Imagine you've been put in charge of investigating your own boss—who also happens to be the most powerful person on the planet.

You might unearth information that will be politically, professionally, and personally devastating to your subject, and you alone hold the power to indict and potentially imprison him. At the same time, the boss can fire you and end the case—and might even turn the tables and launch an inquiry aimed at you. As the lone-wolf assassin Omar put it in The Wire: "You come at the king, you best not miss."