"I'll pop her- and you can't do anything about it." Ed said, as he pointed a handgun at the back of Jules' head.

"I want to help you- I really do." I replied, drawing back on my Strategic Response Unit Negotiating training.

"Hey," Ed said to me, as I entered the SRU building with Jules, "Looking snazzy Perrasmith."

"Which one of us are you actually talking to?" I asked him, "Because she's your co-worker."

Ed laughed, "See the both of you in the gym in five."

Ed walked into the men's locker room. Jules turned to me.

"You'll do fine." She said, as she made her way to the women's locker room, "You don't even want the job- remember?"

Oh, I remember alright. It's not that I don't want the job- I'd take an SRU position in an instant. It's the fact that I can't have an SRU job with the team I'd want to be with.

Not that I hate my current job. It's pretty good, but I kind have got used to the wall to wall action I had in the SRU.

I wandered into the gym, and found the other SRU recruit.
"Kristopher Perrasmith." I introduced myself to him.

"Bradley Mann." He replied, "Just call me Brad."

"Call me Perra."

"Lookin' sharp there Perra." Spike said, as he entered the room, "Where in god's name did you get that SRU shirt?"

"Oh, it's Jules'. It's tight, but it works."

"Alright," Spike said, as he switched to talking to Brad, "I'll get you a shirt. Medium?"

"Yeah." Brad responded.

Spike left for the linen service. Meanwhile, Ed, Greg and Jules entered.

"Ok," Greg said, "Even though it's raining out- we're still running the endurance course outside."

As soon as Ed blew the whistle, I started a decent pace down the first stretch of the course. Meanwhile, I noted that Brad had decided to sprint instead. He'll pay for that in the end.

I got to the first barricade just a few seconds shy of Brad, and easily jumped over the two foot barrier.

After that, I started to climb the rope ladder. Once on top of the tower, I grabbed my dummy, and scaled back down the other side.

Because I hadn't winded myself in the first running part, I was able to climb down the other side with the dummy with little to no difficulty, whereas Brad had to stop to catch his breath a few times.

I placed the dummy down, and picked up the ballistic shield and started to climb the wooden steps. Once at the top, I heard the sound of paintballs bombarding the other side of the shield. I looked down range to see Spike gleefully reloading a pod of paintballs into the hopper of the gun.

Taking the moment to full advantage, I understood the scope of this challenge.

I put down the shield and ran to the second bunker, in a setup of several bunkers strewn out around the field. Once at the bunker, I grabbed the paintball pistol from my drop holster and attempted to shoot Spike, but to no avail.

I quickly took in the layout of the other bunkers, as Spike continued to shoot at me.

Suddenly, though, Spike's relentlessness on my position stopped. I looked back to see Brad being shot at from behind the shield, as he started strategizing from there.

I ran forward, and found myself on a foam mat.

From my left, I was tackled by Ed, who wore full foam protection. Ed was able to knock me down to the ground, but I kept the momentum going, as I continued into a roll, and therefore pinning Ed in a submissive position on the mat.

"Spectacular." Ed said, "Continue on."

I ran on, this time using full speed. There were more barricades, and with the speed I had, there was no trouble in clearing them.

Just as I crossed the white line Greg blew his whistle. A few seconds after me, Brad crossed, completely out of breath.

I grabbed two of the water bottles on the ground, and handed one to Brad. "Shouldn't have ran so fast in that first section."

"I wish I wouldn't have." He said, as we headed inside to dry off, and finish the job testing.

Perra and Brad entered the building, behind them, Ed and Greg were comparing notes, as Jules and Spike started to put away the equipment.

"He still has it." Ed commented, "So far, I want Perra."

"Can't have Perra." Greg replied, "What about Brad?"

"He's good, but he should've known better than the run the first leg."

Once inside, we started on the CQB testing. Just like old times, I felt natural at this part.

Pressure pads were placed on the punching bag, as we slammed the door sledge into it. Ed didn't verbalize our results, but based on my swing and Brad's swing, I could tell mine had a bit more 'oomph' to it.

But it's not all about how strong your door ram skills are. It's about how well you are at everything.

At the next section, Spike had mocked up a series of different locks, and both me and Brad were assigned a lock. As I started, I looked at the inside of my lock, and was puzzled, as to what kit I should use. Meanwhile, Brad had already matched his lock to a kit, and had started picking the lock.

I looked at the lock again- closer this time. Seriously? A triple pinned sheathed?

I grabbed the three picks to work on the lock and went to town.

Next, was bomb identification and defusing. Granted, a team typically has a specialized bomb technician, but all SRU officers are expected to have general knowledge of how bombs work and what type of bombs they are looking at.

On the projection board, Spike had brought up a large bomb circuit. "Where's the live wire?" he asked.

It only took me a minute of looking, when I properly identified which wire would be the wire to cut to prevent this bomb from going off.

He brought up another slide.

"I've encountered this in the field. What type of explosion would happen? What kind of damage?"

"Nothing," came my reply, "its propane. Big fire, but no explosion that would cause damage- it was probably used as a distraction."

I saw Spike smile, as he made a note.

Finally, onto the final test- negotiating.

