Ring, ring

Ring, ring

The noise startles you and wakes you from a deep sleep. Without thought, and without opening your eyes, you reach for the cell phone sitting on your nightstand. Pulling it close, it's bright light stuns your half opened eyes.

You open the message and it reads "The Kitty meows at Midnight."

And immediate you shoot out of bed. You panic for you know that this is not good. Only once have you seen this password . . . So you know it's importance. You scramble for your clothes and you rush down to the address that came with this message. You find yourself in an unfamiliar part of town, to an supposedly abandoned water plant.

Standing outside, in a her trench coat and dark glasses, even at 1:30 in the morning, is your superior. She is beautiful. She is coy. And she is the most deadly agent the bureau has. Her aids are standing behind her, one holding her laptop, the other holding her hot chocolate.

You pull up. You toss the keys to one of the aids. She collects her hot chocolate and starts to make her way around the back of the building you follow.

Suddenly you realize that you are not alone. Many people seem to be scrambling, in a panic.

"What has happened?" you inquire in a hushed voice.

Slightly turning to you, she simply says "A double agent. A vile, dastardly pig of a double agent . . .".

Upon entering the building you hear the sounds of foreign languages. French. German. Russian. Most you know and speak yourself. But it is dark and dank and the visibility is poor. You follow her for she does seem to know her way around. Down one elevator, up another. And then finally a large Roman coliseum type room, with dark, thick glass filling of many the arches that surround the stage. You take a seat in one of the rooms with these dark thick glasses.

At the floor of the coliseum a man steps out. You have seen him before, once when you were saving his life in Togo.

"It has been confirmed. The despicable double agent who calls himself "The Double Agent" has in fact infiltrated into all of the world's espionage agencies. And . . ." he starts, slightly turning to a screen behind him, "he has contacted us."

Suddenly a letter pops up on the screen. The letter was constructed with clippings from a newspaper. How childish, you think. Quickly you read it.

"Clearly he intends to sell our secrets, your secrets to highest bidder. We already have had many counter intelligence agencies asking us if this person is real. We can only deny his validity for so long and before they start buying our secrets. Your secrets! You were all brought here for this sole vital mission. Find him and bring the bastard in."

Suddenly darkness on the stage.

You turn to your superior. She clearly is upset.

"That Son of dog holds the world hostage and makes light of it with newspaper clippings," she says with a hiss.

"Who trained him?" you ask, hoping that might be helpful.

She turns to you, dark glasses and all, and with a twisted lip simply replies "We did."

Then before you can ask the details, she leans closer to you.

"You see," your superior whispers, "with all of the hundreds of counter intelligent agencies that there are, the KGB, or France's Direction de La Surveillance du Territoire, or Germany's Gehlen Intelligence~many will stop at nothing to get this Son Of a Dog. Make no mistake. This is a race of great importance! You must be the first, the only to find him and notify us immediately!"

Then after a calm moment, she pulls her glasses just slightly down her nose and asks "So, how's your geography? "

You smile weakly.

"Because he can be anywhere and your are going to need the `tools' to find him!"

And with a smile, she pulls out a manila folder with the words "Top Secret" in red ink stamped on it.

So, will your expert training accomplish your mission and win the day? Or will your sorry sloppy spy skills send you packing and disgraced? Can you out-spy, out-sleuth, out-cipher those who came to defeat you?

Well shall see!

The details:

The GAME: SPY versus SPY II: Revenge of the Double Agent, Or is it?
The Event Date: June 26, 2010
Where: Reno, NV

You, the Spy:
Will your expert training accomplish your mission and win the day? Or will your sorry sloppy spy skills send you packing and disgraced? Can you out-spy, out-sleuth, out-cipher those who came to defeat you? We shall see, we shall see . . . . .

Your Mission: Be the first to obtain the necessary 6 stamps on your playing paper and make it back to your embassy before the anyone else and before the enemy can terminate you.

The Necessary Stamps are going to be kept confidential . . . Until play time!

How: These stamps will be hidden in "false" letter boxes intertwined with real letterboxes. You will be given a list of 18 boxes. 12 of these boxes will be "real" letterboxes. 4 boxes will be "false" boxes. In these false boxes will be four of the needed stamps for your playing paper. You must CHOOSE WISELY.

5th box? Glad you are paying attention . . . . . At the event we shall see how well . . .

