Description

Troublemaker: Truth Versus the Machine

The Dark Hollow Series — Book 3

Gene Scott

Black Hollow Correctional Facility reports an official population of 314. Eunice Blackfeather counts 316. In twenty-three years, she has written 534 names in black composition books from Dollar General. Nobody authorized her notebooks.
For two days, Black Hollow has received transfers, including ninety-three federal witnesses. By noon, Eunice has added ninety-three names. Seventeen-year-old Marcus Thompson has gone forty-two hours without his prescribed lithium. His hands shake. “Every time I close my eyes, the walls move.” The medication cart displays Meridian’s seventy-two-hour hold. Eunice files an escalation. The hold stays. She writes: Lithium withheld 42 hours. Says walls move.

In a windowless fifth-floor suite, Dr. Elena Volkova watches sixteen monitors. She has seen Eunice’s notebook. On Monitor 12, Marcus paces. Volkova drafts a report on his medication hold but does not send it. When Meridian hands thirty fixed-blade knives to the men of Cell Block D under a religious rehabilitation program, her model predicts blood within six hours.
Desmond Rios’s prison file lists him as a federal witness. It leaves out the rest of his arrangement. In the chapel, he recognizes the knife authorization from another Meridian prison and records the number. In the corridor, he touches the encrypted microphone at his collar. It is live. He keeps walking.

When Marcus’s knife hits the floor, DeShawn Booker returns it to the chaplain. “He can’t hold it.” Fresh blue ink on Luis Moreno’s forearm reads Rosa, his sister’s name. Her last letter ended Come home still. In the shower room, another prisoner draws a knife. Luis steps forward.

By morning, ninety-two federal witnesses leave Black Hollow for protective custody. Most of the knives remain.

Eunice signs the transfer form. She has signed stable. She has signed refused treatment. She has signed natural causes. Sometimes she agreed.

At 8:47 a.m., twelve transfers arrive from county. The intake screens fill: housing assignments, medication holds, chapel orientation. Eunice opens her notebook.

Count the seeds before you plant.
Count the jars after you can.
Count the dead so somebody remembers their names