[FIC - Inception] The Helix Trap chapter 3/19
Fandom: Inception
Title: The Helix Trap
Chapter: 3/19 (4,517 words) (For other parts please check my My main post)
Rating: R
Pairings/Characters: Eames/Robert, Arthur/Ariadne, Cobb, Yusuf, Saito, Browning, and others.
Warnings: Violence, sexual content.
Disclaimer: These characters and setting do not belong to me and are being used without permission but for no profit
Summary: After the Inception proves successful, Eames tracks down Robert out of concern for its unusual side effects. Meanwhile, Arthur is hired to a dangerous job that forces the rest of the team to take sides: whether to defend Robert and his fragile mind, or ruin him completely.
Notes: C&C Welcome and appreciated. To my betas, a_rocky_ravine and chypie, thanks for your input!
Eight hours after Ariadne left, Arthur finally took a pair of sleeping pills and forced himself to get some rest. He slept until sun up and didn't dream. When he awoke, and the first thing he saw was the glow of his lap top screen, he felt as if no time had passed at all.
And I still have only half a plan. He groaned as he wandered into the bathroom and started the shower. Charla mentioned she had three in her team so that's one more asset unaccounted for. I can't make any definite plans until I know who it is, but who would she trust on a job like this?
Arthur showered and dressed, and after a small breakfast he sat down to call Charla. She answered on the second ring.
"Good morning."
"We're in," Arthur said. "If you haven't put Yusuf on a plane already, go ahead. We can plan everything here."
Charla sighed, pleased. "He should be arriving in Paris this afternoon. I'll text you the flight information."
Of course. There was no point in being irritated with Charla's presumption, so he continued. "What about our fifth? Is it someone I've worked with?"
"I wouldn't know. I'll introduce you later today--shall we say three? Like I said last night, we don't have time to waste."
"That's fine." Arthur drew his laptop over and began to type. "By the way, what's our payout look like?"
"One million to split five ways. American."
He paused, surprised. Two hundred each? He means business. Ariadne might need some help handling that much. "That's fine," he said again, coolly. "Just promise me you'll tell your client it's handled. There's no need for him to hire anyone else."
"I'll tell him." Her voice tipped with amusement. "I know how you hate to have your toes stepped on."
"So now can you tell me who the subject is?"
"It's Robert Fischer, of Fischer Morrow."
She was right. He had been expecting it, but his breakfast still churned in his stomach. "All right. I'll see you at three."
"Thank you for doing this, Arthur," Charla said before he could hang up. "I'm glad we're going to be working together again."
Arthur frowned down at his keyboard. "I'm making a special exception," he told her. "Please don't expect it to happen again."
"I understand. I'll see you later today."
They both hung up, and Arthur turned his attention back to his computer. So, she gets out of class at one.
Precisely at one, Arthur was standing outside the hall. He was dressed in a tailored beige vest and pants, his every hair was slick and in place, and he was leaning casually against the polished hood of his rented, black sports car. He drew quite a few stares from the departing students, and he smiled politely in response to a few, but he kept his attention trained on the building doors.
Ariadne appeared, joined by a pair of girlfriends. She looked hurried, and was so busy checking her phone that it wasn't until the girl on her left tugged her elbow that she noticed Arthur at all. She stopped in her tracks, stunned. As foolish as it had been of him to risk their safety in public so blatantly, the blush that rushed into her cheeks was worth it.
Arthur waved. Ariadne's friends immediately began to whisper furiously at her, and with red ears she continued forward. "What are you doing here?" she asked once she was close enough.
He stepped away from the car. "I'm here for you," he said, and couldn't help but smile when her friends exchanged amazed looks. "If your friends don't mind."
"Introduce us," the one on the left hissed in Ariadne's ear.
She pushed them away. "Maybe next time." When it didn't look like they were inclined to leave she shooed them off. "I'll call you later!"
The girls left, gossiping and giggling, and Ariadne shot Arthur a flustered glare. "Did you have to do the macho guy show-off routine?"
"I had to come get you," he reasoned. "I'm picking Yusuf up from the airport, and I was afraid you'd go to the warehouse and find it empty."
She made a face at him but couldn't find fault in his explanation. "All right. Let's go."
They climbed into the car, and Arthur was hard pressed to hide how pleased he was with her reaction; he had to savor it, thinking it might be the only positive he had to look forward to that day. "How was your class?" he asked as they merged into traffic.
"Fine, I guess. I couldn't stop thinking about..." Ariadne shifted in her seat. "Did you call her?"
"Yes." For once Arthur wasn't eager to speak professionally. "We're meeting her and the rest of our team later today. We'll talk about the plan then."
"...Okay. So we're picking up Yusuf?" she changed the subject. "I didn't think I'd see him again so soon." She straightened. "You don't think Eames is our missing member, do you?"
