2.

We put an ad in the paper. 22 Mar. 2008  It was simple: ‘Two aspiring journalists/novelists seeking temporary assistance. Must be literate, cool under pressure, open-minded, and non-judgmental. Willing to train the right candidate; position is contingent upon detailed interview only, no resume necessary. Must be willing to travel. Respond to XXX.XXXX.’ This advertisement was placed in the major periodicals of four urban centers, each no less than three hundred miles from our base. By necessity, we needed a candidate that had no ties to bind her to her home… We never imagined the depths that this innocuous ad would plumb… it was as if we took a core sample of glacial ice and ended up with compacted rainforest loam and squirming life…  We rented a small office space.  6 Apr. 2008  It consisted of two connected rooms that had previously served as a vocal recording booth; the rooms communicated not only through a heavy-duty soundproof steel door, but also through a 4′ by 3′ one-way mirror. Entry to this top floor space was through the rear freight elevator. It was opened with a large bronze key that was very heavy and quite irregular; it looked to be a modern skeleton key for jail cells, but still looked very old. The mirror and the soundproofing were very well suited to our purposes, but what really sold us on the place was the residential-style plumbing in one of the rooms. We conducted interviews.