What had I signed up for?
Three weeks ago I started working for Exciting Escapes in Southampton, and I was indeed
excited to work somewhere I knew would be fun and different. Little did I know what I had
actually signed up for. I was actually becoming part of a team using escape rooms as a
front for top secret national security missions! I was going to help secret Agents on their escape room mission!
My first day
Now perhaps my imagination is running ever so slightly wild here during this report, but I
remember my first day clearly. I was ushered in and shown to The Control Room, aptly
named, a space where each wall was covered top to floor in monitors. The latest technology
adorning every shelf and surface, and with agents huddled over their consoles. They were speaking in
secretive hushed and encouraging voices to the team they watched over.
What exactly was my role here?
So that was my real role here, I realised. I was to guide an expert team recruited from the
public, who’s skillset I was soon to learn allowed them to come to some rather… creative,
solutions to the challenges they were to face on their missions. Not only that, but each group
seemed to be having fun during their missions as they rushed from code to secret message
to lock.
What makes a good spy?
Was that mentality that made you a good spy? To eagerly rush from challenge to challenge
with childish glee? It must be, if the grins in their faces once they had completed their
mission successfully were anything to go by!
My first team of secret agents
And so I greeted my first team, two agents who seemed to have the cover story of being a
couple who wanted something truly exciting to do for a Birthday treat. They sat and
prepared for their mission by discussing that their Birthday meal at the pub was
pretty good value. I prepared by looking at the folders before me, each a dossier on a mission
target. I glanced up from my papers to see my team. They were politely looking for a bin to put the
wrappers from their state of the art, focus enhancing sugar sweets we had provided for them.
They found it. I knew then that they were ready. They were experts. I looked down at my
folder which detailed a mission to break into a corrupt detective’s office and recover top
secret documents.
What was their escape room mission dossier called?
I read the cover: ‘Detective Inspector Monroe – Mission Codename: Breaking the Law’.
Agent Name – Sam Gould
Date – 30th September 2018