Arthur snorted. "Not possible."
Ariadne smiled sideways at him. "It'd be nice to see him again, too. Not that there's much chance of that, I guess, with everyone spread out over the globe. Well, when they're not hiding under my nose." She watched him closely. "By the way, why didn't you tell me you were in Paris all this time?"
"It wasn't 'all this time,'" he stalled. "I spent some time with Cobb and his kids, and when I remembered that the warehouse lease was paid up through the end of the year I decided I might as well not let it go to waste." His fingers flexed against the steering wheel. And if something goes wrong and Saito does decide to come after us, I'd rather he find me first.
"That's not an answer to my question."
Ariadne may have been one of the more intuitive people Arthur had ever met, but he was still confident he could lie to her convincingly. "I guess it didn't occur to me," he said.
She shifted in her seat to better face him. "You expect me to believe that you forgot about me?"
"No, I remembered you'd still be in school." Arthur spared her a glance. "But the job was over, and I haven't needed an architect, so I didn't think of it."
"Oh." Ariadne frowned at him, more disappointed than he thought she would have been. "But I thought you..."
Arthur raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to finish, but she relaxed into her seat again and shook her head. "Never mind," she muttered. "Well, I'm glad I found an excuse to stop by before the end of the year, then."
He smiled. "Me too."
They met Yusuf outside the airport, and he shook both their hands warmly. "So good to see you," he greeted. "Even if it is under these circumstances. I hope you're both well."
"Well enough," Arthur replied stoically. "No thanks to you selling me out."
"What?" Yusuf looked appalled, but when he realized what Arthur meant he laughed. "You're not sore that I gave Dr. Banks your address, are you?" He tossed his suitcase into the trunk. "She said you were well acquainted. And how could I say no? To Dr. Charla Banks, of all people?"
"You sound like a fan," Ariadne noted as they climbed into the car.
Yusuf took the back, and leaned forward between the seats so they could hear him. "Of course I am. She invented dreamshare, you know. Literally wrote the book! It's an honor to be working with her, and in such an ambitious project. When she described to me the helix trap I couldn't help but agree to assist immediately."
"Yusuf," Arthur interrupted, warning.
"I didn't even think it possible!" Yusuf continued excitedly. "And all along you had done it already, Arthur! You were holding back on me last time. What an extraordinary mind you must have in order to--"
"Yusuf."
"Ah..." Yusuf glanced to Ariadne and smiled sheepishly. "Excuse me."
She glanced between them in exasperation. "No--wait--stop doing that! I'm a part of this, too, you know." She twisted toward Yusuf. "What is a helix trap?"
"I'll tell you later," Arthur said before he could answer. "Once we're secure." Ariadne frowned but relented.
Yusuf insisted on a meal, so they picked up a carry-out lunch and ate at the warehouse. "Dr. Banks is coming at three with our last member," Arthur explained as they crowded around a card table. "We have some time before then so I thought we should do some training."
Ariadne perked up. "What kind of training?"
"Combat training," Arthur replied, secretly enjoying the wide eyes she and Yusuf cast at each other. "I don't know who our fifth is, which means I don't trust them yet, so for now I'm planning on the two of you being dreamers."
"Really?" Ariadne's face changed from surprised, to excited, to intimidated. "I'm going to have to fight projections?"
"Possibly. Fischer's mind has security, after all. Now that we know that, we can plan ahead to prevent it from being tripped, and construct escape routes." He looked to Yusuf. "It's not so hard, is it Yusuf?"
Yusuf wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Ha."
Ariadne sipped from a bottled water, her face an open book of conflicting emotion. "So does that mean...we're going down three layers again? I assume you're going to be dreaming at least one level."
Arthur shook his head. "Only two this time, and I can't host a level. I'll be helping Dr. Banks set up the trap."
"The trap," she repeated. She shoved the remains of her lunch out of the way. "Tell me what it is."
He was in the middle of chewing his last bite, which afforded him an excuse to stall. How much can I tell her now? He resisted the urge to glance at Yusuf, knowing that he was listening with rapt attention. He swallowed. "The helix trap--not a name I picked for it, by the way--was a mistake Dr. Banks and I stumbled into," he began. "Basically, we trap a portion of the subject's mind in a dream state, so that even when he wakes, he is still seeing and experiencing a dream. The subject's perception of reality is altered: he'll see and interact with things that aren't there, may even experience the world around him differently."
Ariadne shifted uncomfortably. "Sounds like schizophrenia, maybe?"
"I suppose. I'm sure Dr. Banks has a diagnosis in mind." Arthur took a sip of coffee and continued. "To undo it, we would have to go back into the subject's mind, free the portion we trapped, and hope he wakes up in one piece."
