fandomhigh | Spy Games, Monday, 6/8, Period 5

Someone who was observant well beyond the bounds of the human norm might notice that Sarah had a few new-ish-to-the-classroom accessories today -- chunky diamond stud earrings in place of her usual hoops, and a watch that looked almost mannish on her delicate wrist. But for the most part, she looked entirely normal in her blouse and jeans, if on the cheerful end of the spectrum for her.

"Good afternoon," she said, once the students seemed to be there. "Today we're talking about tools that spies use for surveillance and communication -- listening bugs, but also things agents can wear on their person to keep in touch with base without using normal phone systems."

She held up a disk about the size of a thick quarter. "This is a standard modern bug. It's designed so it adheres to the bottom of any piece of furniture you want; it can also be mounted inside a phone to record conversations. It'll transmit via radio frequencies." She went on to give the technical specs of the bug, including the range of the microphone, how long it would last and the quality of the sounds it transmitted.

"If you're an agent and you go out in the field, you'll probably be miked. Right now, I'm wearing send/receive transmitters in my earrings and my watch, and I've seen them in shoes, bracelets, bras, pendants ... anything that a person can wear without arousing suspicion. Some watches even have full Internet access built in for quickly looking up information."

"For your activity today, I've brought a few toys. None of this is the highest-tech stuff on the market; these are products made for and marketed to civilians. But they should still keep you busy for the rest of the class period. I'm around if you have questions."

[OOC: Please assume the toys on the tables have brochures near them explaining what they are and how they work. Thanks!]

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"Need help, Liir?" Sarah asked, quietly offering him the brochure for whatever was in his hands at the moment.

Edited 2009-06-08 14:15 (UTC)

He took the brochure with a nod.

"Yes, thank you."

He was fiddling with the strange miniature car thing that, according to the brochure, could be wheeled into a place to pick up conversation with people unawares. He thought it wasn't particularly well camouflaged but he knew that it was probably more possible than not as long as you didn't make it bump into anything.

Sarah nodded to the car. "Cool. That's one of those things you need to be in a really specific situation to make work. Like, maybe if you're 12 and trying to spy on your sister's slumber party."

"Or you're in a world where such a thing would be completely unknown. Disguise it as a decorative vase or a piece of miniature furniture and someone might not be the wiser."

Though he figured, on his own, that other things would probably be better.`

"If it was all you had and you needed to make due, yeah," Sarah said dubiously, because other things really would be better.

Edited 2009-06-08 19:27 (UTC)

"Nothing I'd want to do, though. It'd narrow the range of people who could have put it there."

He was learning, slowly.

He was! Sarah rewarded him with a smile. "I bet if you took it apart you could find the transmitter," she said, reaching out for the toy car. "Stick that in a cushion or something, and you have the same effect without having a big piece of plastic in the room."

"What would it look like, incidentally? Not like the one you showed us, right?"

Sarah shook her head. "No, because size isn't as much of a factor."

She brought out her pocketknife and pried up the chassis of the car. "I'm pretty sure it's this thing," she said, pointing to one of the circuit boards. "See, the black thing would be the transmitter, and the wires connect it to the car's battery. You'd need to hide that too if you want the transmitter to last at all."

[OOC: Yeah, like I know how a spy car really works. Totally guessing, here.]

[works for me, man, clueless as well!]

"Or a smaller battery , since I wouldn't be restricted by the car design itself," he said thoughtfully.

"Possibly something-- hmm."

Could he use some of what he'd learned in the inventing class to work on something like this?

Sarah thought she recognized the look in his eye. "Extra credit if you find a way to make the car and its parts more useful by the end of term, using nothing that won't fit in your pockets," she said sweetly.

Every good spy was at least part ~~meta~~MacGyver.

He looked at the car and then at her.

"Can I use components not from this world?"

His specialty, after all, was memory. Recording, in another sense. And he'd done extensive research on Ozian materials his first semester at the school.

Sarah considered it for a moment, but went with it. "As long as it's something you could carry on your person, sure," she said. "But something I could replicate with the same tools -- no pure magic, if you do magic."

Spy Games, Monday, 6/8, Period 5

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