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{{quote|''"Let me pass on to you the one thing I've learned about this place. '''No one''' here is exactly what he appears. Not Mollari, not Delenn, not Sinclair... And not me."''|'''G'kar''', ''[[Babylon 5]] -- "Mind War"''}}
 
It's a city. [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Of spies]].
 
These locations tend to occur in multi-polar 'verses (that is with two or more power blocs) and are either neutral locations or the capital cities of the powers themselves.
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* One of the ''Marvelman''/''[[Miracleman (Comic Book)|Miracleman]]'' comics ("Spy Story", #21 of the revived series, 1991, by [[Neil Gaiman]]) was about a woman living in a city of spies. Turns out all the members of the intelligence agencies of the world who couldn't adjust to the [[New World Order]] were put into one big city to intrigue their little hearts out.
* LA serves as an interesting variation of this in "[[Desolation Jones]]". It's a city full of spies who've all been forceably retired and who are kept legally invisible by the government. They also can't leave.
 
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** Or that one of the world's best/most notorious spies just happens to be stranded there and draws a lot of intelligence-related attention to himself.
*** {{spoiler|Or that the people who burned him aren't keeping his location a secret any more.}}
* ''[[Babylon Five5]]'': The station itself is a massive nest of intrigue, mostly because its the only neutral port around and between the major powers. Being the hub of diplomats means it attracts the dark side of diplomacy, spying.
* [[Stargate City|Vancouver]], of all places, on ''[[Intelligence]]''.
* The Village in ''[[The Prisoner]].'' All the inhabitants are forcibly retired spies.
* Berlin in ''[[Pan Am (TV)|Pan Am]]''. Of course as the series is set in the '60s, during the Cold War, as noted below this is [[Truth in Television]].
 
== [[Real Life]] ==
* [[Berlin]] ([[Cold War]])
** Lampshaded in all conceivable versions of ''[[Casino Royale (Literature)|Casino Royale]]'' by Bond girl Vesper Lynd.
* Lisbon ([[World War Two]])
* [[Washington DC]] ([[Cold War]], present)
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* The Milkman Conspiracy of ''[[Psychonauts (Video Game)|Psychonauts]]'' is a complete [[Inverted Trope|inversion, subversion]], [[Averted Trope|aversion]], and otherwise not an example at all in any way of this trope. Any claims to the contrary are likely fabrications created by agents of the Milkman and should be ignored. For those who haven't actually played the game, the Milkman Conspiracy level is a neighborhood completely populated by trenchcoated G-men in [[Paper-Thin Disguise|Paper Thin Disguises]], existing inside the mind of a paranoid schizophrenic man.
* In [[Knights of the Old Republic]], Manaan in some ways has this role in its nature as an extremely valuable world that maintains neutrality. While both the Republic and Sith have embassies on the world, neither are allowed to carry weapons on the streets and are both extremely limited and forced to combat by proxy. In addition the trial of Sunry, where both he and his victim were being manipulated by the Republic and Sith, is an example of the types of manipulation that go on. {{spoiler|The way in which the Republic builds a secret base with the approval of elements of the Selkath rulers also fits into this type of system.}}
 
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