"Charla intimated that you've done this before," Yusuf said, leaning forward.
Arthur's eyebrow twitched. First name basis already? "Yes. We were lucky." When he noticed they were both watching him with intensity he added, "It wasn't either of us that suffered the trap, it was another researcher. Last I heard she'd fully recovered."
Ariadne considered. "When you say you're trapping someone in their dream...are you talking about Limbo?"
"No," he said quickly. "There's a particular process." He hesitated. "Which I'm not going to tell you until I'm sure we're going through with it."
Her face screwed up and she scooted her chair closer. "I'm a big girl, Arthur--you don't have to protect me. I want to know what I'm getting into, unlike last time."
"And you will," Arthur assured. "But this is serious, and you have to understand." Arthur turned to face her, hoping to express his full sincerity. "Those of us in this business have...specialties. We all have our different tricks, and those are the things that get us hired. If you want a good chemist, you go to Yusuf." He gestured to the man, who nodded acknowledgement of the compliment. "If you want a Forger, you go to Eames." He lowered his voice. "And when people find out what you can do, they'll come to you. You have to be very careful about what you put on your resume."
She leaned back, and though there was stubbornness in her face he saw a cold flicker of understanding. "You think just by hearing this process of yours, I could get myself in trouble?"
Arthur looked to Yusuf for help, and when he caught on, he provided it. "He's right," Yusuf said quietly. "It's better you not know until you absolutely have to."
"I promise I'm not Cobb," Arthur went on. "I'll tell you everything before we go under--if we go under." Even the answer to that question of yours last night... "But before we decide that we have to train, because if I can't teach you how to transition you're not in on this job."
"What?" Ariadne straightened sharply. "But we had a deal!"
"Call Cobb if you want, but if I can't teach you, you can't be my level one dreamer, and if you can't do that we don't have room on the team for you."
Ariadne stared him down, trying to call his bluff, but he remained firm. With a snort she pushed away from the table. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's get started!" She marched toward the PASIV at the other side of the room.
Yusuf watched her go with eyebrows raised, then looked to Arthur. "You'd really make her walk away at this point?"
"No," Arthur admitted. "But I do need her to learn this." He stood. And she's cute when she makes that determined face.
"It took me days to learn transitioning," Yusuf said, following. "And even now I'm not sure I could do it well enough for your purpose."
"She can do it, trust me."
Ariadne was already cleaning the PASIV for use as they joined her. "Are we using my dream?"
"Yes." Arthur rolled up his sleeve and Yusuf did the same. "Someplace open where we can see a lot of sky, but with somewhere to run and hide if we need to." He motioned to Yusuf. "You're our subject today."
They went under, and came to in a broad park with short trees and trampled grass. Arthur breathed in the dry air, as always somewhat taken aback by the depth he experienced with each inhale of Ariadne's dream--the smell of hot dirt was most prevalent, but he could detect a hint of burning dinner on the wind, and distant traces of smoke and rust. When he took a closer look at the surroundings, he realized the park was bordered by chain-linked fences, and beyond them, a labyrinth of old warehouses and shipping containers.
He smiled to himself. Though the environment was much more urban than Ariadne's last dream, it had a sort of nostalgic, bittersweet charm that made it even more real. "Just what I asked for," he murmured.
A shout drew his attention, and he turned, spotting Yusuf surrounded by a group of young boys. They were kicking a soccer ball around the field, laughing and goading each other on. Arthur sat down on a nearby bench to watch, and soon Ariadne jogged up to him. "How'd I do?" she asked, drawing her hair back in a ponytail.
"Just fine." He motioned for her to sit next to him. "Get comfortable--this is going to take a while."
She took a seat and glanced around, viewing her work with a critical eye. "Should we wait for Yusuf?"
"No, he's right where he should be." Arthur caught Yusuf's eye, and they shared a nod. "Now." He sat forward. "Transitioning. There are two types, and the one you're learning is what I showed you yesterday: a gradual change in a dream state. Time and weather are the most common." He pointed to a line of clouds low against the horizon. "I want you to move that line of clouds from one side of the sky to the other."
Ariadne straightened. "That's not hard."
She narrowed her eyes, and the clouds immediately began to move. Arthur quickly took her hand. "Wait, you're forgetting." He pointed across the field, to where the boys had paused in their game and were staring up at the sky. Yusuf wagged his finger in their direction.
"The hard part," Arthur told her with a trace of a smile, "is doing it without getting caught."
Ariadne pursed her lips at the boys, and waited patiently for them to return to their game. "Then how do I do it? Any change will alert the projections, won't it?"
"It's all about patience, and control," he explained. "Finding ways to make the dream do what you want without directly pushing and pulling. You have to trust your instincts."
