Marlon waved her away –

“I sometimes wonder whether you aren’t the tiniest bit sympathetic to these sadhus – these lazy long-haired creeps! You’re not really one of us – are you?”

Marlon glanced across at Buck who had been silently watching from across the aisle.

“After all, you are a woman.”
She reeled back –

“That’s outrageous!

“Well, bad luck.”

“No Marlon. It’s not just bad luck. It’s you being a… ”

“Get over it.”
Julia glared at him – accentuating her response –

“Listen old boy,” she said. “You are going to have to learn to behave when you are around me. Do you understand?”

Marlon looked away dismissively.

“Marlon – I’m warning you – if you don’t get down off that little soap box and deal with things rationally as they come up, like a decent person… then one or other of us is not going to last the distance here. You can’t just turn into a pig whenever you feel like it.”

Marlon waved her away again like an irritated dictator –

“Listen hard Miss Porton-Wilde – I won’t tell you this again. There are no rules in this business. This is a crazy world – out of control. There are people out there willing to do the unthinkable. And it’s our job to stop them. Got it! This is our job! We are not paid to sympathize with these fuck-heads! So stop posturing! Get lateral! And start thinking about the mess you’ve gotten us into here. Forget your stupid questions, just give me some answers. To start with – tell me whether you think the Australians are right?”

Julia felt her stomach drop in a reflexive flutter of panic – Australians? She scoured her memory of the brief. Max was Australian, and the football club psychologist David Brown was Australian – but right – right about what?

“I’m not sure I know exactly what you are referring to.”
Marlon had recovered his smug little half-smile –

“You did read the brief?”
The three briefs actually – and the answer is no.

“Of course.”

“The transcripts?”
Unfortunately she hadn’t bothered going through the transcripts. She’d been hoping someone would take her through them later – sometime after this awful little chat with Marlon was over. Anyway there was no way she could have read the whole lot of it in that time.

“There is a lot there,” she said.

“You’ve got a lot of catching up to do,” he sneered. “And I don’t mean on sleep.”

Julia shook her head in disgust –

Oh my God…

This is going to be a disaster.