Puzzle 7 -- Agent Alfa

Puzzle:

Dear agent,

There’s no time for a proper beginning; let’s get to it.

Let me get a head start on any questions you may have: on the attached page, as you go along, you will travel to countries and cities, contact an American and an African, dance twice, and meet a legendary duo. Just make sure to not get ahead of yourself. You may want to consider cutting out the strips of paper.

After that, use the following codes to find your next contact:

Each square has an area of four.

Remember, sometimes it’s not about what’s there, it’s about what’s missing.

Good luck,

Agent Alfa

Alias: Brom Van Brunt

[Solution: Within the grid are the letters of the NATO alphabet, but without the opening letter. They are arranged in a path-like way- the ending of one word is adjacent to the start of the next word. The letter in red, the ‘i’ in kilo, is the first word. The ten pieces must be ordered in the above configuration. The squares having areas of 4 mean that each square has a side length of two. The missing letters are located at those coordinates. For example, the F in foxtrot is located between the ending ‘o’ of kilo and the ‘o’ of foxtrot, so it is at the coordinate (-6,-9). Using the given coordinates, the answer is MR GANDHI.]

• Hint 1: aybe ou ould ry earranging he trips f aper?

• Hint 2: Agent Alfa? Who’s his friend, agent Bravo? And look at the grid, where each word ‘begins’ at the end of another word!

• Hint 3: Wow, look at this coordinate grid, going from -10 to 10.

• Hint 4: How can a word be headless? And where do these words all come from?

Available Star: Enrolled in the Google Classroom is a student named "Pi Star."