Division 13 Case File 013-017: Blackwood Hollow, Part 1

The enemy has changed the rules.

A Division team has been wiped out. A trusted investigation is abruptly shut down. An old rival walks into Division 13 headquarters demanding answers. And just when it seems the day couldn't get any worse...

A frightened child's voice comes over the phone.

"Please... somebody has to help us."

As dark clouds gather over Division 13, Captain David Shipman and his team head north toward a forgotten town called Blackwood Hollow—where the real nightmare is only beginning.

Transcript

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Welcome To Division 13

SPEAKER_02 0:00

My name is Hannah Keegan. I'm a lead detective for a top-secret New York Police Department Task Force. We're assigned to the unexplained cases that border on the paranormal. This is Division 13, and here are our case files.

A Bad Feeling Before Work

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Some mornings you can feel a bad day coming before it even starts. You can't point to why. There's no siren, no phone call, no red flag. Just a wait in the air, like the whole city's holding its breath. I should have listened to that feeling. Instead, I poured a cup of coffee I never got to finish and sat down to catch up on paperwork before the bullpen filled up. I didn't get far.

Overton Admits What It Costs

SPEAKER_00 0:46

A knock on my doorframe. I looked up to find Overton standing there, arms crossed loosely, like she was working up to something.

SPEAKER_04 0:56

How do you do it, Cap?

SPEAKER_00 0:59

I set my pen down. Do what?

SPEAKER_04 1:02

This job.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

She stepped inside, closing the door behind her. A small thing, but with Overton, small things mean something.

SPEAKER_04 1:13

All of it. The things we see, the things we can't unsee. And you still go home every night and I don't know. Function. Have a life.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

I leaned back in my chair, studying her for a moment. Overton doesn't ask questions like that unless she's already been chewing on the answer for a while. Who says I have a life? I said, half a smile on my face. She didn't laugh. That told me more than the question itself did.

SPEAKER_04 1:48

I'm serious, she said. I've gotten good at putting it away, compartmentalizing. I don't let it touch me. Not in here, anyway.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

She tapped two fingers against her sternum.

SPEAKER_04 2:02

It's the only way I've figured out how to survive in this job. In this department. As a woman who's supposed to be taken seriously. You feel something, they call you emotional. You don't feel anything, they call you cold. So I stopped feeling where anybody could see it.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

And that's worked.

SPEAKER_04 2:26

It's worked. Mostly.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

I've known Vicky Overton for three years now. Long enough to know when mostly is doing a lot of heavy lifting in a sentence.

Regulating Feelings Without Going Numb

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Overton, there's a difference between regulating what you feel and refusing to feel it at all, I said. One of those keeps you sharp. The other one hollows you out little by little until you wake up one day and you don't recognize the person running your life anymore. I thought of a few men I served with. Men who came home from the sandbox and buried everything so deep they forgot where they put it. I've seen where that road ends. It isn't pretty.

SPEAKER_04 3:13

So what? I just let myself feel it? All of it? While we're chasing things that are trying to tear us apart?

SPEAKER_00 3:23

You let yourself feel it where it's safe to. With people you trust in moments you choose. I shrugged. It's not about falling apart on the job, Overton. It's about not falling apart in your bathroom at 2 a.m. because you never let yourself do it anywhere else. She was quiet for a second, and I could see her turning that over. I'd bet good money I knew part of what, or who, was underneath the question. I'd watched her eyes track Kendrick across a room enough times to have a working theory. I didn't say his name, wasn't my place, but I let the silence sit there long enough that she'd know I wasn't a fool if she wanted to fill it. She didn't. Not yet.

SPEAKER_04 4:15

Changing how I do things after this long, that's not easy, she said instead.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

No, I agreed. It's not. But you're 28, Overton. I'm 42. Trust me when I tell you. You've got time to get this right. More time than you think. I gave her a small smile. Be patient with yourself. You'll get there. She smiled back. A small smile, but it was there.

