I had called the CIA press office the day before. It was early March, and I had resolved to do something to answer the questions that had been troubling me. They had all gathered into a tangled ball, and I couldn’t separate the strands without help. I wished there were someplace else I could turn, but I knew only one address. Liars Anonymous, as Rupert liked to call it. It helped that I had a clear story assignment to work on—French economic espionage in China. Marcus was waiting for it. And after some procrastination—wanting to avoid getting in any deeper, but still needing to know—I had placed the call to CIA public affairs.

I told the duty officer who answered the phone that I wanted a briefing for a story about French economic espionage. “That’s a big topic,” she said. “Can you be more specific?” So I explained: I wanted to know what the French were doing to win the China communications contract. I wanted to know about French bribery of Chinese officials, about kickbacks of some of those bribes to French politicians, about whether the French were helping the Chinese develop new weapons as part of their effort to win the contract. I was fishing—mentioning every thread of suspicion anybody had ever confided to me.

When I got to the part about weapons, the duty officer cut me off. She preferred not to discuss that kind of subject on the phone, she said. Would I mind holding while she checked with a colleague? She put me on hold for a long time—it was at least five minutes—and finally returned. “Could you please come to the agency tomorrow morning at ten for a briefing?” she asked. “Someone knowledgeable will see you.” She had two requests: I should come alone, and prior to my arrival I shouldn’t discuss the briefing with others. I agreed; I wanted answers, and I went to Langley that morning feeling anxious, but also relieved to be doing something.

My escort eventually arrived at the main security desk. He examined my ID and then instructed the guard to give me a temporary pass. He led me to a small elevator off the main lobby, inserted a special key in a security lock, and pressed “4.” When we reached the fourth floor, he steered me down a long hall to a room with a heavy metal door. A sign on the door said EUR CONFERENCE ROOM. He knocked, and then punched a code into the cyberlock.