Catherine asked a few more questions. Carmichael answered them carefully, or deflected them fully. The Washington Post investigative reporter had conducted some tough interviews with some amazing spin doctors in her time, but getting information out of Carmichael felt like buying snacks from a vending machine. A big, silent source, with a very limited number of specific items available, pre-stocked by the supplier, and she had to push just the right buttons to get anything out.

Finally, when she felt like she’d emptied the machine of its limited contents she said, “Why Babbitt and Ohlhauser? What’s the relationship between them?”

“Targets of opportunity, I guess.”

Catherine, for the first time in the meeting, let Denny know she wasn’t buying what he was selling. “No. There is something more. I can name two dozen ex-CIA people with higher profiles than Max Ohlhauser, and next to no one outside of the intelligence services knew about Babbitt’s close relationship with the Agency.”

Carmichael shrugged. “There is much we still don’t know. I didn’t bring you here to provide you with all the answers. Your article will just need to differentiate knowns from unknowns.”

She chuckled. “It’s all unknown, even after this interview.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Catherine decided to lay her cards on the table. “What do I mean? I don’t think everything you just told me was a lie, but I suspect the majority of it was. The death of Max Ohlhauser has scared you, not because you think you are in real danger, but because you worry that something is going to come out to the public about what’s really happening on the streets of D.C.”

Carmichael drummed his fingers on the conference table. Clearly frustrated.

Catherine continued, “My problem, Director Carmichael, is that I suspect my editor will want me to run with what you’ve told me, even though I don’t believe it. A background interview with”—she made quotes in the air with her fingers—“‘senior CIA officials’ is too good to pass up in light of yesterday’s events.

“So, you will get what you need out of this meeting. I will publish a piece that will tell the world what you want them to know . . . not what is really going on.”

“Why don’t you tell me, Catherine. What is going on?”

“I don’t have a clue. But I intend to find out. In my job sometimes I reach into dark closets, not really expecting to take hold of anything. Now and then my hand wraps around something. I think I have something here, Director Carmichael. No way I’m letting go.”

Carmichael said, “Sometimes in the dark the thing you’re reaching for grabs you and pulls you deeper into the darkness.”