Exhibit: Calling Secret Agent Men

Map It:  Gallery Pl-Chinatown 

PSST! HEY, YOU — yeah, you. You are needed for a top-secret mission.

Operation Spy may be your only chance to live out those James Bond dreams, so listen up. What we're about to tell you is classified. Make sure this letter doesn't fall into the wrong hands — either way, it's one of those self-destructing thingamajigs; so read it quick and get on your mission. Before it's too late.

First, you need to get over to the International Spy Museum (make sure you wait until Friday, when the mission officially starts) and buy tickets for Operation Spy. Don't forget the $14 price of admission, which is a small price to pay when you're going to save the world. Your mission lands you in the fictional country of Khandar, where a nuclear bomb is set to go off — unless you find a way to stop it. You'll need your best Jack Bauer impression for this one.

During the hour-long mission, you will join 14 spy-friends to fight your way through a web of deception, decrypting secret conversations, cracking a safe and conducting a polygraph test. The mission is based on real cases drawn from intelligence files, so you're sure to get the most realistic experience possible. Your decisions will alter the final outcome: Do you stop the bomb, saving millions? Or is the world left a nuclear wasteland due to your critical mistakes? The pressure's on — the world is counting on you.

» International Spy Museum, 800 F St. NW; begins Fri., through Aug. 11, check the museum’s Web site for later programs, ages 12 and up, $14; 202-393-7789. (Gallery Place/Chinatown)

Written by Express contributor Jason Koebler
Photo courtesy Spy Museum