"My instincts..."
Ariadne leaned back, staring up at the sky in deep contemplation. Arthur remained quiet; there were other hints he could give her, but he was deeply curious to see if she could work out the answer herself. He watched the projections, and whenever they stopped their game to stare he gave her hand a warning squeeze. It took almost half an hour of quiet concentration, but at long last Arthur felt a hot wind against the back of his neck. He glanced between the clouds and the boys, and was glad to see all moving just as they were supposed to.
"That’s more like it," he said. Instead of moving the clouds she added wind. And she came up with it faster than I did.
Ariadne sighed. "They're not moving any faster than normal clouds."
"That's fine. What matters is you're making changes without alerting attention. That's what transitioning is all about." Arthur at last let go of her hand so he could stretch his shoulders. "Once you get better at it you'll be able to make larger changes, like I showed you before."
Ariadne watched her slowly-drifting clouds with dissatisfaction. "What's the other kind of transition?" she asked abruptly. "You said there were two."
"Hm? Oh." Arthur was a bit reluctant to tell her in fear she would try it out right away. "That's when you deconstruct a dream and create a new one in its place, very suddenly, like a scene change in a movie. It's dangerous to do with a subject because that much alteration sends the projections into a frenzy. Cobb used to call it 'whipping.'" He smirked wryly. "It's one of those things he'd tell you to never do."
Ariadne chuckled. "Then I assume he's done it once or twice."
"To disastrous results, let me tell you."
Yusuf jogged over to them, and Ariadne scooted closer to Arthur so there'd be room on the bench for him. Arthur lifted his arms to the bench's back, which earned him a strange look from Ariadne, but they did fit better.
"So," Yusuf said, grinning, "you're catching on as quickly as Arthur said you would. You should be proud."
Ariadne shot him half a smile. "They're just clouds, doing what clouds always do."
"I'm serious. I think even Charla will be impressed."
Arthur cocked an eye at him. "How well do you know Dr. Banks anyway?"
"Very well!" Yusuf chirped, but then he had to clear his throat and correct himself. "Not personally, of course. We only first met a few days ago. But I've followed her work very closely, ever since she and Dr. Gavde created Somnacin." He looked Arthur over with appreciation. "I don't know her nearly as well as you do, in any case."
"How do you know Dr. Banks?" Ariadne asked abruptly, turning on Arthur as well. "The two of you weren't...." Her eyebrows furrowed. "You know?"
Arthur honestly shuddered. "God, no. It's not like that."
"Then I wish I would have asked sooner," she laughed. "You could have spared me the image."
He frowned at her. You were imagining that?
"Rumors say you were a student of hers," Yusuf said before he could dwell on the thought. "Is it true?"
"Yes, I suppose you could put it that way." It wasn't a story Arthur was thrilled to share, but he couldn't find a reason not to. "It was just after the government started regulating PASIV use," he explained. "Dr. Banks didn't think it was 'fair' that she didn't have the freedom to use her own invention as she saw fit. So she started experimenting off the record, and eventually on people that didn't volunteer. But she realized that if she was going to live like a criminal, she'd need the help of other criminals. And that's where I came in."
"Wait," said Ariadne. "You were a thief before you were an extractor?"
"More like an information broker," Arthur continued. "I was still pretty young then, but I grew up well, I had connections. Plus I know my way around a computer. I made good money selling information to criminals."
"Aha, so it's true." Yusuf pointed at him. "You were one of Dr. Banks' first extractors."
"Not the first. But after I helped her a few times, she offered to pay me with a PASIV lesson." He smiled, bittersweet, with the memory. "As I'm sure both of you can imagine, it wasn't like anything I'd ever experienced."
Yusuf sighed fondly. "I remember my first time using Somnacin. I was sharing a dream with a friend who had just flown in from the Netherlands." He beamed. "She showed me snow for the first time."
"Paris, for me," said Ariadne. She smiled up at the clouds that were still making their way slowly across the sky. "But it wasn't so much the dream as what I was able to do with it. It's just so..." She curled her fingers, searching for the right word. "I don't know, so everything. There's nothing like it." When she turned toward Arthur there was light in her face. "I've been writing down my dreams since then, trying to make myself remember better, but it's not the same. I almost don't want to sleep, knowing my dreams don’t live up to it."
Arthur stared up the sky. "That's why I didn't tell you," he said under his breath.
"What?"
He shook himself. "It's time for combat training."
"Huh?"
Arthur pointed across the field, where the projections had again turned away from their game and were headed swiftly in their direction. "You lost your concentration," he told her, motioning for her and Yusuf to stand. "Come on, let's get out of here." He turned and headed for the closest of the bordering fences, his peers close behind.
