magine roaming streets and back alleyways in some Middle Eastern city. The chatter and clatter of the market, exotic food smells, and a little fear of impending danger envelop your senses.
You slip into a command center where you receive instructions from your CIA boss. Your mission is to uncover layers of deception in a world of double agents and corrupt officials. First task: Monitor the security cameras of a nearby hotel. Later, you interrogate a suspect via videophone, crack a safe, and conduct a polygraph test of a suspect agent. Ambiguous evidence and split-second decision-making is de rigueur.
Washington, D.C., has always been home for intelligence gatherers and clandestine missions operatives. But now anyone can make like a secret agent, thanks to a new experience at the International Spy Museum. Designed by former CIA, FBI and KGB agents, it adds yet another group magnet to the museum, which is one of the capital’s most popular attractions.
Drawn from authentic intelligence files, Operation Spy is a total-emersion, hour-long adventure combining live action, video, themed environments, special effects, and hands-on activities that convince participants they really are spies. And because it’s close to reality, things don’t always go right. If someone misses a clue or encounters one of many opportunities to make mistakes, truth emerges: Not everyone is meant to gather intelligence.
According to the spy museum’s private events manager, Noreen O’Dowd, groups have more ways to enjoy the premises besides the new adventure. A dedicated events room for up to 150 can be a base for a reception or meeting. And there are the scavenger hunts, for fun and/or team building.
“After-hours museum exclusives are popular for groups,” O’Dowd says. “Our best-size group is between 25 and 75 people.”
Some do the interactive options and exhibits in the museum, she says, and then advance to Zola, the fine dining venue next door, to hash out their experiences.
Yet another scenario puts the group undercover during a motorcoach glide by decades of D.C.’s espionage history. From World War and Cold War to now, everyone becomes a “recruit” in Spy School 101 during Spy City Tours. They get briefed by their “Training Officer” on the sites with connections to intelligence triumphs, disasters and mysteries, and onboard DVD players roll commentary by former intelligence officers. Tours may be private, and may be combined with all the museum options.
The only limits are one’s imagination and appetite for intrigue.
