… You have made it this far. Those two goons from The Initiative spotted you on the train from London, but you’ve given them the slip. Just as HQ anticipated, you had to employ the Turnstile Protocol, bailing out in the tunnel. Now you need to investigate further the secret that you have learnt: Box’s own Area 51!
Stage 1 in the Protocol is to get to where you dropped down from the track: pretty easy, you can see it from the starting coordinates. Go to:
N 51° 25.099 W 02° 15.157
Good job you were paying attention in the Protocol briefing: remember that in the Engineers’ Line Reference, MLN corresponds to Paddington, and that there are 80 chains to the mile. Using this, you are able to calculate the number of chains from here to Paddington: ABCD.
Stage 2 in the Protocol takes you to:
N 51° 25.(C-A)(A+C-2D)(2C-A-D) W 02° 15.BA(C+D-2A)
HQ has an Asset in the nearby recording studio, a Sleeper Agent who should have placed a micro here to enable your onward journey. Using some reasoning, the micro should reveal three more digits: EFG.
This path is temporarily inaccessible due to nearby building works, so EFG is given: 546
You need to move on to the next stage swiftly. Navigate to coordinates:
N 51° 25.(E-F)G(C-D) W 02° 14.DC(G-F)
En route you may pass another tempting mission; that’s covered by another Handler, but perhaps you’ll have time later!
At Stage 3, HQ needs you to get some intelligence. The Oceanic Agency is convinced that this is an outpost station for The Initiative. HQ is not so sure, and wants you to obtain further data for the analysts back at The Grid. They require you to determine the number of pillars: H.
Now climb onwards to the Protocol’s Dead Drop at coordinates:
N 51° 25.(C-A)(H-G)(E-F) W 02° 14.GB(H-E)
HQ has recruited a Mole within The Initiative, codenamed Nightbird. At great personal peril, Nightbird has obtained some vital information, which he should have left in a medium-sized container at the drop point. Record the message; you will be able to complete it shortly.
Up here on the higher ground, the Torchwood detector is picking up strong readings of a strange energy: you must be nearing The Initiative’s Cloaking Station. Make your way to:
N 51° 25.(A-D)(H-G)E W 02° 14.EEG
The analysts at The Grid are unsure of the technology at the Cloaking Station; perhaps it’s not even terrestrial. They suspect this is at the heart of the Anomaly, and that the Station harnesses a source of unknown energy to cloak a secret area: Site X. The Grid needs a 5-digit code to crack the defences of the transmitter network. This should disable the cloaking system temporarily, long enough for you to find Site X, before the system reconfigures itself. Discover the 5-digit code that identifies this Station: IJKLM**
**Important update November 2020: The codes here change too often to track! Please just use IJKLM = 11032.
Now that the final part of the code has been found, the Protocol requires you to feed all the digits that you have collected into the message from the Dead Drop. Make your way onwards to Site X using the coordinates that have now been revealed to you. The Protocol recommends that you deviate slightly from the direct route, keeping under the cover of the woods and off the roads, routing via the green signs at:
N 51° 25.205 W 02° 14.444
N 51° 25.325 W 02° 14.431
N 51° 25.413 W 02° 14.406
Going this way, you should approach Site X from lower ground.
You are on your own now. Good luck finding the final site and whatever secrets it may have in store, including … The Box!
Once you have completed the Mission, you may wish to continue a short way further in the ‘wrong’ direction before a path takes you up onto the lane. Now return, perhaps via that well-earned debrief session in the pub!
These instructions will self-destruct in 30 seconds …