***
Several hours of dream time later, they awoke once more in the warehouse. "When you said combat training, I thought you meant we were going to fight," Ariadne said as she freed herself from the PASIV. "Not spend the whole time running away."
"Retreat is an important part of any combat strategy," Arthur replied. "But we'll do some weapons training with you next time, I promise."
Yusuf retrieved his bottled water and took a long gulp. "Running away is just fine with me. But unlike last time, let's make sure we--"
Arthur heard footsteps, and he slapped Yusuf in the arm to shut him up. The three of them turned toward the hall as Charla stepped into view, a man beside her. The man's left arm was in a cast and he was limping, and when he got closer Arthur realized he recognized his face. Or rather, half of it--his left cheek and half his jaw were badly scarred. His injured state in addition to his fresh shave and short haircut nearly disguised him perfectly, but when their eyes met, there was no mistaking the gleam of apprehension in his deep set brown eyes.
Arthur cursed under his breath. "Nash."
"Ah, so you do know each other," Charla said, as always deliberately oblivious to the tense look the two men were sharing. "I should have known there's hardly a dreamer left in the world you haven't met or worked with, Arthur." She gestured to the man at her side. "This is Mr. Nash. Nash, this is Miss Ariadne, and Yusuf, our chemist."
Nash offered them a crooked smile. "Nice to meet you."
Both did an admirable job of not staring at his extensive injuries. "Good to be working with you, Mr. Nash," Yusuf greeted.
"Same," added Ariadne. She pulled a folding chair away from their card table. "Do you want to sit down?"
"Yeah, thanks."
Arthur took Charla's elbow and turned her away from them. "This is our fifth?" he asked incredulously. "Where did you find him?"
"I purchased him from Mr. Woodruff of Cobol Engineering," she replied. He couldn't tell if the tone in her voice was real sympathy or not. "He's an architect by trade but I've been working with him for the past few weeks to broaden his skills."
"He's not good enough for this job. You know how meticulous the dream-building will have to be." Arthur glanced behind him, where Ariadne was offering Nash some water. "I've worked with him before; I know his limits."
Charla shook her head. "This is going to sound cruel, but what he's recently been through has done wonders for his subconscious," she insisted. "His dreams are extremely detail-oriented, and very stable. I've tested him myself, you know. Haven't I always been a good judge of talent?"
"If not character," he grumbled. "The last job we were on together, he sold us out."
"Dr. Banks saved my life," Nash interrupted suddenly. "I'm not selling anyone out."
Arthur frowned awkwardly at him, and exchanged looks with Ariadne and Yusuf. The eyes Nash was fixing him with were not bitter as far as he could tell, but then, he had never been the best judge of character, either. "Whatever Cobol did to you was your own fault," he told Nash firmly. "You know that, right?"
Nash lowered his eyes. "I know."
Arthur waited a moment, trying to gauge Nash and be sure, but he didn't say anything more. After an uncomfortable silence Ariadne sat down next to him, and lowered her voice. "Can I ask...what happened?"
"I, uh." He winced at her, which might have passed as a smile. "I was run over by a truck."
Ariadne grimaced, but then Charla cleared her throat and joined them at the table. "But that's all in the past now. We should be focusing on the job at hand, no?" She pulled over more chairs and took a seat. "Now that we're all here, we can get right to work."
Arthur didn't join them right away. He continued to watch Nash, unconvinced. He's a liability, his rational self kept telling him. And he can't be trusted, not if he's loyal to Charla. At last he took a seat next to Ariadne. She looks a little shaken, he noted. Maybe it's good that she sees what can happen in this line of work. Even as he had the thoughts his stomach churned.
"All right," said Charla, setting her laptop on the table. "Let's talk about Robert Fischer."
To Chapter 4
Title: The Helix Trap
Chapter: 3/19 (4,517 words) (For other parts please check my My main post)
Rating: R
Pairings/Characters: Eames/Robert, Arthur/Ariadne, Cobb, Yusuf, Saito, Browning, and others.
Warnings: Violence, sexual content.
Disclaimer: These characters and setting do not belong to me and are being used without permission but for no profit
Summary: After the Inception proves successful, Eames tracks down Robert out of concern for its unusual side effects. Meanwhile, Arthur is hired to a dangerous job that forces the rest of the team to take sides: whether to defend Robert and his fragile mind, or ruin him completely.
Notes: C&C Welcome and appreciated. To my betas, a_rocky_ravine and chypie, thanks for your input!
Eight hours after Ariadne left, Arthur finally took a pair of sleeping pills and forced himself to get some rest. He slept until sun up and didn't dream. When he awoke, and the first thing he saw was the glow of his lap top screen, he felt as if no time had passed at all.
