Let’s Start at The Beginning

Long story , cut short.

I saw an ad posted online. Paranormal Researcher required. Temporary post . Strictly 1 month contract. Send CV to PO BOX 45223, Wellington 6011.

It was a rather strange post. It didnt give details of a salary. No mention of who the employer was. As a joke I made up a CV highlighting my lifetime’s expertise in the field of Paranormal research.

I’ve always held an interest in the paranormal . I have gone on a quite a few ghost hunts, attended a few seances and hold an open mind on UFOs and the possibility of alien life etc.

I’m not going to reveal my real profession, but all you need to know is that I had recently been made redundant from a fairly mundane post in a fairly mundane government department.

3 weeks later , I got a call from a guy calling himself Mr Higgins. He said he was calling about my application for the post of the Paranormal Researcher. Was I still interested in the position ?

I asked him if this was a joke.

He replied certainly not. I asked him what the pay was. He said my one months salary would be $8000 , which would be paid as soon as I accepted the keys to my office.

Could I start on Monday? I asked who would I be working for?

It’s a NZ government department. Ancillary Services.

What’s the catch? I asked.

None , he replied . Do you want the job or not ?

And that’s how I got here. Section 47 . A musty old forgotten about warren of offices in the basement of a fairly non descript old office building in Wellington City Centre.

I met up with Higgins at 9am last Monday morning. He was standing outside the door to the basement offices. He asked me for my bank account number. Two minutes later I got a text from my bank telling me that Ancillary Services had deposited $8000 in my bank account.

When do we start ? I asked.

There is no we, he said. Here are the keys, just leave them on the table in the front office when you are finished at the end of the month.

What am I meant to do?

Anything you want. As you will probably know, the gorvernment is making lots of cutbacks. You are now Head of the NZ Paranormal Research Unit.

It was set up in the 1960’s and seems to have dwindled out of existance some time in the 1970’s .

It looks like no one has been in there for nearly fifty years.

Higgins’s job was to identify ways that the newly elected government could make cutbacks. He had managed to find several old government departments that were no longer functioning but had never been officially retired.

His job was to start them up , so that he could close them down and announce them as cutbacks.

It all sounded a bit bizarre, but the money was already in my bank account.

You dont have to do any work, just make sure that you leave the keys on the desk at the end of the month.

And that’s how we got here.