This cache is dedicated to gmarkusic. He taught me the enjoyment of puzzle caches by dragging me kicking and screaming to more puzzle caches than I can remember. Thank you George.
Agent Q
It was a dark and damp night in August of 1943, World War II was in full swing. The Allies had finally found a way to gain the advantage in the war against the enemy. They had found a new encryption method to encode messages to prevent the enemy from breaking the code. Agent Q had been ordered to rendezvous with his contact in Normandy where he would receive the orders for his next mission.
The meeting place was an old hotel. Agent Q stopped at the desk. He tapped the small bell on the reception desk, ding, ding, a pause, another ding, a pause then two more dings.
As he waited, an old grey haired man came from the back room. Agent Q asked if there was an available room. The desk clerk answered, yes, one room on the third floor, last room at the end of the hall on the left. Agent Q thanked the man, paid the room fee, registered as Mr. Jones, took the key and headed up the stairs to the room.
As Agent Q sat in the room and waited he could hear the sound of an approaching storm in the distance. As the storm grew closer the lights flickered on and off. Time seemed to drag as Agent Q waited for the sound of a knock at the door.
He glanced repeatedly at his watch. As the time approached 8pm he grew more anxious, waiting, waiting. Nothing. A half hour passed and still nothing, then 9pm and still nothing.
Finally, he heard the sound of footsteps out in the hall. They were coming closer, closer, till they stopped outside the door. Then, after a few minutes, the sound of a knock at the door. Rap, rap, then a pause, then another rap, rap, rap. Then it stopped. Whoever it was, stood outside the door waiting. Agent Q walked slowly to the door. He hesitated then answered with the reply. Rap, he paused then continued, rap, rap.
The next sound was the sound of an envelope being pushed under the door. Agent Q bent over and picked up the envelope. Then, he heard the sound of the footsteps heading back down the hall. Once again, all was quiet in the hall.
Agent Q opened the envelope and looked at the message. As he read the instructions detailing his assigned mission he started to hear the sounds of boots running in the hallway toward his room. He fumbled for his matches; he knew he had to destroy the message. As he started to light the paper, the enemy soldiers broke down the door. They grabbed the message that had just started to burn at the edges and put out the flames.
The soldiers tied Agent Q's hands behind his back and placed the charred message in an envelope. They took both the message and Agent Q to a waiting car and sped off into the night as the rain started to fall.
As the car sped down the dark, winding, rain slicked road; there was a large flash of lightning that caused the driver to lose control of the car. The car skidded off the road into a drainage ditch and struck a tree. The door where Agent Q's captor was sitting was forced open by the impact of the crash. The crash also caused his captor to be thrown from the car into the drainage ditch and knocked unconscious. As he fell he dropped the envelope containing the message given to Agent Q and it washed away in the drainage ditch. Then the car burst into flames before Agent Q could free himself from the car.
The envelope containing the message was found a few miles away by a small boy who gave it to his Grandfather. When the Grandfather saw the message he turned it over to the local resistance fighters who returned it to the Allies.
If you are willing to complete Agent Q's mission you will need to follow the instructions in the message below that was found that night by the small boy.
First to Find: The Baby Bee (FTF) and The Busy Bee (Co-FTF) - November 2nd, 2014
This cache was hidden by a member of the NorthEast Ohio Geocachers.
The map below is the hint
