A Russian journalist living in Ukraine, Arkady Babchenko was supposedly shot to death in his apartment by an assassin operating on behalf of a mysterious Russian conspiracy. Or so the story went ... until Babchenko turned up at a press conference that had been convened to discuss his death. Rather than an assassination, the assembled media was informed that the hoax was perpetrated in order to foil a real plot. But, many have wondered if this explanation makes any sense. What could possibly account for the bizarre series of events that involved spies, an arms dealer, a monk, and a shady security consultancy in the suburbs of Washington, DC?