text: [Themes: modern]
  
  The first thing that you notice when you start to wake is that you are lying down on something hard. The next thing you notice is how much your head hurts. If feels like your head has been in a pinball machine. As you reach up to touch it, you hear a deep voice say, "Oh, sorry about that headache. It will go away soon, but until then it's going to hurt quite a bit. A minor side effect of the drug, you know."
  
  You open your eyes and start to sit up. It feels like a horse has kicked you in the head as you manage to start to sit and open your eyes. You find that you are sitting on the floor of the black van and the side door is open. You spin around and put your legs out the door but don't stand right away as you press your hands against your head to try and reduce the pain. Fortunately, opening your eyes doesn't seem to make the pain any worse and you take in the man outside the van.
  
  The man is short, bald, and dressed in black pants and a tight black tee shirt. You can see cargo pockets on the pants that hang down as if they are not empty. The tight tee shirt reveals that the man has more than a few muscles. He has small, dark eyes that are set deep into his head and a strong forehead. He has a dark stubble around his chin. When he smiles, you can see he is missing at least one of his teeth. He smiles and nods as you take him in.
  
  He crosses his bulging arms in front of his body and continues, "So yeah, we had to knock you out because you didn't need to see where we are just yet. You know, secret and all that stuff. And before you ask, no, I don't know why you were selected. That's above my pay grade. They tell me you're coming, and I take it from there. So you ready to get started?"
  
  You look up with confusion on your face and think of any number of different responses from one-word responses, to anger, to being incredibly sarcastic. Before you can put the words together to respond, the man continues.
  
  "Okay, you're confused. I get it. Sometimes people are prepared for this, sometimes they're not. And some people can't make it through the training, while other times they can. I don't feel like giving you the long story, so you're getting the short story. Here it is: "You're in training be a spy. You get to decide the best way for you to do that. The training starts as soon as you get up off your lazy rear end. And at any time if you decide this isn't for you, you can go home. Of course, we will wipe your memory and you likely won't remember any of this, but that's your choice. Your other options? In this facility we teach stealth, charm, and weapons. So you pick one and we get started, or you choose to go home and I zap you. Got it?"
  
  You look around and past the man and you can see that you are in a large warehouse with a high ceiling. There are a few doors along the far wall that appear to lead into smaller offices. Off to the right is a garage door, obviously where the van came in. The space off to the left is wide open, but there are some obstacles and the floor and some chains and rope hanging from the ceiling. The man snaps his fingers as you look around and says, "Hey, you with me here? We don't have all day."
  
  > agree to stealth training.
  Whump! You bend over in pain as the main punches you hard in the stomach. Your eyes open wide and you gasp as you try and get air inside your suddenly collapsed lungs. The man says, "I see you. You suck at hiding. Want to try again?"
  You aren't sure that you like this method of training. You assume that you're supposed to do something, but you don't really know what. You figure if you're going to continue this training that you need to at least move away from this crazy man who is attacking you. But then maybe that is the point -- to learn by doing. This seems a little odd because you haven't actually been given, well, any instruction at all, but you don't have a lot of choice at this moment. You don't have a lot of options here in the open space of the warehouse, but you do have some choice...
  
  > try and run behind the van and hide from the man.
  You move quickly around the van, thinking that this is just stupid. Even a kid from grade school can watch you run away from them and see where you are. You get around the other side of the van and stop. The man is in front of you. He says, "You need to work more with the shadows and the light." He points out the different ways the light move and the shadows are formed in an around the van. He shows you many other ways you can blend into the shadows by using your body, the light, and natural lines.
  The man looks at you and says, "We have time for just one more training session. I can teach you more details about what you already know, or I can teach you a different skill, the choice is up to you. And yes, there is going to be a test at the end of this. It will be a real test, and you might not survive. But I hope you do. So what do you select for you final training?"
  
  > Stealth training
  The man leads you over to a large table along the wall of the warehouse. Spread out across the table are a number of different types of gadgets and devices. He takes the time and shows you how to use some simple items to pick a lock and how to disable a security system. He shows you how you can use some of the gadgets to help you distract people and allow you time to move about without being seen or heard. He shows you simple ways to break into place and more difficult ways to bypass security systems and other types of systems designed to keep you out.
  The man looks at you and says, "We are out of time. You are either ready or you are not ready. And that is what we will determine now." He turns and walks over to a door in the rear of the room and disappears through it. You are alone in the large warehouse, wondering if you were supposed to follow the man.
  You have trained the following levels of skills:
  Stealth: 3
  Charm: 0
  Weapons: 0
  
  > Continue...
  A moment later, another door in the wall opens up behind you. You turn quickly and see a rather well-dressed man enter the room. He holds the door open for you and gestures into the room. You walk towards the man and the door, but before you can enter the room, the man holds his hand up, stopping you short of seeing past the door.
  
