Sometime in
December, I received an email from my friend Delia, who forwarded me a
Christmas card in the form of a puzzle from Britain’s spy agency GCHQ
(Government Communications Headquarters).
The puzzle consisted of a grid with a series of numbers and one had to
deduce the pattern it produced. It was
engaging and I sent it on to two friends of mine from Marin Oratorio, Julie and
Mike, who I suspected would enjoy it too.
It turns
out, however, that the grid was just part 1 of a 5-part puzzle and that each
subsequent part had multiple subparts. I
was clearly now out of my element, but fortunately Mike was in his! He proved to be a good match for these geeky
“spy guys”, because many of the puzzles involved computer codes and languages,
Dr. Who, Lord of the Rings, John Le Carre, and some Harry Potter thrown into
the mix – none of which I had read or knew anything about. Mike and I egged each other on, but he is
responsible for 95% of the success. The
deadline was today, and with a bit of cheating along the way (shall we call it
reassurance?), we have made it to the end!
Now we need a new puzzle passion – any suggestions?
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