It was a first time, as there is a first time for everything: my visit to New York City. I needed to go there to do research for DARK FIBER. I needed to explore Jonathan Kelder’s state of mind when he wanders that city. Jonathan is my protagonist and while he tries to figure a way out, his antagonist weaves a web around him, pulling the net ever tighter.

In New York, I put myself in Jonathan’s shoes and hopped on an early ferry to Ellis Island as that seemed the most suitable place to start my journey.
It was strangely vacant, Ellis Island, but its emptiness didn’t breathe a single molecule of freedom. My footsteps ricochetted hollowly off the blood-colored floor tiles and against the metal window frames. I looked out to catch a glimpse of the promised land, as so many people must have done before me, but the windows barred me from seeing liberty.

Feeling locked in turned out to be illustrative for my visit to Gotham City or, as they say, ‘Manhattan below 14th Street at eleven minutes past midnight on the coldest night in November.’ And it sure bode ill for Jonathan and his attempts to ward off fate. The cabling on Brooklyn Bridge prevented souls from jumping to safety. Even the barred windows of the Public Library held a little bird trapped inside its thick marble walls.
Wherever I went, wherever Jonathan went, cold metal bars and unforgiving steel cables kept him –and me– from finding a way out.