  He speaks with a British accent and says, "This is your final challenge. You will enter through this doorway and you may not return. This is no longer training, this is real. There is a man inside this room that will kill you. I don't mean that you get another chance, that he's trying to scare you, or that you'll get saved at the last minute. I mean that if you fail, you will die."
  
  He clears his throat and continues, "That is not to say that we wish for you to die. Quite the contrary, we would like you to succeed. But if you are not prepared, then you will fail and in this case failure is death. Your death, in case that was not clear."
  
  "Inside this room there is a table. On that table is a small box. Your job is simply to go to the table, retrieve the box, and return it to me. That is all. But, of course, it is not that simple. Also inside this room is a man whose job is to guard that box and prevent anyone from taking it. And that man has been authorized to use deadly force to protect the box."
  
  He gestures again into the room and says with a bow, "Would you be so kind as to retrieve the box for me?"
  
  > Continue...
  You step to the doorway and look into the room. It is a very dimly lit room, so you have to look carefully to see the contents. There is a spotlight shining on a small brown box in the center of a table on the far side of the room. Most of the rest of the small room is in darkness, other than what is lit by the light coming from the main warehouse. You can see through the door it is exactly as the British gentleman had described.
  
  The entire room is about 15 feet square. There is a man standing, arms crossed in front of him, in front of the table. He has a large knife in one of his hands and you cannot be sure in the shadows, but perhaps a firearm strapped to his waist. He is staring off into the distance and is facing the wall to the left, so that you are looking at his left side. You cannot see anything on that wall where he is looking, but he does appear quite focused. The floor of the room is in darkness and you cannot really see anything else in the room. The box on the table is quite clear at this point...
  
  > attempt to sneak around, along the walls, and grab the box...
  You quietly and slowly enter the room. You watch the guard but he does not move and does not appear to hear you enter the room. You watch the ground and carefully move into the darkness around the side of the room, trying to work your way to the table...
  
  > Continue...
  You make your way to the table and the guard hasn't moved yet. You slowly and carefully reach out for the box and lift it from the table, moving as slowly as you can so the guard doesn't see any movement. After what feels like an eternity, you pull back and into the shadows. You slowly trace your steps back the way you have come, moving back to the door and slipping out of the room.
  
  You had a 90 percent chance of winning that battle.
  
  You hold the box out to the man with the British accent and say, "I believe this is what you requested?"
  
  The man nods and replies, "Indeed, that was sufficient." He closes the door to the examination room as he continues, "Now we shall have to see about our guard there, as he just failed his test." There is a yell, then a loud thump from the room, but the man ignores the sounds and walks away from the room, clearly expecting you to follow.
  
  "You have passed the test, and that is good. You are now working for us." He holds his hand up before you can say anything. "Ah, no questions yet. You do not need to know who we are. Simply accept that we are working for the U.S. government, and we aren't listed in any of the directories. It won't matter anyway, because it's not like we're going to be issuing you a paycheck and withholding taxes for you."
  
  He laughs as he leads you to a set of stairs in the corner of the warehouse. He stops at the bottom of the stairs and points up the stairs. "There, you see that door at the top of the stairs? This is where your service begins. Head up these stairs and into that room. There you will receive your mission briefing. Should you survive your first mission, we will see what else you can do, where you are needed, and what other information you may need to know. Now off with you!"
  
  With that, he makes a dismissive gesture with his hand. He turns and walks away from you, apparently heading back to the testing room. He does not look back as he leaves you, clearly expecting you to follow his directions. You realize that you still don't know where you are, so you really don't have any options here.
  
  > head on to the mission briefing.
  You head up the stairs to the indicated room on the second floor. You've seen the door there while you were training, but you had never seen anyone go out or into that room. You're not really sure what to expect. With a last look back at your trainer on the floor of the warehouse, you turn the doorknob and walk inside.
  
  The first thing that greets your eyes is bright light! The far side of the room is all glass and the sun is setting in that direction, really bathing the room in bright sunlight. You raise your hand to block the light and blink your eyes. At the same time you brace for an attack, realizing this is probably a setup, as you try and look around the room.
  
  You move to your right in a defensive position and blink your eyes again. As the room comes into focus, you realize there is a couch in the middle of the room facing a small desk. On the far wall, behind the desk to the left is a white board of some kind. There is a projector on the ceiling and a nondescript man sitting behind the desk. He says, "Oh, is that too bright?"
  
