Read my fortune cookie.  I am actually on vacation right now so hopefully this help will be a relatively small task.  I rest the cookie on my napkin and continue to slurp my noodles.  I tip the waiter and make my way back to my hotel.  This was much needed, I thought I would never be able to catch a break.  I lock the door, find something on TV and before I know it I’ve drifted off to sleep.  It must have been 3am when I heard my phone buzzing on the bedside table.  I answer it just to be informed that my bestfriend has been kidnapped and I need to cut my break short.  I pack as quickly as possible and try to keep my cool.  I know she can handle herself well in these situations but I can’t help pit.  Who would want to kidnap her anyway? I’ll board the first plane back to the U.S. and stop by headquarters for all of the details and I begin my search.  Wish me good luck.

A new wardrobe brings great joy and change in your life.

I had faked my death and recovered my reputation with the Crown, but just when I thought my career as a spy had gotten easier, I found out I was dead wrong. My next mission: to infiltrate the spy organizations of Nazi Germany.

The year was 1938. The world was finally getting a taste for how truly evil the Third Reich was and what they were willing to do to reach their goals, but not everyone was convinced. My own government was about to sign a deal with Hitler that would seal the fate of Czechoslovakia and start the next World War. My employers knew that there was not much I could do to stop politicians from making stupid decisions, but I did what I could to prevent even worse from happening. Early that year, I was told Nazi scientists were developing plans for a super-weapon that could cause earthquakes and level entire cities in a number of minutes. Like a few other missions I had been on, I had to wear a convincing disguise.

To really convince the Nazis I was one of them, I took on the name Renata Hüber. I dyed my hair blonde and was given contact lenses that colored my eyes blue. Wearing their uniforms made me sick, but I did what I had to do. Disguised as the ideal German, I was ready to go behind enemy lines. Luckily, I had already spent years learning fluent German and had created the perfect background cover for my alias.

Once in Germany, it took me two months to make my way through their government until I found the location of the plans for the earthquake machine. More than once I thought I was finished. As a spy, even giving away the smallest hint can mean death. Trying to fit into their nightmare world was enough to almost drive me mad. In the end, I retrieved the plans and delivered them to the British officials.

A warm smile shot over A.W.’s face as he realized that he just cracked the encryption to a database he has been trying to hack for the past two weeks. A.W. has a mission to search the database for clues on where an assailant is hiding. He just completed step one of his mission by breaking into the database. A.W. decides to take a break from working and heads to the casino. A.W. will have a fun and enjoyable night at the casino before his mission continues tomorrow.

This week’s assignments are 8+ stars worth of writing assignments. Here’s what I picked:

A Letter To You As A Child (2 1/2 stars)- This is a letter to me at 16 years old. Take advantage of high school. Take advantage of having awesome teachers and friends and mentors around you. Don’t be afraid to ask and be creative, go out of your way to accomplish your goals and or to help your friends. Work harder than everyone around you, it’ll only help you in your future. Don’t give up volleyball and basketball, you’ll miss playing them. Don’t tear yourself apart over failures and criticism. Begin to thicken your skin, take all the criticism you can, then talk through them and learn from them. Don’t punch the dugout just because you don’t feel good enough. Your time and place will come to shine. Take more risks, go out of your way to be bold and brave in your conversations and relationships. Take any help and advice you can get, don’t ever become too arrogant to think otherwise. Soak up time with your parents and don’t argue over little details so much. They’re not important, quality time with parents is. Listen to as much music you can and watch as many classic movies with friends you can. Learn to appreciate time with people more and how to make the most of that time. Figure out a way to remember the good times. Take some more pictures, no matter how annoying it may be in the moment, memories are precious. Take pictures with friends and loved ones. Learn to forgive and love again. Grow in your faith and take it seriously. Don’t make the same mistakes I did, you’re so much stronger than that. Be the best version of yourself you can be, every single day.

Dream It… Write It! (2 1/2 stars)- One time I dreamed that I was spending the night with a friend. Before going to bed, we checked the door to make sure that it was locked. During the dream, I woke up to an intruder breaking into our apartment. My friend who was sleeping on the couch, suddenly got up and did a huge kick flip over the head of the intruder, and was able to hit him in the back of the head with a baseball bat, like a whack-a-mole. Meanwhile, I was fighting off hordes of ninjas who were pouring in through the windows, each wanting a piece of me and my friend. After we had vanquished all of the bad guys, we were left with one final task: defeat the Elder Dragon. We had to accomplish this by lobbing fire extinguishers at him from our roof and then shooting them with flaming arrows, causing them to explode. Pretty effective right?

