walking over to me. I wondered if I should get Dietrich in here, too, but caught myself – Dietrich was out of this now. He was working on his PhD and about to become a father. He and Lottie weren’t getting involved in anything, even if it was something trivial and stupid, and surely this had to be something trivial and stupid because it was New Year’s Eve and we had just made a spontaneous trip to a graveyard to visit empty graves. Because that’s what all the cool kids do on New Year’s Eve.

Mark, always the gentleman with Lydia, opened a rear door to let her in then sat in the passenger seat next to me. He handed me the envelope he had been holding by Jamie’s grave.

What the hell? I asked.

Read it, Mark answered.

Like I couldn’t have figured that out. Asshole. He could have given me a synopsis, but fine. I took the note out. It was short, typed, and it hadn’t been on Jamie’s grave long because neither the paper nor envelope showed many signs of being exposed to the outdoors. It was addressed to Lydia.

We know you’re in town.

You won’t escape again.

What the fuck? I shouted.

Lydia jumped. Mark just sat there, seething.

I bargained… Ok, technically, the only people who knew I made a fair trade for Lydia’s life on that yacht are now dead, so they I guess they think they can threaten her again BUT… come on, do you know how hard it is to cut through a zip tie with a four inch sliver of metal? I asked.

Mark’s anger began to mix with confusion. No, but what does that have to do with anything?

Nothing, really. It was just a pain in the ass and I wanted to bitch about it. And I had just lost my fantasy of having this amazing vacation with my best friends and doing nothing except hanging out and drinking and watching football and occasionally still sparring with Dietrich to see if he was losing his edge, if he was up for it. And if we didn’t tell Lottie. She’d kick my ass if she knew half the shit we did for fun.

I sighed and looked back toward Lydia. Well, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go back to Nashville. Don’s a great guy but they must be pretty pissed off if they’re getting all stalkerish, Hollywood villain style on you. We’ll figure out who left the note. You’ll be ok.

I was trying to sound reassuring but I think I was too pissed off and I know I was too tired of their bullshit by now to sound really convincing.

Mark glanced between Lydia and me then nodded toward Dietrich and Lottie. No note for her?

I shook my head. And they had better not come near her. Lottie had been one of my closest friends for ten years. Well, she’d been dead as far as we knew for two of those years, but still, she was my best friend’s wife and I loved her. And she was going to have a baby.

I saw the ultrasound pictures she had done at 14 weeks and at that stage, all babies look like little aliens, but I was pretty sure it was a human baby. Lottie told me she knew guys here fathered kids all the time, and those kids were most definitely all human. I told her it still wasn’t her half of the baby’s genes I was concerned about.

It looked like Dietrich and Lottie were finishing up, and I didn’t want to concern her, so I hid the note and told Mark not to discuss it while she was in the car. If Lydia wanted to tell her, that was her business, but I wasn’t going to. I would talk to Dietrich about it later, just in case Lottie ever got her own personalized welcome-home card. But for now, Mark and I needed to figure out who the hell could have left this particular note for Lydia.

We’d been compiling a list over the past six months of these long-distance- immigrants – that’s what I decided to call them because it sounded really PC and I thought Dietrich would like that – but tracking these bastards down was proving to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. A big part of the problem was just the time we needed to dedicate to interviewing every single name we were able to turn up and then creating that network, because we still had bigger national security problems to deal with that took precedence over talking to a bunch of aliens… or long-distance-immigrants. Whatever.

One of the assholes who had participated in Lydia’s kidnapping and was planning on killing her because of what she knew about Lottie’s resurrection had told us that most people who crossed over were just ordinary people, and he’d been right: most of those we’d talked to, which was over two hundred in the Houston area alone, were really normal guys. Not only did they have clear background checks, but a lot of them even had good credit and paid their taxes on time.

Much to our surprise, once people realized we weren’t there to harass them or hurt anyone, they were often willing to talk to us. Don wasn’t the only one who felt jaded and manipulated. It wasn’t so much that these people were miserable here – they had made decent lives and some of them were really happy. But this planet hadn’t turned out to be the paradise they’d been promised and once they were here, there was no going home.

I glanced back at Dietrich and Lottie. They were finishing up now and collecting their things so they could come meet us and I was running out of time to talk to my new partner about it.

Mark, I said, still watching my best friends, my growing family, I think our vacation is over.

Chapter 2

That evening , after Mark had taken Lydia back to her hotel and Lottie had gone to bed, Dietrich and I were alone again in my living room watching one of the late bowl games when I took the note from my pocket and handed it to him. He made a smartass comment about not doing my grocery shopping for me. I told him to shut the fuck up. Dietrich unfolded the note and glanced at it, his expression quickly turning to one of disbelief and anger.

Why the hell are you just now telling me about this? he asked.

He was still trying to keep his voice low so he wouldn’t wake Lottie but I could hear the iciness in his tone, the same way he used to be able to flip this switch and go from joking with me about something incredibly juvenile like the real meaning of hump day when we were in North Africa and surrounded by camels – true story, definitely one of our prouder moments – to being the best damn agent I’ve ever known, totally professional, efficient, and brilliant.

"Because I didn’t want Lottie to know. If you think she should, then