Summoned To Loretta’s Office

SPEAKER_00 4:51

That's when the phone on my desk rang. Loretta's assistant, summoning us both to her office. Overton straightened. To be continued, she said, and walked out ahead of me. I sat there another second, thinking about Kendrick, about Castillo, about the things people don't say out loud in a bullpen full of trained investigators who all know how to read a room. Then I grabbed my jacket and followed her out. We were halfway down the hallway when the elevator doors slid open. Kendrick and Castillo stepped out mid-laugh, the kind of easy, unguarded laugh that belongs to people who've spent a lot of time alone together and haven't quite remembered they're back in public. I watched Overton's face do something quick and involuntary, the corner of her mouth flickering down before she caught it and smoothed it back into something neutral. It was there and gone in under a second. If I hadn't already been thinking about her, thinking about Kendrick, thinking about the shape of things nobody in this building says out loud, I might have missed it entirely. I didn't miss it. You okay? I asked quietly, just for her. She didn't look at me.

SPEAKER_06 6:17

I will be.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Kendrick and Castillo caught up to us, still grinning about whatever secrets they had. Kagemoto fell into step behind them, looking purposefully oblivious to it all. Captain? Overton. Kendrick nodded, easy as ever. We heading somewhere? Loretta's office. Now, apparently. I glanced at Overton one more time. She'd already folded the moment away someplace I couldn't reach. Let's move. The five of us headed down the hall together, and if anyone else noticed the quiet that had settled over Overton, they didn't show it. But I noticed. I always notice. It's the job.

Division 9 Wiped Out

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Loretta was standing when we walked in, which is never a good sign. Loretta sits for good news. She stands for the other kind.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

Close the door, she said.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Kendrick did.

SPEAKER_05 7:22

Division 9 is gone.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

The words landed in the room like a dropped weight. Nobody spoke for a second. Gone, I repeated. Define. Gone.

SPEAKER_05 7:36

Wiped out. All of them.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Loretta's voice was steady, but I could hear the effort it took to keep it that way.

SPEAKER_05 7:44

They were operating out of Shadow Vale Station, old railroad town outside Reno, mostly abandoned. Sentinel Prime had them stationed there guarding an artifact. Early this morning, local authorities found them. Every member of Division IX. Dead. The artifact. Gone. Coordinated?

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Overton asked. Her voice had gone flat and clinical, the same tone she used cataloging a crime scene. It was, I realized, exactly the kind of compartmentalizing she just told me she was trying to unlearn. Old habits.

SPEAKER_05 8:22

Prime believes so. A strike force. Precise, fast, and thorough.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Loretta looked around the room, letting that sink in.

SPEAKER_05 8:32

This isn't the Nullborn testing the waters anymore. This is the Nullborn hunting division teams directly.

SPEAKER_06 8:39

Kagimoto let out a low whistle. So what you're telling us is we're not just chasing these things through basements and warehouses anymore. They're chasing us.

SPEAKER_05 8:50

That's exactly what I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Castillo crossed her arms.

SPEAKER_05 8:55

Great.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Love that for us.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Nobody laughed. Nobody had it in them. I thought about Miller, about the tomb, about how thin the line has always been between the team that walks out and the team that doesn't. Division IX had walked their own version of that line, and this time, nobody came back. Loretta was about to say something else when there was a knock, and her assistant leaned in, apologetic.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

Ma'am, sorry to interrupt, this just came in, priority.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Loretta read it. I watched her jaw tighten before she even said a word.

Order To Drop Apex Leads

SPEAKER_05 9:35

Sentinel Prime has issued a cease and desist, she said. Effective immediately. Division 13 is to halt all investigation into Apex technology solutions until further notice.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

You've gotta be kidding me, Castillo said.

SPEAKER_05 9:51

I wish I were. Apex is connected to everything, Overton said.

SPEAKER_04 9:57

The tablet, the warehouse, half the leads we've been chasing since the raid trace back to them in one way or another. And now, what? We just stop? For now, yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

Loretta's voice was tight with the same frustration written on every face in the room.

SPEAKER_05 10:15

My hands are tied on this one. The order came from above my clearance.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

I didn't like it. Nobody in that room liked it. But I've learned when to push and when a door's been welded shut from the other side. And this felt like the second kind. For now. Understood, I said, even though nothing about it felt remotely like being understood. We'll stand down on apex. For now. Loretta held my eyes a second longer than necessary, like she was trying to tell me something she wasn't allowed to say out loud. I filed that away too.

Cato Arrives With Threats

SPEAKER_00 10:54

That's when the shouting started outside her office. We came out into reception to find a small storm already in progress. A man in a rumpled detective's coat stood at the front desk, red-faced, flanked by two uniformed officers from the 83rd Precinct. I recognized him before anybody said his name. Don Cato. I'd worked with Cato years back, long before Division 13, back when we were both cutting our teeth at the 67th out in Flatbush. He'd been sharp then, stubborn, a good cop. The kind of cop who didn't let go of a case until it let go of him first. Somewhere along the way, he'd gotten himself promoted and transferred out to the 83rd in Bushwick, which, as luck would have it, happened to be exactly where our warehouse raid had gone down. Shipman. He said my name like it tasted bad. We need to talk. Detective Cato, I kept my voice even. This isn't really the time.

