Chapter 1: Static Warning

The rain came down in a cold, relentless sheet, battering the roof of Detective Maya Cross’s car as she pulled onto the shoulder of the remote mountain road. The windshield wipers squealed across the glass, struggling to keep up. She was miles from the city, hemmed in by forest, fog, and a gnawing sense of unease that refused to let go.

She reached for her coffee lukewarm now and stared at the dashboard radio. Her contact in Internal Affairs hadn’t shown up, and her messages were going unanswered. It was supposed to be a simple transfer of evidence, one tied to a case everyone had tried to bury. One tied to him.

Carter Hale.

A journalist who had made enemies in high places. A man too persistent for his own good. And her ex.

He had vanished three weeks ago, leaving behind only a scorched apartment, an encrypted drive, and a voicemail Maya couldn’t erase from her head.

“Halstead isn’t just off the map, Maya. It’s off reality. It changes you. I’ve seen it… no, I’ve heard it. There’s a signal. It finds you. And when it does... you’re never the same.”

She hadn’t believed him. Not at first.

But now, parked on the edge of nowhere, her police scanner began to crackle.

Static.

Then a voice. Warped. Distant.

"...watching... lights... don’t trust them..."

Maya froze.

“Repeat that. Who is this?” she said, leaning forward and turning the volume dial.

“Cross... Cross, if you hear me turn it off. They trace the signal. The lights... the lights lie...”

The voice was unmistakable.

“Carter?” she whispered.

Silence.

Then static, violent and sharp, pierced the speakers.

She slammed the volume down.

A second later, her headlights flickered. Then cut out.

Maya’s breath caught in her throat.

The only light came from the dim glow of her dashboard and the strange humming sound building just beneath her hearing. It was faint, like a mosquito whine mixed with feedback, but it pulsed… in rhythm with her heartbeat.

She scanned the road ahead.

A single light red hovered in the fog about a hundred feet in front of her car. It wasn’t a traffic signal. It hovered too high for that. Too still.

She blinked.

It was gone.

Maya yanked the keys from the ignition. She couldn’t explain it, but every instinct screamed one word:

Run.

Instead, she opened her laptop on the passenger seat, pulling up a scrambled spectrogram she’d saved weeks ago. Carter had emailed it to her under an alias. No explanation just a message:

“Play this only at night.”

Her laptop speakers emitted a long tone as she played the file just below normal hearing range. Nothing happened at first.

Then her phone rang.

No caller ID.

She hesitated, then answered.

“Maya Cross?” the voice on the other end asked.

Female. Robotic.

“You’ve accessed a restricted frequency. You’ve been marked. Prepare to receive transmission.”

“Wait, who are you?”

Click.

Dead line.

And then, her laptop crashed.

All lights in the car surged on for one second. Too bright. Blinding white.

Then darkness.

Only one sound remained: the slow, deliberate beat of the strange hum, growing louder from the woods behind her.