Okay... story title "The Spy Breeders"

Man goes to desert party, sleeps through the ending, gets lost in the desert for two days. He comes across an isolated and apparently self sufficient community that seems like a paradise but is actually a police state where no one knows anything about the outside world (he comments that it reminds him of "The Prisoner"). The leaders of the community claim they are agents of the CIA, training spies, but it's more than that. They've been breeding a whole "tribe" of spies, and they're an ancient conspiracy. And now that the guy has arrived there, he can't be allowed to leave and tell anyone else. He is immersed in a society ruled by paranoia and various forms of mind control where every citizen is raised from birth as part of a cell and spies on each other.

Any considerations?

edited 12th Oct '13 4:24:26 AM by fulltimeD

When training a spy you need to encourage resourcefulness and curiosity. Spies need to a lot with very little and usually need to risk everything in order to find out something. From what I can tell, living in a small, self sufficient community would improve resourcefulness but by living in a totalitarian police state their curiosity is stifled.

^ Unless EVERYONE is indoctrinated into the Thought Police but the community members don't realize it. Presumably the people who prove to be the best Operatives get whisked off to some training camp when they turn 18.

Enough intrigue would be built into the setting to keep potential spies interested. The structure of the community on the surface doesn't appear totalitarian, just weird and isolationist. The totalitarianism comes more from within than being something imposed, a natural consequence of a paranoid society

edited 12th Oct '13 12:22:51 PM by fulltimeD

^^ Good point. Maybe in order to counteract the stifling of curiosity, at eighteen or maybe 21 the best of the crop are sent on "field assignments" in the outside world, and recalled a few years later when they've learned what it takes to be a super-spy and are more mature and seasoned, in order to continue the community. They still serve the Conspiracy though, going on missions and leaving their families behind to raise the children in the way of the "Tribe."

edited 13th Oct '13 3:37:13 AM by fulltimeD