Crowbar, On Nostalgia: "Who Did You Say You Were?"
A key element of being an effective secret agent is the ability to adopt complete identities, live them fully, and then walk away leaving no trace behind when the mission is completed. Crowbar, like any good agent, has posed as many people over the years and left many lives behind, studiously erasing her trail as she went. It is a rare day indeed that spectres of identities long abandoned can track her down once she's on a new mission. Crowbar is, as we know, very good at what she does, particularly the disappearing portion.
So good, in fact, that she has developed the enviable ability to erase unnecessary mission details from her mind in their entirety, leaving only the pertinent and necessary components. Without this skill, one suspects her memory would be overrun by details of trivial events, peripheral players and operatives, irrelevant conversations and red herring intelligence with no value to overall mission objectives. The challenge has been devising an untraceable system to store and retrieve historical intelligence information should it become necessary to access it, the sheer lunacy of keeping records on secret identities being obvious to anyone, even those not in the spy business. The fastest way to make sure everyone knows something is to write it down, after all, and Crowbar is almost as good at expunging incriminating evidence as the Government.
That's why it came as a complete shock when a call came into Crowbar Headquarters this week from a mystery man claiming to know our favourite spy from a long-dead past identity. Not only that, he wanted to invite her to a "reunion" with others from that previous incarnation, all of whom apparently remember her also.
Panic ensued. This kind of security breach is unprecedented and sent our hero flying to the proverbial Red Phone to begin putting together a backgrounder on the mystery caller (Target-X) and what his prior contact with Crowbar entailed. The Crowbar Mission Intelligence Retrieval System is ingenious - she stores all historical mission data in the memories of key contacts who were involved in past operations and familiar with prior identities. These operatives are expert in their ability to pull up historical intelligence and before long the details on this week's security breach were compiled, utilizing their near-total recall. Only one puzzle piece remained: how did this individual manage to track Crowbar into her current mission identity and where did he get the number for Crowbar Headquarters?
The situation alert was elevated to Breach Code Red when Target-X called Crowbar Headquarters 11 times in a 36 hour period. Obviously any SuperSpy does not randomly answer phone calls unless the identity of the caller is known and a dossier is compiled - particularly those that appear to have a forced casualness and mounting desperation simultaneously. As such, each call was routed through the HQ Phone screening filter and recorded for later analysis. Although his messages demonstrated that Target-X maintained unnerving recall of Crowbar's past identity (especially as she recalls him not at all), the breach alert was mitigated by the fact that he appeared to have little, if any, knowledge about her current cover.
After two days, and research extending as far afield as Nova Scotia, Canada, a full situation report and historical dossier was compiled. It appears details of Crowbar's current whereabouts had been leaked by an infrequent NS link, tracked by Target-X through a Google search. The NS link, being generally unaware of our hero's secret agent status, thought little of assisting the questioner in locating her. This contact also leaked the number for Crowbar HQ, believing Target-X to be "harmless". Even the NS link, however, began to get suspicious after Target-X made repeated contacts, attempting to get more and more details on Crowbar's current identity.
The following Situation Summary was received from Crowbar Headquarters at 7:15 EST:
So good, in fact, that she has developed the enviable ability to erase unnecessary mission details from her mind in their entirety, leaving only the pertinent and necessary components. Without this skill, one suspects her memory would be overrun by details of trivial events, peripheral players and operatives, irrelevant conversations and red herring intelligence with no value to overall mission objectives. The challenge has been devising an untraceable system to store and retrieve historical intelligence information should it become necessary to access it, the sheer lunacy of keeping records on secret identities being obvious to anyone, even those not in the spy business. The fastest way to make sure everyone knows something is to write it down, after all, and Crowbar is almost as good at expunging incriminating evidence as the Government.
That's why it came as a complete shock when a call came into Crowbar Headquarters this week from a mystery man claiming to know our favourite spy from a long-dead past identity. Not only that, he wanted to invite her to a "reunion" with others from that previous incarnation, all of whom apparently remember her also.
Panic ensued. This kind of security breach is unprecedented and sent our hero flying to the proverbial Red Phone to begin putting together a backgrounder on the mystery caller (Target-X) and what his prior contact with Crowbar entailed. The Crowbar Mission Intelligence Retrieval System is ingenious - she stores all historical mission data in the memories of key contacts who were involved in past operations and familiar with prior identities. These operatives are expert in their ability to pull up historical intelligence and before long the details on this week's security breach were compiled, utilizing their near-total recall. Only one puzzle piece remained: how did this individual manage to track Crowbar into her current mission identity and where did he get the number for Crowbar Headquarters?
The situation alert was elevated to Breach Code Red when Target-X called Crowbar Headquarters 11 times in a 36 hour period. Obviously any SuperSpy does not randomly answer phone calls unless the identity of the caller is known and a dossier is compiled - particularly those that appear to have a forced casualness and mounting desperation simultaneously. As such, each call was routed through the HQ Phone screening filter and recorded for later analysis. Although his messages demonstrated that Target-X maintained unnerving recall of Crowbar's past identity (especially as she recalls him not at all), the breach alert was mitigated by the fact that he appeared to have little, if any, knowledge about her current cover.
After two days, and research extending as far afield as Nova Scotia, Canada, a full situation report and historical dossier was compiled. It appears details of Crowbar's current whereabouts had been leaked by an infrequent NS link, tracked by Target-X through a Google search. The NS link, being generally unaware of our hero's secret agent status, thought little of assisting the questioner in locating her. This contact also leaked the number for Crowbar HQ, believing Target-X to be "harmless". Even the NS link, however, began to get suspicious after Target-X made repeated contacts, attempting to get more and more details on Crowbar's current identity.
The following Situation Summary was received from Crowbar Headquarters at 7:15 EST:
Crowbar doesn't fuck around."Security breach reported. Breach Code Red activated.
Perimeter sealed. Intelligence mission launched.
Situation Report Compiled.
Operation Shutdown launched.
Nova Scotia leak --> Plugged.
Target-X --> Terminated with Extreme Prejudice.
Breach Code Red cancelled. Perimeter secured.
Operation Shutdown successful.
Situation Summary filed."
posted by Crowbar at 2:40 a.m.
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