It was time for my negotiating exam.

Greg observed, and he paired me with Team Four's Sargent Donna Sabeen, who would act as my sentry and protection.

We started at the base of a set of stairs- in the same part of the building that the SRU uses to drill for warrants.

"I got a hostage!" came an angry voice from the top of the stairs.

"Go." I whispered to Donna, as she started up with shield and a bright blue practice firearm.

Once at the top, I saw Ed with a practice firearm. Of course.

Staying behind my sentry, as a negotiator should be, I spoke to the hostage taker.

"She's with me," I assured my suspect, who was Ed, "She doesn't do anything unless I tell her."

"I got your guy!" Ed yelled, as he pointed the gun up in the air, "And you'll never find 'em! I'll shoot and this entire place goes up in flames."

Great, they've decided to use an incident similar to how Jules and I got taken hostage.

"I can tell your angry- mind telling me why?" I asked.

"I don't have to tell you anything!"

"Ok- you don't have to tell me anything, but why don't you try lowering your gun first, ok?"

The gun came down a few inches.

Then it lowered all the way, as he pulled up a body from the floor.

Right away, I couldn't tell much about the person, although once Ed brought it up to my eye level, I could tell it was an actual person, and not a dummy. The person had a dark, loose fitting black bag other their head, but I didn't need to see the face to be able to tell who it was.

It was Jules.

He pointed the gun at Jules.

"Get out of here- or I'll kill you both!"

I shook my head, "That's not going to happen, because as soon as your gun goes up, my officer here is going to shoot you, do you know that?"

"I'll pop her- and you can't do anything about it."

"I want to help you- I really do." I responded, "So why don't you tell me why we're all here? Revenge? Is that what you want? Do you want to atone for something you did, because if that's the case, this isn't the way to do it."

"I want her to die, because she arrested my friend, and now he's in prison!"

"You want to help your friend?" I asked, "I get that. There's a something special between a man and his friend that we need to help them- you know? You hear? But this is definitely not the way."

"What is the way then?" Ed yelled.

"To be honest, I don't know, but what will killing her solve? Do you want to be in prison with your friend? Do you want to be in prison for at least five years because you killed someone? Because, prison, it changes you, and you can never get that back; so why don't you put down the gun, and we can try to help your friend, ok?"

Calmly, Ed put the gun down.

"And scene." Greg said from behind me, as he observed the entire examination.

Ed took the bag off of Jules' head as we went back to the gym.

Once at the gym, I sat beside Brad, who waited patiently the entire time. Jules sat across from me beside Spike. I looked up, as I saw Ed and Greg enter the closed debriefing room to go over the test results.

"Endurance, eight out of nine," Ed said, " CQB- off the charts. A bit rusty on the locks, but then again, we did throw a lock at him that he hasn't worked on a lot. According to Spike, he nailed the bombs, and from where I was, he was excellent at the negotiating."

"That's great Ed, it really is, but Perra can't be part of the team."

"Why not? Why can't he sign something like Jules did? I want the best on this team Greg."

"What's so wrong with Brad? What did he do that didn't impress you?"

"I'm not saying he isn't good, all I'm saying is that I want someone who I know works well with the team."

Greg looked deeply into Ed's eyes. Suddenly, he pulled out his cellphone and started to make a call.

"I'm putting it on speaker." Greg said.

"Who?"

"Dr. Toft." Greg said, "I want his input."

"Hello?"

"Hi, Dr. Toft," Parker said loudly "It's Sargent Greg Parker here with Toronto Police Service's Strategic Response Unit."

"Yes?"

"We're down two guys and we really need someone. Is there any way we can get a pardon contract for Kristopher Perrasmith?"

"What about other recruits?" Toft asked.

"Not really an option. We only have one other guy, and I'm not too sure about his history. Part time foot cop for four years- challenged SRU Training and passed, barely though. Lowest grades possible."

Toft sighed. "Yeah, I suppose it's doable. I'll have to come in and do a psych evaluation."

"What do you think is going on?" Spike asked.

"They're thinking." Jules said, as I started to get up, "Where you going?"

"Home," I said, "You still have half your shift to go, and I'd like to get some sleep before I pull the midnight tonight."

"You don't want to wait for your results?" she asked.

I started to say something, as the debriefing room door opened.

"Brad- boss wants to see you." Ed said, "Perra, can I talk to you?"

Brad went in, and shut the door behind him.

"Sure, go ahead Ed."

"Privately." Ed said, "Follow me."

With a heavy sigh, I followed Ed into the locker room. "How far we taking this Ed?"

"Do you want to be on the team? Ed said, as he spun around.

"What? I can't…." I started.

"Well you can." Ed said, "All you'd have to do is pass a psych evaluation with Toft."

"I need to talk to Jules about this."

"You can't," Ed said, "The boss is talking to Brad about some things. We need to make a decision. We thought we'd afford you the opportunity to take the job, and if you didn't want it, we'd take Brad. Greg's waiting for me to call him."

Ed got out his cellphone, as he flipped it out in his hand. "So what's it going to be?"

"Yes."

A/N: Twist! Wasn't expecting that one, eh?