Supreme Commander of the Shadow Government Franz Aliquo prepare to hand out informational packets on West 13th street in New York on July 29, 2005. (AP Photo/Jim Cooper)

By day, Franz Aliquo is a 30-year-old equities lawyer. By night, he's the Supreme Commander of the Shadow Government, an underground organization that operates a three-week watergun assassination tournament called "StreetWars," played by more than 150 New Yorkers. The game has also taken place in Vancouver, and there are plans to export it to San Francisco and Vienna this fall.

asap slipped on a trench coat and phoned Aliquo from a top-secret location to procure solid intel on this real-life role-playing game.

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asap: What's the background on "StreetWars"?

Aliquo: The background is a number of years ago I was contacted by an underground cabal of ex-gang members from the '70s that were trying to go legit.

asap: Are you giving me the real deal here?

Aliquo: Uh, yeah. I was contacted by these three people who used to basically run everything that was going down here in the 70s. Now they're trying to go legit, and they're trying to bring the edge back to New York, as it were. You know what I mean? So they get in contact with me. I was feeling it. You know what I mean? I had the skills to kind of grow their business and make it a legitimate enterprise so I started it here in New York. This is where the first games went down. And then I hooked up with a friend of mine in Vancouver and spread the game there.

asap: How do you communicate with these ex-gang members?

Aliquo: Honestly, dude, I just get random calls or e-mails or text messages from them on occasion. They kind of break it down to me. Generally, they leave the day-to-day operations to me. I answer to them."

asap: Do you have a day job?

Aliquo: I'm a lawyer.

asap: What's your goal with this?

Aliquo: The kind of broader idea that we're trying to pursue is to expand the game to something that people sign up for years at a time. So basically there's a larger story arc, kind of like the massive online games except played in real life.

asap: How do you prepare for "StreetWars"?

Aliquo: The weekend before the game starts I set up pickup locations in kind of spy-ish places around the city where people have to come and physically pick up their assassination packet. Last year, for example, I found this abandoned gas station on Lafayette Street that people kind of had to sneak into.

asap: Is that illegal?

Aliquo: What?

asap: Drop-off points at abandoned places.

Aliquo: The gas station, even though it was completely open, was the only place that was not legal because I almost got arrested there because I was supposedly trespassing. This time around we set up better places. You know, bridges, alleyways, bars. You know what I mean?

asap: When did you start `StreetWars'?

Aliquo: This is the second year we're doing the `Killer' game. We did other games and sort of underground things before. You know what I mean?

asap: Yeah. What's this Supreme Commander business all about?

Aliquo: The whole thing of the Supreme Commander is I'm modeling him after Cobra Commander from "G.I. Joe." So he has to be a little insane.

asap: Has there been any problems with the police thus far in the game?

Aliquo: Nope. Not a single problem.

asap: Have there been assassinations in public places?

Aliquo: People have been assassinated in public, but no one's had any trouble whatsoever. One guy (was) actually stalking this one chick out at her work, and he mistakenly shot the girl's boss, but even that worked out fine. Like, the boss wasn't upset. She thought it was kind of funny. Nobody got fired.

asap: Do you know about all of the kills?

Aliquo: Yes. People have to tell me within 24 hours.

asap: How do you keep track of the kills? Do you use Excel?

Aliquo: No. I couldn't do it on an Excel file because then it would be on a computer. And, conceivably, people could break into the computer and get access to that sort of information. So there's only one copy of the master list, which I make handwritten notes on, and I carry around on my person everywhere.

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Derrik J. Lang is an asap writer in New York.

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