SPEAKER_07 12:05

No? Because from where I'm standing, this is exactly the time. My precinct has been buried under your mess for weeks. Bodies turning up with no explanation. Crime scenes that just disappear before my people can process them. Witnesses who stop answering their doors. And every time my detectives try to pull a thread, somebody upstairs tells them to stand down because Division 13 has it handled.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

He took a step closer.

SPEAKER_07 12:35

You want to explain to me how a man gets a friggin' shoot-to-kill order authorized on my turf, in my precinct, and I don't get so much as a courtesy call?

SPEAKER_00 12:46

I'll give him this much. Every word of it was true. I'd made that call at the warehouse, and I'd make it again if I had to. But that didn't make the version of events sitting in his precinct's open case files any less real or any less his to be furious about. That order was mine, I said, and I'll stand behind it. But you're not wrong that your people have been left in the dark, detective. But that isn't my call. Stuff your excuses, shipman. Cato's eyes swept the room and landed on Castillo.

SPEAKER_07 13:22

And you, I bet you're the one who pulled the trigger, ain't ya? Not surprised. You're the same dirtbag murderer you always were. I don't care what kind of lease they've got you on. Castillo went rigid.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

You want to say that again?

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Castillo, Kendrick said, a hand already moving toward her shoulder.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

No. I want to hear him say it again.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

She stepped forward, fist balled up, and for a second, I thought I might actually have to physically get between the two of them. Cato, I said, sharp enough to cut through the room. That's enough. Cato didn't back down easy. Good cops don't.

SPEAKER_07 14:07

This ain't over, shipman. I've got a precinct full of officers who deserve answers you people refuse to give. If I have anything to say about it, and I will, this whole organization gets shut down.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

All of it. I nodded to the sergeant at arms by the door. Sergeant Briggs, escort the detective and his officers out. Cato let himself be walked toward the exit, but he threw one last look over his shoulder. His angry gaze focused on me. Then he stared angrily at Castillo. The entire unit held its breath until the elevator doors slid shut behind them. Castillo exhaled hard through her nose, jaw tight.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Great. That's just great. First Division 9. Now this guy shows up with his attitude.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

She threw her hands up.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

What? Is the universe just lining these things up today?

SPEAKER_00 15:11

We were still standing there in the hallway outside of Loretta's office, the adrenaline not yet drained out of us when Loretta's assistant appeared again.

A Child Reports Monsters After Dark

SPEAKER_03 15:20

Captain, you need to hear this. It's being patched through from New York State Police. A call came into their dispatch about 20 minutes ago. They forwarded it to us immediately.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Patch it through, I said, as we all walked back into Loretta's office. She set the receiver on the desk and pressed a button. Static, then a young voice, thin and frightened, crackling out of the speaker.

SPEAKER_08 15:45

Please, please, somebody has to help us. My name is Cairo. I live in Blackwood Hollow. Everybody here, they're not right anymore. When it gets dark, they change. They turn into I don't know what they are. Monsters! Please, you have to send somebody. Please.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

The line cut to dead air. The room went silent.

SPEAKER_04 16:16

Blackwood Hollow, Overton said slowly. Upstate. Small town, barely on the map.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

How does a kid that age even know how to get a call routed to state police? I looked around at my team. Overton, still carrying whatever she hadn't let herself say to me in my office. Kendrick, standing a little too close to Castillo without seeming to notice he was doing it. Castillo, jaws still tight from our confrontation with Kato. Kagemoto, quiet now, all the humor drained out of his face. All of them waiting on me. Division 9, gone. Apex, off limits by order from somewhere above our heads. Kato, promising to bring the whole department down around our ears. And now a child's voice on a dead line describing a town where the monsters come out after dark. One thing after another, no time to breathe in between.

Decision To Head North

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Fine, I made a decision. Pack up, I said. We're heading north. Let me guess. Kagemoto asked in a knowing tone. Blackwood Hollow. End case file zero one three zero one seven.

SPEAKER_07 17:37

To be continued on the next episode of Division Thirteen.