Changing Fortunes (3 stars)- “It is fortune, not wisdom, that rules man’s life” This fortune is an interesting one. As a spy, much interpretation is required to decipher messages and clues. This clue was part of a mission to track down an international drug lord and bring him in for questioning. Taking his own knowledge and understanding into account, he quickly came up with the conclusion that the only way he would be able to come into contact with the drug lord. He eventually developed the idea to manufacture a great amount of fake cocaine and attempt to sell it for cheap to the drug lord. This ended up getting the spy a meeting with the drug lord, but what he did not expect was that while he thought he was setting up the drug lord for capture, the spy’s partners double crossed him. The drug lord ended up selling off information that he tortured out of the spy… Leading the fortune to still be true. The drug lord, influenced by fortune, outplayed the spy’s attempted wisdom.

For this 3 point writing assignment, “Changing Fortunes” (http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/changing-fortunes/), I had to use a randomly-generated fortune cookie for inspiration in my own short narrative which tied in our spy theme for the semester. I used my character, Wren Wilder (003), to explore the idea of loneliness an office-based agent might face when his friends are called away. I found this assignment enjoyable, and not incredibly difficult after having completed my character dossier. My narrative is presented below.

The clock was broken, what Wren was trying to convince himself, as he saw that only three hours had passed since his favorite colleagues parted ways with him at the facility’s helicopter pad. Dread and concern never ate away at him to a paralyzing degree when his friends left on a mission, and this wasn’t even an internationally based target, so the lack of relative danger related to this mission should not leave him feeling… dazed. Regardless, the Chinese food they had urgently been called away from to be briefed and outfitted with Wren’s recommended equipment had lost the warmth the break-room had shared when they were enjoying lunch. Wren packaged the leftovers, before discarding the trash. He tried to behave as if a silence prayer was not passing through his mind.

After wiping down the tables and turning off the break-room’s lights, the wrapper of a piece of trash caught his eye. He pulled out the fortune cookie, and opened it unassumingly to read, “being alone and being lonely are two different things“. He placed the sentiment in the recycling bin, before his mouth upturned unconsciously.

He pondered whether he could find a practical reason to radio his friends before the helicopter reached its destination. Wren raced back to his station, to think of some more gadget features he could instruction the agents on from the weaponry log details. There must have been something he had missed. If he was alone, he could mitigate threats by being more miraculous. Tools are only useful when their users are knowledgeable. 003 could find that knowledge. Knowledge is power, and power is the closest thing to protection he can promise them in the end.

Day 2: 

I woke up with a stomach ache. I had a bit too much chicken lo-mein last night, and it wasn’t pretty. Before I left for work, I saw Betty’s fortune cookie on the kitchen table. I forgot, Betty hates fortune cookies. I ate the cardboard tasting delight, and the fortune read :

Do not be hasty, prosperity will knock on your door soon.

Just as I suspected. This was clearly my secret boss sending me a message. I didn’t realize they still operated at Wok N Roll (Note to self: order from China Express next time). They never tell me anything. How did they know I was getting impatient after only two days? Someone must be watching me. I thought this was a solo mission, but if they’re sending me secret messages – this could be bigger than I thought. I got to work hoping for something new, but nothing changed at all.

Something was going on, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. People already knew my name. “Welcome back Agent Bongo!! Are you excited to get to work??!!?” – it just seemed like a bit much for my second day. The fortune cookie message, along with the fact that everyone here seems like a happy-go-lucky robot?…  something just doesn’t add up. (Note to self: pick up that mental math book I read about in the Times). 

I got a brief moment to sneak into the operations department. To my shock, everyone seemed just as cheerful and optimistic next door. They even invited me in on a meeting, but there was no talk of mission details whatsoever. All they talked about was “the importance of inter-department communication, cooperation, and coherency.” The “Three Cs” they called them. It makes me wanna punt a puppy or something. I don’t know how much longer I can take this – but the cookie told me that I needed to stay patient. Was this some sort of test?

Fortune Cookie:  “Romance is likely; strike up a conversation”

Today, for lunch, I had sushi with my friend Nancy Drew. When I opened my fortune cookie it said “Romance is likely; strike up a conversation”. This was interesting seeing how I had a date with James Bond later tonight. After my long day in the PI Office, 5 o’clock came around. I left my office, went home, and got ready. James came to pick me up around 7 and we went to a restaurant called Number 5. We walk in and it is really fancy. Once we get seated at our table and we started talking. He asks me how my day was and I brought up the fortune cookie and he laughed and said he thought that it was the perfect introduction to their future together. That is the moment James Bond and Lynn Harris fell in love.

I am on a super secret mission to steal some cookies from a fortress. Not just any cookies…dynamite cookies. Upon arriving, I received a letter. It read “A cheerful letter or message is on its way to you.” I though to myself, pondering for a minute, before realizing this letter was not cheerful at all……..what a pointless letter! So I tossed it. That was sign a random thing to happen at a time like this…although if someone knows I’m here, my cover is blown! I better get out of here. Agent smith, signing off.

-Agent Smith