CODE NAME: MOONLESS

The Reporter

"Here I am at the turn of the millennium and I'm still the last man to have walked on the moon, somewhat disappointing. It says more about what we have not done than about what we have done."

Eugene Cernan                                                                                                                                                                    NASA Mission Commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972                                                                          Last man to have walked on the moon

Its the Clintonian Washington of the 1990's and Charlie Prince is working as a White House Reporter for the Washington Post. Charlie does feel like a prince in the District's journalistic community, far above all the attack dogs sniffing around for a new Watergate or wanting to make Whitewater into a Watergate. Charlie was born, raised, educated, and worked all his life in the District, thinking he had an edge over all the reporters from the snobbish Northeast, the hickish Midwest, and the slime ball West Coast. Charlie knew DC and DC knew him.

Charlie is a White House Correspondent and had been covering the presidency for over ten years. Lately, he had been interviewing a high ranking White House official named Lance Boyston and the two actually got along. Boyston seemed really to be a man of integrity and honor, which was something different for a government official. Then for about two weeks Boyston started to act funny by not accepting any reporter requests for an interview and totally shutting himself off from the public. Later came the announcement from the White House Press Secretary that Boyston was planning to resign in the next month for health reasons. Next day, Lance Boyston was found dead in a national park outside the District. The Secret Service, FBI, and the National Park Service investigations quickly reported it was a suicide. Boyston's White House office and his Georgetown home had been searched and both were immaculately clean. Too clean! All of Boyston's correspondence, memos, documents, files, bill statements, and general paperwork were no where to be found. No paperwork, no paper whatsoever was found. Not even writing tablets, printer paper or post-it-notes were found. Not even books, newspapers or magazines were found. A former lawyer of twenty years experience working in the White House of the early 1990s had gone paperless.

This paperless mystery was no mystery for Charlie and the fact the federal investigations into Boyston's death had only lasted two days meant only one thing, coverup. No paper trail from a lawyer and government official was impossible. Government investigations into a White House official's death only lasting two days was also impossible, especially when such investigations would normally last months. Charlie wanted to investigate Boyston's death himself, but he had nothing to go on. That would soon change.

Charlie was sitting home one peaceful Sunday, which hardly ever happened, he usually worked seven days a week, but he got a break today. As usual, he had been forgetting to check on his mail box, which as usual was stuffed with letters and bills. He sat at his living room table sorting out his mail and he stumbled upon a plain looking letter with no return address and a sloppy hand written address sending the letter his way. Even the US postage stamp was sloppily pasted in a crooked manner away from the upper right hand corner of the envelope. This intrigued Charlie.

He ripped open the envelope and there was a blank sheet of paper folded into thirds. Nothing was written on the paper. Blank. Charlie looked on the back of the paper and still nothing. Who would mail him a blank letter? The postmark is from Falls Church, Virginia. Who would mail him from the small community of Falls Church? He didn't know anyone in Falls Church. None of this made any sense. He sat at the living room table drinking his morning coffee and he really wanted to know what this blank letter was all about. He got an absurd idea into his head and decided to go with it.

Charlie in his slippers and night robe still wearing his pajamas walked over to his next door neighbor Frank Washington and family as they were preparing to go to church. Frank worked for the National Security Agency. 

As Charlie walked up the steps to the front door of Frank's house, Frank had seen Charlie walking over to the house from his front room window and ran over to the front door, opened up the front door and with a smile said, "Good morning Charlie, how can I help you?"

"Sorry to bother you Frank, but I need your help, if you don't mind?" Charlie said with a sheepish smile back to Frank. 

"We are getting ready to go to church, but sure I have some time for you Charlie," Frank responded in positive manner.

"Thanks a lot Frank!" Charlie said as he walked into the house.

"Lets go into my den, so we can have some privacy," Frank said as he led Charlie to his den.

As the two men entered the den, Frank said to Charlie, "Please, take a seat."

Charlie sat down in a chair opposite an old brightly polished American Oak antique desk and Frank closed the den door so the two could be alone. Frank walked over to the desk and sat down in a chair behind the desk saying, "It looks like you just woke up, is it that important you had to run over here?"

"No, it may not be important at all, but I thought you might have an idea as to what to do about this," Charlie said as he handed the envelope over to Frank.

Frank Carefully read and studied the envelope and then took out the blank letter from the envelope. He quietly studied the blank letter and stared at it intently. Charlie did not say a word and watched Frank as he did his magic. Frank suddenly got up and walked out of the den. He was gone for about five minutes and then returned with a yellow plastic bottle of lemon juice, a bag of cotton balls, and a hairdryer. Without a word Frank started wiping lemon juice soaked cotton balls on the front of the blank letter and then started to use the hairdryer on high on the lemon juice wiped sections of the blank paper. As the hot air blew constantly on the mysterious paper, Charlie just stared in wonder as Frank dedicated himself to the work at hand. 

After about less than ten minutes of patient waiting, Frank began to smile and turned the letter around as to face Charlie, who now saw letters and numbers appear on the paper and began to read...

Go to this address: 1865 33rd Street NW                                                                                                                                                         Washington DC 2007                                                                                                                Uncover what lies under the garden gnome                                                                                                      and go where the he leads you.

Lance                                    

 Frank continued to smile and said, "Georgetown awaits you."

Charlie smiled back and agreed, "Yes, it does. Thanks Frank."

"Anytime Charlie. Anytime," Frank said as they shook hands and then Charlie rose to his feet and left the den. 

Frank walked over to the den window and looked out the window watching as Charlie walked out of the house. Frank had been a code breaker and loved to solve puzzles, so an old technique using invisible ink and reagents was a piece of cake. Frank walked back to the desk and picked up the phone to dial a phone number. At the other end of the phone some one answered and Frank barked out an order, " Get me the Advisor, the Director, and the Chairman!"