And I still have only half a plan. He groaned as he wandered into the bathroom and started the shower. Charla mentioned she had three in her team so that's one more asset unaccounted for. I can't make any definite plans until I know who it is, but who would she trust on a job like this?
Arthur showered and dressed, and after a small breakfast he sat down to call Charla. She answered on the second ring.
"Good morning."
"We're in," Arthur said. "If you haven't put Yusuf on a plane already, go ahead. We can plan everything here."
Charla sighed, pleased. "He should be arriving in Paris this afternoon. I'll text you the flight information."
Of course. There was no point in being irritated with Charla's presumption, so he continued. "What about our fifth? Is it someone I've worked with?"
"I wouldn't know. I'll introduce you later today--shall we say three? Like I said last night, we don't have time to waste."
"That's fine." Arthur drew his laptop over and began to type. "By the way, what's our payout look like?"
"One million to split five ways. American."
He paused, surprised. Two hundred each? He means business. Ariadne might need some help handling that much. "That's fine," he said again, coolly. "Just promise me you'll tell your client it's handled. There's no need for him to hire anyone else."
"I'll tell him." Her voice tipped with amusement. "I know how you hate to have your toes stepped on."
"So now can you tell me who the subject is?"
"It's Robert Fischer, of Fischer Morrow."
She was right. He had been expecting it, but his breakfast still churned in his stomach. "All right. I'll see you at three."
"Thank you for doing this, Arthur," Charla said before he could hang up. "I'm glad we're going to be working together again."
Arthur frowned down at his keyboard. "I'm making a special exception," he told her. "Please don't expect it to happen again."
"I understand. I'll see you later today."
They both hung up, and Arthur turned his attention back to his computer. So, she gets out of class at one.
Precisely at one, Arthur was standing outside the hall. He was dressed in a tailored beige vest and pants, his every hair was slick and in place, and he was leaning casually against the polished hood of his rented, black sports car. He drew quite a few stares from the departing students, and he smiled politely in response to a few, but he kept his attention trained on the building doors.
Ariadne appeared, joined by a pair of girlfriends. She looked hurried, and was so busy checking her phone that it wasn't until the girl on her left tugged her elbow that she noticed Arthur at all. She stopped in her tracks, stunned. As foolish as it had been of him to risk their safety in public so blatantly, the blush that rushed into her cheeks was worth it.
Arthur waved. Ariadne's friends immediately began to whisper furiously at her, and with red ears she continued forward. "What are you doing here?" she asked once she was close enough.
He stepped away from the car. "I'm here for you," he said, and couldn't help but smile when her friends exchanged amazed looks. "If your friends don't mind."
"Introduce us," the one on the left hissed in Ariadne's ear.
She pushed them away. "Maybe next time." When it didn't look like they were inclined to leave she shooed them off. "I'll call you later!"
The girls left, gossiping and giggling, and Ariadne shot Arthur a flustered glare. "Did you have to do the macho guy show-off routine?"
"I had to come get you," he reasoned. "I'm picking Yusuf up from the airport, and I was afraid you'd go to the warehouse and find it empty."
She made a face at him but couldn't find fault in his explanation. "All right. Let's go."
They climbed into the car, and Arthur was hard pressed to hide how pleased he was with her reaction; he had to savor it, thinking it might be the only positive he had to look forward to that day. "How was your class?" he asked as they merged into traffic.
"Fine, I guess. I couldn't stop thinking about..." Ariadne shifted in her seat. "Did you call her?"
"Yes." For once Arthur wasn't eager to speak professionally. "We're meeting her and the rest of our team later today. We'll talk about the plan then."
"...Okay. So we're picking up Yusuf?" she changed the subject. "I didn't think I'd see him again so soon." She straightened. "You don't think Eames is our missing member, do you?"
Arthur snorted. "Not possible."
Ariadne smiled sideways at him. "It'd be nice to see him again, too. Not that there's much chance of that, I guess, with everyone spread out over the globe. Well, when they're not hiding under my nose." She watched him closely. "By the way, why didn't you tell me you were in Paris all this time?"
"It wasn't 'all this time,'" he stalled. "I spent some time with Cobb and his kids, and when I remembered that the warehouse lease was paid up through the end of the year I decided I might as well not let it go to waste." His fingers flexed against the steering wheel. And if something goes wrong and Saito does decide to come after us, I'd rather he find me first.
"That's not an answer to my question."
Ariadne may have been one of the more intuitive people Arthur had ever met, but he was still confident he could lie to her convincingly. "I guess it didn't occur to me," he said.
She shifted in her seat to better face him. "You expect me to believe that you forgot about me?"
"No, I remembered you'd still be in school." Arthur spared her a glance. "But the job was over, and I haven't needed an architect, so I didn't think of it."
"Oh." Ariadne frowned at him, more disappointed than he thought she would have been. "But I thought you..."
