Dangerous Knowledge

[When Laura enters her cabin, Sanders and Martin point pistols at her face]

Sanders:
I'm sorry. I didn't know it was you.

Laura Marshall:
He said that you were armed, but I didn't believe him!

Roger Fane:
Kirby?

Laura Marshall:
William Kirby.

Martin:
He's a professional. He knew what he was doing.

Laura Marshall:
He sid he sells insurance.

Sanders:
Must be a dangerous business.

Laura Marshall:
Well, what's behind it all? Can you tell me?

Roger Fane:
Well, as far as we know, the story he told you had substantial elements of truth.

Laura Marshall:
What knowledge?

Roger Fane:
We're not sure and we don't know what he intends to do with it if it is so. We need to know what he's got, if anything, and what he intensions are.

Laura Marshall:
Well, it all sounds terribly vague.

Roger Fane:
Yes, well, we deal in shadows and whispers.

Laura Marshall:
I teach.

Bill Kirby:
Ah, yes. A girls' private school - expensive, well-bred young ladies, hockey, well-chaperoned fortnightly dances with the sixth form boys of the nearest good public school.

Laura Marshall:
Have you ever had good wine poured over your head?

Bill Kirby:
A cheap brand every now and then.

Laura Marshall:
Someone in France told you something on which you hope to capitalize.

Bill Kirby:
Right.

Laura Marshall:
That could embrace anything between industrial espionage to blackmail.

Bill Kirby:
Do you know the best thing in the world? Doing good and being well-paid for it. That's me.

Bill Kirby:
I don't know who killed him. Do you?

Laura Marshall:
Me?

Bill Kirby:
Pierre left his country. He was wounded twice but the Germans never caught him. Later, he served De Gaulle. He was witty; he was kind; he was brave - and now he's dead... and you caused it.

Roger Fane:
What was his story? That Neville had been done to death by mysterious enemies?

Laura Marshall:
I thought... He seemed to be telling the truth.

Roger Fane:
You have not been trained to deal with a man like that. I would have been surprised it you hadn't believed him. But remember this, Laura - Kirby is dangerous... to you, to me. He is a menace to everything we believe in.

Laura Marshall:
Thank you for all the heaving and conveying you've done for me.

Kirby:
Well, any chivalrous cart horse would have done the same.

Kirby:
What would you like? Champagne or vodka? Vermouth?

Laura Marshall:
Tea.

Kirby:
Oof. A bizarre addiction I always thought.

Laura Marshall:
Do you always go to this much trouble?

Kirby:
How do you mean?

Laura Marshall:
To pick up a woman.

Kirby:
Well, only if they're younger than me - which they always are these days - and exceptionally beautiful.

Laura Marshall:
I may be younger than you, but otherwise you've just lost out.

Laura Marshall:
What is your business, Mr. Kirby?

Kirby:
...Why don't you take the wheel down below.

Kirby:
I sell insurance, that's what I do for a living.

Laura Marshall:
What sort of insurance?

Kirby:
Oh, life mostly. Company pension schemes; that sort of thing. Oh I do all right, but I've got a lot of expenses so I do a little freelance work on my own account... other kinds of insurance.

Laura Marshall:
What kind?

Laura Marshall, Kirby:
Oh, this and that. It's a bit specialised.

Laura Marshall:
Get's you followed by armed men.

[Kirby opens another bottle of whiskey]

Laura Marshall:
You dirnk quite a lot, don't you?

Kirby:
Oh, no. I spill most of it.

Bill Kirby:
Were you in love with Leo?

Madame Lafois:
Oh I suppose so for a while - not for long. Since then my convictions have greatly changed, Mr. Kirby - not my ideals, mind you, but my convictions have.

Bill Kirby:
You keep saying "we" - I said "Who?"

Jack Arnold:
...An American agency.

Laura Marshall:
You look as if something is wrong.

Bill Kirby:
Everything's wrong! It started as a straight commercial proposition. Make a phone call, have a meeting, pass on some information, retire covered with glory. None of it's happened. I don't what the hell is going on or who is involved. I think I've stuck my neck in a damned great noose.

Laura Marshall:
I've just came here to ask you about the things I've been told.

Bill Kirby:
Yes, well, it would be clever of you to do that anyway.

Laura Marshall:
I'm not that clever.

Bill Kirby:
Do you know anyone called Jack Arnold?

Laura Marshall:
No.

Bill Kirby:
American about five foot ten, 35 to 40, fair-haired?

Laura Marshall:
No.

Bill Kirby:
I had dinner with him tonight. He implied that the CIA wanted to do business with me. I think he's lying.

Laura Marshall:
You think everyone is lying.

Bill Kirby:
I told him I tried to contact the Americans. I haven't - it wasn't true. He said that's why he was there. So who the hell is Jack Arnold?

Laura Marshall:
Who do you imagine?

Bill Kirby:
I don't know. Possibly another tentacle of the octopus I've been struggling with. Possibly Russian intelligence - KGB! I don't know, Laura. I just don't know!

Laura Marshall:
He still doesn't like to see you with another woman, though, does he? Even though it doesn't mean anything.

Bill Kirby:
Well, I suppose that's something he'll have to live with in time...

[Looks meaningfully at Laura]

Bill Kirby:
When I find someone who isn't so damned neutral.

Bill Kirby:
I could have had copies made.

Jack Arnold:
Well, so what? We're in the information business, not the blackmail business. Evidence to get the investigation started - that's all we're buying.

Jack Arnold:
No people around when I get to see the evidence. When we get down to business, we'll be so confidential the flies on the wall won't know about it.

Bill Kirby:
Why?

Jack Arnold:
That's the first stupid question you've asked, Mr. Kirby. We're playing against tough opposition. I'm not immortal and you're certainly not. So no crowded restaurants next time, right?

[speaking to Dr. Vincent whose car got stuck in the sand while trying to escape]

Bill Kirby:
I think you're in deep trouble, Dr. Vincent.

[last lines]

Laura Marshall:
Aren't you cold?

Bill Kirby:
Yes, but I don't mind.

Claire Kirby:
The bullet went straight through. You're lucky.

Bill Kirby:
Yes. Next week, it's my turn to win the pools.

Bill Kirby:
Are you ready to believe I'm the injured party?... Joke.

Laura Marshall:
I've heard better.

Bill Kirby:
Yeah, I've made better.

Laura Marshall:
What sort of man is he? I hardly know him.

Claire Kirby:
I'm not sure I do.

Laura Marshall:
A liar?

Claire Kirby:
No! No, that's one thing he's not.

Claire Kirby:
We're divorced - there's no obstacle.

Laura Marshall:
Mrs. Kirby, you see implications that aren't there.

Claire Kirby:
Sometimes don't realize themselves. Why should Bill tell *you* there was no love between us? Perhaps he doesn't know why yet himself.

Dr. Vincent:
As a somewhat amused onlooker, Mr. Kirby, why is Miss Marshall's presence so important.

Bill Kirby:
I don't like being followed by armed men; I don't like Pierre Neville being killed; I don't like being shot at. I hope that Laura's presence here might have a restraining influence.