ROSS: [nodding] I think so.

SIMMONDS: Bums and very smart men. I’m trying to work out which category you fall into, Ross. Why’d you join, boy?

ROSS: I just wanted to join.

SIMMONDS: All right. I’ll just have to watch and find out because it’s an important thing to know. It’s important that I know as much about you as possible because then I won’t make mistakes. Will I? Eh?

ROSS: I suppose not.

SIMMONDS: We’ve got to work as a team, Ross. There’ll be times when we’ve got to operate like a well-oiled machine and that’s the sort of thing they can’t prepare you for in training. What did they teach you in training school? How to shoot a pistol. Is that the sort of crap they taught you? Did you learn that? Eh?

ROSS: Yeah. We did a bit of shooting.

SIMMONDS: And you shot at dummies. Eh? Ten points for the heart, six for the liver. Bloody stupidity.

ROSS: You have to know how to shoot a pistol.

SIMMONDS: Next time you see a crim standing stock still with a target painted on his heart you tell me, Ross. They don’t prepare you for the realities. That’s what I’m saying.

ROSS: We learned unarmed combat too.

SIMMONDS: What? They teach you how to shoot people then beat ’em up as well?

ROSS: You’ve got to be prepared for all eventualities. That’s what I reckon.

SIMMONDS: That’s what you reckon, eh?

ROSS: That’s what I reckon. You’ve got to be trained for all eventualities in this rapidly changing world.

SIMMONDS: [laughing] Rapidly changing world. Did you swallow the brochures they gave you, Ross? Nothing changes in this world, boy.

ROSS: [earnestly] I think we have to be prepared for change in this day and age. I think our minds should be receptive to new ideas and new ways of doing things. I think that’s most important.

SIMMONDS: [slightly menacing] Listen, bonebrain. I have never drawn a gun in all my twenty-three years as a policeman. Never. If you ever let yourself get into a situation where you have to draw a gun, then you may as well get out of the force. What else did they teach you, Ross? How to make an arrest. Eh? How to make an arrest?

ROSS: [sullen] Yes. We learned that.

SIMMONDS: I have never made an arrest in all my twenty-three years in the force, Ross. If you ever get yourself into a situation that you can’t handle without making an arrest, then you may as well get out too.

ROSS: [aggressively] What in the bloody hell do you do, then? You never draw a gun, you never make an arrest. What in the bloody hell do you do?

SIMMONDS: [menacing] Don’t yell at me, boy.

ROSS: Well, what in the bloody hell do you do?

SIMMONDS: [louder] Don’t yell at me, boy. [Pause.] That’s better. [Pause.] Now I want you to listen to me very carefully. Right?

ROSS nods sullenly.

Right?