The Mole . . . As with any good MOLE, he went back into deep undercover . . . However, we have lost all contact with him , especially after we saw this: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_odd_malaysia_generous_tip;_ylt=AgHgIpgVnYAXFtYQ5pcubFcjr7sF;_ylu=X3oDMTMzOG11aWc1BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwMTE1L2FzX29kZF9tYWxheXNpYV9nZW5lcm91c190aXAEcG9zAzI1BHNlYwN5bl9wYWdpbmF0ZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3QEc2xrAzUwMHRpcGxlYWRzcA--

We have our suspicions but no confirmation. Needless to say, there is no mole.

As with any mission there is the danger of disappearing into the field, never to be heard from again. No good spy would ever allow that to happen. However, somehow, someway, the competition must be eliminated! Three randomly chosen teams at the start of the game will be given such stamps to start eliminating the competition. These stamps will be kept confidential until play time.

But remember: who ever has these stamps in their possession can approach you and guess what country you are from. They will write down their guess on your paper and sign their name. If they guess right, they stamp this stamp on your playing paper and you are officially out of the game. (However, please continue letterboxing, as this is a letterboxing event, and you mostly definitely can still letterbox.) If he is wrong, he gives you the stamp and you go your merrily spy ways. You then take the stamp and approach someone else. You take your guess. If you are right, they are out. If you are wrong, then you pass the stamp on to them. And they take it to someone else, who approaches someone, and it goes on.

On the playing paper, there will a spot for you to be asked TWICE what country you are from. So, you have two chances of being knocked out of the game by your competition.

Country? You will be assigned a country. You will either spy for America, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, or Spain. Never reveal your country! That will get you eliminated.

Teams: This is a friendly competition, but a competition no less. Teams can be 1 person to 4 people. You must have a team name, a team leader, and you must all wear "something" that makes you a team. Same Yankee hat, same Nancy Drew pin, same T-shirt. Whatever, it's up to you. Go Team Spirit! I would encourage teams who are less than 4 to acquire others. That way, more people can participate.

* We are asking for donations of $13.00 from each team. We are asking that all donations be sent in by April 1, 2010. We rented the spot for this game. The donation will go towards this cost.


* Once your donation has been received, we will send you an address.


TIPS! To Insure Progress~SPIES!!!!!

* First and foremost this event will be a little dramatized. While we shan't have the Spanish Inquisition, we do ask that you enjoy yourself, roll with the drama presented, and play with notion that no one likes cheaters.
* Be prepared to work with other teams . . . Who that will be, will be up to you.
* Bribes . . . Oh, bribes . .. What a lovely concept.
* This time around you may be lucky enough to meet some famous people of espionage . . . Like James West Jr . . . James West Jr???? What a CAPITAL idea for US! But the truth is, Are You Smarter Than a Ninth Grader? Well, are you, punk? (Cue Spaghetti Western music)

*Or you may have to help Julia Child using your keen observation ability.
*Or perhaps help catch a traitor to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth like Young Lord Walsingham will.

* Remember your geography? That's okay if it's a little rusty . . . Just be sure someone is familiar with maps because you never know when it may be needed.
* Don't take getting eliminated personally. It's a just a game. But you can continue looking for boxes just the same.


Before I explain the rules, if you were not present to the previous Spy vs. Spy event, some of this may not make sense. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thank you.

The Rules:

* Absolutely no prescouting! If you are seen prescouting at the park that before and the day of, just like the Amazing Race, you will be penalized for 20 minutes. In other words, don't do it.
* Decoy boxes will be a waste of time but forbidden just the same. We are keeping the names of the 6 needed stamps a secret and they are all specially marked, and we will tell you exactly what to look for. Plus your playing paper will have the appropriate size box for each and every stamp.
* Absolutely NO Tampering with the boxes. You find the box. You stamp in. You get the stamp`s image. You then put the stamp and logbook back into the box. And then you place the box exactly where you found it. . Make no mistake: before we declare a winner, we will check the integrity of the boxes.
* Teams stick together. No splitting, no dividing, no you go that way, I'll go that way. United you play, united you fall! (From what we could tell, everyone did this fabulously at the last event.)


And the all Essential Potluck:

* Every body will be ask to bring some. Please no arsenic! This a friendly competition. (Will provide a list for items to bring when it is posted under the event section.)


Itinerary:

10: 00 am:
Make Your First Contact.