  He presses a button underneath the desk and the windows immediately shift to a tint and the light is quickly reduced. The man gestures towards the couch, inviting you to have a seat. He says, "There are drinks there in the fridge if you need one." Taking another look, you see a small cube refrigerator on the floor next to the couch. You move towards the couch, not really sure that you know what is going on, or whether to trust this fellow. He watches you as you sit on the couch.
  
  Without any introduction, he presses two more buttons on his desk. The projector lights up and the white board screen is filled with the face of a man with dark skin and a short, almost smashed-looking face. The man at the desk speaks, "This is el Martillo. He is a drug lord that has really caused a great deal of trouble recently. We want to eliminate him, but we cannot get to him. He has a great fortune and he uses it effectively to keep himself alive."
  
  The man pauses, then looks directly at you as he continues, "He is a very dangerous man. Stay away from him. He is NOT your target. I repeat, stay away from him at all costs."
  
  He looks back at the screen and the slide advances to show a smaller, thin man that is starting to bald, but has a dark, even tan. The man says, "This is Jack Kauffman. He is an accountant for el Martillo. He is currently in control of an SD card that has a bitcoin account worth over ten million dollars. The SD card is your target. We need el Martillo to not have that money. We don't really care if you steal the card and bring it back to us, or if you destroy it. Your mission is to ensure that el Martillo and Jack Kauffman do not have that card."
  
  "Jack Kauffman moves about and has some protection, but our intelligence has let us know where he will be shortly and when he will be moving. They change plans all the time, but we think this is the time to strike. There is a plane waiting outside to take you to Cuba now. When you arrive, there will be a car waiting for you at the airport. You will need to drive, the keys will be in it. A contact will meet you at Cafe Quinta Avenida with final details when you arrive."
  
  "We do not trust the locals and el Martillo's tentacles run deep in the area. To identify yourself to the contact, you will ask, 'Is the coffee any good here?' He will reply, 'It is good, but not as good as Kenyan.' To confirm, you must reply 'Ah, but Kenyan is too expensive.' If there are any deviations from that code, the contact will not reveal his information. The abort word is 'tea.' If you or he say any phrase with the word 'tea' in it, you immediately abort the mission and return to the airport."
  
  "Remember, stay away from el Martillo and steal or destroy that SD card. That is all." He gestures towards the door in the glass wall. For the first time you notice that there is a door there, and there is a small runway outside. As you stand up, you can see a small private plane sitting near the bottom of the stairs outside the door with the airplane door open.
  
  > go to the waiting airplane.
  You head towards the door. The man has started to pull some papers out of the desk and is reading them. He ignores you as you open the door only to be assaulted by the sunshine once again. There is a wave of heat coming off the runway that catches you by surprise, but it is quickly washed away with a gentle breeze.
  
  You walk down the stairs and towards the plane. As you approach, a man dressed in a uniform steps from around the side of the plane and gestures towards the entrance, welcoming you to the plane. You move up the steps and into the plane. Inside the plane is clearly a luxury craft designed for the rich. There are four swiveling captain's chairs, wood grain cabinets, and a number of flat screens. You take a seat and sink into the soft leather of the chair.
  
  The man in uniform steps onto the plane behind you. He says, "Sorry, but due to secrecy, there will be no flight attendant on this flight. You can sit anywhere, and I suggest you keep your seat belt on at all times." It then that you notice there are seat belts in the leather chairs. The man continues, "The flight should be over in a couple hours. I would announce when we're landing, but it will be pretty obvious. Enjoy your flight."
  
  Without pausing for questions, the man pulls up the stairs, closes the door, then steps into the cabin. The door to the cabin closes with a click and you are alone in the plane. A few moments later you hear the jet engines start up. You wait for the announcements that never come and the plane starts moving. A minute later you are pressed back into your seat as the plane speeds up down the runway.
  
  You sit back and relax in the seat, planning to get up and explore the plane soon. Before you know it, you are out cold, enjoying the comfort of the seat. You awake with a start when the wheels of the plane touch down onto the ground once again. You look around quickly, trying to re-orient yourself as the plane taxis to a terminal. Looking out the window you see a small shack at the side of what looks like a very new runway. The plane moves towards the shack and in no time the captain comes out of the cabin. Without a word he opens the door and puts down the steps. He stays on board the plane and gestures you towards the exit.
  
  Stepping outside, you feel the humid heat wash over you. The sun is shining brightly, and you can only assume that you are in Cuba. Blinking in the sun, you can see an old sedan parked next to the hut. You start walking towards the car and you hear the door slam shut behind you. The plane is already in motion before you make it to the car. You shrug and figure that it's too late to back out now.
  
