If TexCat is correct… Wow, that’s an unfortunate coincidence. But then, it IS tornado season, IIRC, and it’s bound to happen, even if not usually so spectacularly…
Unfortunate indeed 
but correct.
*ANOTHER OPBORTUNITY FOR INVISIBLE ESPIONAGE IS AT HAND.
WE HAVE INFORMATION THAT THERE ARE SECRET DOCUMENTS AT THE WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE IN MISSOURI.
LARGE LIGHTNING STORMS ARE ALSO EXPECTED IN THE AREA.
TO SUCCEED, WE KNOW THAT WE SHALL NEED SIX OR SO SPIES TO JOIN THE FOX ON THIS MISSION.
BECAUSE OUR OPERATIONS ARE SO MOBILE, WE HAVE SET UP SPY HEADQUARTERS IN OUR RV WHICH WILL TRAVEL ALONG WITH OUR “REYNARD’S WEATHER TRACKERS” VAN.
BY YEAR’S END WE WILL ALL HAVE MADE A FORTUNE SELLING PURLOINED SECRETS.
*
Your phone call to Jones sets law enforcement in motion.
Word comes in that the “Reynard’s” Van and accompanying RV have been spotted on a lonely rural Missouri highway —and the chase is on! The cumbersome RV soon crashes into a ditch and the spies aboard captured without further incident. However, the weather van makes a run for it while an afternoon storm brews to the west. The van is no match for the pursuing patrol cars…that is until an unknown figure leans out of the window of the villainous van and aims what appears to be the Nordin Watch. The pursuing law enforcement vehicles cough and sputter…and then completely die. The last anyone sees of their quarry is the spy van speeding off triumphantly into the approaching storm. Some alert officers did notice a large metal rod slowly rising up from the roof of the van and stretching into the tempest above as the van disappeared over the crest of a small hill.
Sometime later, however, the “Reyanard’s Weather Van” is found flipped over and completely wrecked on the side of the highway. The vehicle had, it seemed, been going too fast for the weather conditions. The Nordin Watch, badly burned, was recovered along with six or so spies. The extent of their injuries will not be known until they all become visible. The infamous tube in the van is now little more than rubble.
Kudos to all! TexCat==Great job breaking the code and finding the location of the spies just as another crime was about to be committed. Staggering Genius deserves commendation for his individual word structure analysis that appears to have been the catalyst to a solution. Bouncing Gazelle contributed as well with insight regarding the extra letters and yellowjacketcoder with his Vignere cipher idea.
I am especially impressed with Happy Frood who somehow figured out “The quick brown fox…” sentence from the scant hints given up to that point. That post from Happy Frood got a vocal “Wow!” from me when I read it. I had know idea that important clue would be figured out so early. Great deduction!
Way to go team!** You** are truly the best codebreaker in the land.
When Jones and Brown arrive this morning the mood is quite upbeat. Even your coffee machine seems to be humming happily as it brews the morning’s fresh pot.
You and your friends sit comfortably in three rocking chairs as Jones tells the news. Almost all of the spies have been apprehended. The invisible group members have all now reappeared. There are several broken bones (not to mention broken spirits), but the spies are spilling the details.
In Atlanta, one invisible spy followed the General and his aide into the room. Once the aide left, it was a simple matter to conk the General. The plans were stolen and passed through the bars of the window, where they fluttered down to other waiting spies below. The invisible spy inside then just waited for his opportunity to stroll out of the building.
The theft of the Nordin Watch was also accomplished with ease. An invisible spy stood behind the Colonel as he entered his passcodes and opened his safe. The spy thus was able to get the confidential codes and the combination, and steal the Nordin Watch after the Colonel went to bed. Once the cameras had been disabled (probably with a beam from the watch) our spy slipped out during the fire distraction and accompanying chaos. Though the Nordin Watch itself was visible, this small item went unnoticed as it passed out the door and into the night. The coded note was indeed dropped by accident. The spy was carrying it in his pocket when he was made invisible in the tube. The note was invisible when that spy lost it. Because invisible objects reappear in six hours, the note popped back into view and thus was mysteriously found where it had not been before.
“The one thing we don’t know,” Jones tells You, “Is the identity of this ‘Fox’ fellow. He seems to have either escaped during the van crash, or perhaps wasn’t there at all during the chase and capture. None of the spies in custody will tell us anything about the mysterious ‘Fox.’ It is obvious he is heavily feared.”
Brown interjects, “One of the captured spies even said that whoever was the ‘smartie’ who solved the Fox’s code was going to be in a lot of trouble someday. ‘I wouldn’t want to be that codebreaker,’ is how one of the men put it.”
You smile. “I don’t think the Fox is quite as quick as he thinks he is. And we dogs…well we aren’t so lazy either, don’t you think?”
You all share a hearty laugh.
Thank you. Some day I actually plan to try to solve one of these. It’s just when it comes to puzzles, I tend to become a bit OCD about them once I sit down to figure one out. So unless I know I’m going to have a lot of time to spare, I’m generally wary about even trying. But I have been a regular follower of these threads when they pop-up.
(Oh, and it’s “Hoopy” not “Happy”, but lots of people get that wrong. 
)
And to think I’ve been reading that name wrong for all these years…
Here’s hooping you are happy, Hoopy Frood!
And I mean it, I never suspected that anyone could pick up on that pangram clue so quickly. Indeed, I thought maybe I wasn’t being fair enough by not having the EMT also hear some word that sounds like “jumps” or “fox!”