Three thousand a week. Room and board included. No experience necessary. Just a willingness to follow the rules.

The interview lasted exactly four minutes. A stern woman with steel-gray hair had looked you up and down, asked if you could keep a secret, and when you hesitated, she’d said, “That wasn’t a question.”

Now you’re standing at the foot of a driveway that stretches up a hill like a black tongue, iron gates looming ahead, a small security booth beside them.

The taxi that brought you here is already gone.