  The gravel crunches under your feet as you walk towards the car. There are bits of dust in the air and you can see a long dirt road headed in two directions from the small hut. Walking past the hut, you don't see anyone in the building at all. In fact, it looks like it has been abandoned for some time now. When you arrive at the dark blue car, you look inside and can see a set of keys sitting on the seat. Next to the keys are a map with four locations circled in red. You can tell that one is a runway, apparently where you are now. The second is in town, so that must be the coffee shop. The third looks like an estate on a hill, which must be el Martillo's house. The last is a large building and the only one labeled on the map, and it is labeled, "Hotel Melia Habana."
  
  You open the door and get in the car. The keys do indeed fit the ignition and the car starts up easily. The gas tank indicator shows full and you have to decide what to do next.
  
  > take a run past el Martillo's place and check it out first.
  You decide that the best way to approach this situation is to head for the heart of the matter -- el Martillo's. You drive down the road and quickly find your way to the massive mansion of the drug lord. The mansion is high on a hill and there is only one road that leads to the top of the hill. You follow the winding road up the hill and notice a number of different fences and walls. You even spot a video camera following your movements on the road.
  
  You reach the top of the hill and there are two men standing near a large gate with what look like small machine guns. They stare at you as you approach the gate and do not move to the side. The road continues along past the gate and you quickly move to keep the car moving. One of the men moves with his gun and looks like he might start shooting at you. You quickly accelerate and the tires squeal as you take a turn heading back down the hill.
  
  You realize this was not a great idea -- you didn't get a look at the mansion or the drug lord, and now they know you are here and have a picture of you. You look in the rear view mirror and see the men watching you drive away. You continue down the hill and away from the men, back towards town. You can consult the map and see the way towards the center of town and to your hotel.
  
  > head on towards the Melia Habana Hotel.
  Inside the hotel room you can see that this is indeed a luxury suite. This is the top of the line for the hotel and the city. There are top quality furnishings and a large Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom. There is a large king bed in the middle of the room and the room is large enough to also have a lounging area with a leather recliner and a large desk. Next to the desk is a sliding glass door that leads outside to a large balcony with chairs and a small table as well.
  
  On the desk you see a legal-sized folder. You go over to the folder and open it up. Inside you can see a picture of Jack Kauffman meeting with el Martillo. There are a couple of additional photographs of Jack from different angles so you can recognize him easily. On a second page are two addresses listed as his home address and a work address. There is a map with the locations circled and they are both near the hotel. There are also two envelopes in the folder.
  
  Inside the first envelope are two first-class tickets on a flight from Havana to London and a second pair of first-class tickets from London to your home. These are dated for tomorrow, so to use them you will have to complete your mission today or tonight. The second envelope includes a folded piece of paper. The text of the paper is hard to read, but you can see that it indicates that Jack Kauffman takes the item home at night with him every night.
  
  Looking out the window, you see the sun is now beyond the peak of the sky -- it is after noon and you do not have that much time left in the day. If you are going to deal with the accountant at his office, you will have to make a move quickly. If you decide to wait until night, you have a little more time to prepare.
  
  > Will move now and attempt to break into the office during a break and steal the card.
  You are very suddenly interrupted by a loud banging on the door. You hear, "¡Abrir! ¡Policía! Abre esta puerta ahora!" The banging continues and you hear, "Policia!" The sturdy door is shaking in the frame and you know that you only have a moment to decide what to do...
  
  > move quickly and quietly and attempt to escape out the window of the top floor of the hotel.
  You turn and check out the window. The window does not open, surely some kind of safety device. The banging on the door continues as you run to the balcony. The glass door slides to the side silently and the wind catches you by surprise. You step out the door and survey the area. There are balconies below this one and down to the road. You turn and move quickly over the edge of the balcony to try and maneuver down from one balcony to the other...
  
  > Continue...
  You swing around the side of the balcony as you hear the door splintering behind you. You slide down the first railing and reach out with your feet for the next railing. The police are running around the room and you know you only have a moment before they arrive on the balcony. You attempt to swing your feet to the balcony and let go with your hands before the police arrive. Your feet swing wide and find no purchase! You see the balcony quickly fly past you as you reach out with your hands helplessly as you fall 20 stories to the ground. Fortunately you only feet pain for a fraction of a second as your body crashes into the ground.
  
  Sorry, it would appear that you have lost. Please do try again, especially if this is your first time. There are lots of different options and possibilities. Be sure to try acts that you have trained, as you will have a much better chance of success if you do!
  
  You had a 85 percent chance of winning that battle.