Arthur raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to finish, but she relaxed into her seat again and shook her head. "Never mind," she muttered. "Well, I'm glad I found an excuse to stop by before the end of the year, then."
He smiled. "Me too."
They met Yusuf outside the airport, and he shook both their hands warmly. "So good to see you," he greeted. "Even if it is under these circumstances. I hope you're both well."
"Well enough," Arthur replied stoically. "No thanks to you selling me out."
"What?" Yusuf looked appalled, but when he realized what Arthur meant he laughed. "You're not sore that I gave Dr. Banks your address, are you?" He tossed his suitcase into the trunk. "She said you were well acquainted. And how could I say no? To Dr. Charla Banks, of all people?"
"You sound like a fan," Ariadne noted as they climbed into the car.
Yusuf took the back, and leaned forward between the seats so they could hear him. "Of course I am. She invented dreamshare, you know. Literally wrote the book! It's an honor to be working with her, and in such an ambitious project. When she described to me the helix trap I couldn't help but agree to assist immediately."
"Yusuf," Arthur interrupted, warning.
"I didn't even think it possible!" Yusuf continued excitedly. "And all along you had done it already, Arthur! You were holding back on me last time. What an extraordinary mind you must have in order to--"
"Yusuf."
"Ah..." Yusuf glanced to Ariadne and smiled sheepishly. "Excuse me."
She glanced between them in exasperation. "No--wait--stop doing that! I'm a part of this, too, you know." She twisted toward Yusuf. "What is a helix trap?"
"I'll tell you later," Arthur said before he could answer. "Once we're secure." Ariadne frowned but relented.
Yusuf insisted on a meal, so they picked up a carry-out lunch and ate at the warehouse. "Dr. Banks is coming at three with our last member," Arthur explained as they crowded around a card table. "We have some time before then so I thought we should do some training."
Ariadne perked up. "What kind of training?"
"Combat training," Arthur replied, secretly enjoying the wide eyes she and Yusuf cast at each other. "I don't know who our fifth is, which means I don't trust them yet, so for now I'm planning on the two of you being dreamers."
"Really?" Ariadne's face changed from surprised, to excited, to intimidated. "I'm going to have to fight projections?"
"Possibly. Fischer's mind has security, after all. Now that we know that, we can plan ahead to prevent it from being tripped, and construct escape routes." He looked to Yusuf. "It's not so hard, is it Yusuf?"
Yusuf wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Ha."
Ariadne sipped from a bottled water, her face an open book of conflicting emotion. "So does that mean...we're going down three layers again? I assume you're going to be dreaming at least one level."
Arthur shook his head. "Only two this time, and I can't host a level. I'll be helping Dr. Banks set up the trap."
"The trap," she repeated. She shoved the remains of her lunch out of the way. "Tell me what it is."
He was in the middle of chewing his last bite, which afforded him an excuse to stall. How much can I tell her now? He resisted the urge to glance at Yusuf, knowing that he was listening with rapt attention. He swallowed. "The helix trap--not a name I picked for it, by the way--was a mistake Dr. Banks and I stumbled into," he began. "Basically, we trap a portion of the subject's mind in a dream state, so that even when he wakes, he is still seeing and experiencing a dream. The subject's perception of reality is altered: he'll see and interact with things that aren't there, may even experience the world around him differently."
Ariadne shifted uncomfortably. "Sounds like schizophrenia, maybe?"
"I suppose. I'm sure Dr. Banks has a diagnosis in mind." Arthur took a sip of coffee and continued. "To undo it, we would have to go back into the subject's mind, free the portion we trapped, and hope he wakes up in one piece."
"Charla intimated that you've done this before," Yusuf said, leaning forward.
Arthur's eyebrow twitched. First name basis already? "Yes. We were lucky." When he noticed they were both watching him with intensity he added, "It wasn't either of us that suffered the trap, it was another researcher. Last I heard she'd fully recovered."
Ariadne considered. "When you say you're trapping someone in their dream...are you talking about Limbo?"
"No," he said quickly. "There's a particular process." He hesitated. "Which I'm not going to tell you until I'm sure we're going through with it."
Her face screwed up and she scooted her chair closer. "I'm a big girl, Arthur--you don't have to protect me. I want to know what I'm getting into, unlike last time."
"And you will," Arthur assured. "But this is serious, and you have to understand." Arthur turned to face her, hoping to express his full sincerity. "Those of us in this business have...specialties. We all have our different tricks, and those are the things that get us hired. If you want a good chemist, you go to Yusuf." He gestured to the man, who nodded acknowledgement of the compliment. "If you want a Forger, you go to Eames." He lowered his voice. "And when people find out what you can do, they'll come to you. You have to be very careful about what you put on your resume."
