I give up. Just tell me how this works.

There are several clues buried within the Most Dangerous Maze. First, there’s a message planted in the upper left of the grid, reading left to right, up to down: USE THE KEY FROM THE FINAL CRYPTOGRAM PUZZLE. Applying that key (which starts with the word MAZE!) to the two encrypted entries gives you:

Key:

M

A

Z

E

O

D

R

I

K

G

S

N

U

T

L

Y

P

F

J

H

B

W

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

D	I	A	G	O	N	A	L	S
J	L	E	N	I	P	E	S	O

S	K	I	P	S	T	E	P	S
O	M	L	U	O	R	G	U	O

Additionally, there are three places where the borders of the maze are noticeably thinner. You can write a single letter outside each location to create a new, valid word (including many that Murray Hill mentioned, like REINS, SEPTA, and DOER):

PASS WORD SEARCH nudges you to find the eight passwords within the crossword grid, like you would in a word search. They’re all connected to form the safe path from the Insertion Point to the Target, by DIAGONALS.

Finally, SKIP STEPS points to taking every other letter along the path from I to T. Those letters spell out IPUZZLEDITOUT, or I PUZZLED IT OUT—an apt explanation of how you’ve successfully passed the Spy School Entrance Exam!

Back to Submission Form