Steeply & Poutrincourt at the match (pp. 674–675)

Tavis has already run his own counter-move on Steeply, and it's the inverse of stonewalling: total, manic helpfulness. The "tiny plump officious man who seemed to have a phone tucked under his chin at all times" buries the interrogator in a flood — his monologue "had done to Steeply's brain kind of what a flashbulb does to your eyes" — so that "if he'd explicitly denied him access to the brother then the denial had been slipped in after he'd worn Steeply down." Access isn't refused; it's dissolved in over-supply. It names a genuine tradecraft principle from the target's side: the best way to hide the one thing you're withholding is to give the interviewer far too much of everything else.