If you need to discuss secret stuff, you go to an area called a “SCIF” (pronounced “skif”). SCIF stands for Secret Compartmentalized Information Facility, and it is an area that is set aside specifically for this purpose.

The existence of SCIFs is not secret; I am not giving anything away here. They are discussed in spy movies and TV dramas, you can look them up on Wikipedia. The fact that SCIFs exist can be talked about, it’s just that what you say in the SCIF, stays in the SCIF.

As you can imagine, these are some strict rules about what you can bring with you into a SCIF. Laptop computers, cell phones, and similar devices can’t be taken in. Anything that transmits in any way is forbidden. Your Samsung earbuds for listening to tunes? Nope. Your wristwatch fitness tracker? Nope. GPS device? Nope.

A SCIF can be one single room or it can be an entire section of a camp or base. There is an Access Control Point where everyone, regardless of rank, title, or position, must be inspected and remove their electronic devices. These devices are kept on shelves and in lockers in the Access Control Point.

When there is a meeting, like some big important Brigade meeting where all the big-time officer, NCOs, and analysts have to be there to discuss secret-squirrel stuff, the Access Control Point becomes a storehouse of dozens and dozens of phones, tablets, music players, and so on.

And guess who forgets to turn off their notification alert pings, their various alarms, reminders, and message-notification updates pings?

Everyone.

So whatever poor soul that got picked for Access Control Point duty that day gets to be the one-person symphony orchestra conductor of some mighty strange opera.