James Bond has parked his grey coloured Aston Martin DB5 in the reception of the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. Bond drove the car in the 1964 classic movie Goldfinger. I stop to admire the wheeled beauty when suddenly it springs to life. The machine guns appear out of nowhere, the licence plate starts rotating, the tire slasher demonstrates its prowess and the ejector seat adds to the car’s collection of fascinating gizmos. The stylish car didn’t just drive Bond around; it got actual spy agencies to create alike features for their surveillance vehicles.
The sudden demonstration excites me and I am all set to go undercover. After all, the International Spy Museum holds the Guinness World Record for the world's largest espionage museum in terms of collection size. The museum is conveniently located from AC Hotel Washington DC Capitol Hill Navy Yard and Hyatt House Washington DC/ The Wharf. I get recruited, receive my undercover identity, don a virtual disguise and embark on my mission of seeking out a mole.
Along the way, I take inspiration from spymasters and learn about inventions that chalked the course of history. Virginia Hall was an undercover agent who hiked mountains with a prosthetic leg. Ravindra Kaushik was recruited by Indian intelligence to pose as a Pakistani Muslim. He rose to the rank of major in the Pakistani army and passed on crucial intelligence to India till he was caught in 1983. Deception, intrigue, quick thinking and the double life follow me in the museum as I attempt to educate myself on surveillance and countersurveillance.
Bug-sized microphones, a common playing card that concealed an escape map to help Britain’s MI9 agents, spy dust used by the KGB in the 1980s to even the CIA’s rectal kit that had a whopping ten escape tools that would go undetected during a body search in enemy territory egg me on. Room after room, exhibits transport visitors to spy realm. The ingenuity of covert operations, the smooth skills of seducer spies like Mata Hari and James Bond and the inconspicuous looking deadly gadgets peering from the display showcases make one marvel at not just the agents who used them but also their designers.
Even animals inadvertently make good spies. Dolphins are used by Ukrainian military forces to detect underwater mines while in Vietnam sophisticated technology that aerial bombed locations was hid in animal dung. I get momentarily distracted from my mission as I learn about the role of rats during the Cold War. Messages and money were transmitted to CIA agents via gutter rats. To blend in with natural rats and to repel cats, they were given a coat of pepper sauce. Even pigeons were useful during World War I. Tiny cameras fitted on the birds clicked photos of enemy terrain, its troops and weapons as the harmless birds flew over it.
Cipher machines stare at me as I try to hone my mathematic and word skills. To take a break from the mind boggling world of lethal weapons, assassination tools and modern day cyber espionage, there is the room showcasing spy movie memorabilia. Katrina Kaif and Salman Khan with a pointed gun from the movie Ek Tha Tiger whisk me to an undisclosed location where I almost get caught by the police - it could mean a clean and permanent escape for the sneaky mole.
I manage to talk my way out and continue to a secret location of the museum, tapping an exhibit to learn code cracking. In the shadows I test my observation skills, continuing to play a series of interactive activities till I finally complete my mission without blowing my cover.
Close to the exit of the museum, holding my undercover mission badge, a debriefing concludes my rookie spy experience. It is at that moment that I realise that Washington’s International Spy Museum not just lets you learn about spy universe, it lets you live it.