She leaned back, and though there was stubbornness in her face he saw a cold flicker of understanding. "You think just by hearing this process of yours, I could get myself in trouble?"
Arthur looked to Yusuf for help, and when he caught on, he provided it. "He's right," Yusuf said quietly. "It's better you not know until you absolutely have to."
"I promise I'm not Cobb," Arthur went on. "I'll tell you everything before we go under--if we go under." Even the answer to that question of yours last night... "But before we decide that we have to train, because if I can't teach you how to transition you're not in on this job."
"What?" Ariadne straightened sharply. "But we had a deal!"
"Call Cobb if you want, but if I can't teach you, you can't be my level one dreamer, and if you can't do that we don't have room on the team for you."
Ariadne stared him down, trying to call his bluff, but he remained firm. With a snort she pushed away from the table. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's get started!" She marched toward the PASIV at the other side of the room.
Yusuf watched her go with eyebrows raised, then looked to Arthur. "You'd really make her walk away at this point?"
"No," Arthur admitted. "But I do need her to learn this." He stood. And she's cute when she makes that determined face.
"It took me days to learn transitioning," Yusuf said, following. "And even now I'm not sure I could do it well enough for your purpose."
"She can do it, trust me."
Ariadne was already cleaning the PASIV for use as they joined her. "Are we using my dream?"
"Yes." Arthur rolled up his sleeve and Yusuf did the same. "Someplace open where we can see a lot of sky, but with somewhere to run and hide if we need to." He motioned to Yusuf. "You're our subject today."
They went under, and came to in a broad park with short trees and trampled grass. Arthur breathed in the dry air, as always somewhat taken aback by the depth he experienced with each inhale of Ariadne's dream--the smell of hot dirt was most prevalent, but he could detect a hint of burning dinner on the wind, and distant traces of smoke and rust. When he took a closer look at the surroundings, he realized the park was bordered by chain-linked fences, and beyond them, a labyrinth of old warehouses and shipping containers.
He smiled to himself. Though the environment was much more urban than Ariadne's last dream, it had a sort of nostalgic, bittersweet charm that made it even more real. "Just what I asked for," he murmured.
A shout drew his attention, and he turned, spotting Yusuf surrounded by a group of young boys. They were kicking a soccer ball around the field, laughing and goading each other on. Arthur sat down on a nearby bench to watch, and soon Ariadne jogged up to him. "How'd I do?" she asked, drawing her hair back in a ponytail.
"Just fine." He motioned for her to sit next to him. "Get comfortable--this is going to take a while."
She took a seat and glanced around, viewing her work with a critical eye. "Should we wait for Yusuf?"
"No, he's right where he should be." Arthur caught Yusuf's eye, and they shared a nod. "Now." He sat forward. "Transitioning. There are two types, and the one you're learning is what I showed you yesterday: a gradual change in a dream state. Time and weather are the most common." He pointed to a line of clouds low against the horizon. "I want you to move that line of clouds from one side of the sky to the other."
Ariadne straightened. "That's not hard."
She narrowed her eyes, and the clouds immediately began to move. Arthur quickly took her hand. "Wait, you're forgetting." He pointed across the field, to where the boys had paused in their game and were staring up at the sky. Yusuf wagged his finger in their direction.
"The hard part," Arthur told her with a trace of a smile, "is doing it without getting caught."
Ariadne pursed her lips at the boys, and waited patiently for them to return to their game. "Then how do I do it? Any change will alert the projections, won't it?"
"It's all about patience, and control," he explained. "Finding ways to make the dream do what you want without directly pushing and pulling. You have to trust your instincts."
"My instincts..."
Ariadne leaned back, staring up at the sky in deep contemplation. Arthur remained quiet; there were other hints he could give her, but he was deeply curious to see if she could work out the answer herself. He watched the projections, and whenever they stopped their game to stare he gave her hand a warning squeeze. It took almost half an hour of quiet concentration, but at long last Arthur felt a hot wind against the back of his neck. He glanced between the clouds and the boys, and was glad to see all moving just as they were supposed to.
"That’s more like it," he said. Instead of moving the clouds she added wind. And she came up with it faster than I did.
Ariadne sighed. "They're not moving any faster than normal clouds."
"That's fine. What matters is you're making changes without alerting attention. That's what transitioning is all about." Arthur at last let go of her hand so he could stretch his shoulders. "Once you get better at it you'll be able to make larger changes, like I showed you before."
Ariadne watched her slowly-drifting clouds with dissatisfaction. "What's the other kind of transition?" she asked abruptly. "You said there were two."
"Hm? Oh." Arthur was a bit reluctant to tell her in fear she would try it out right away. "That's when you deconstruct a dream and create a new one in its place, very suddenly, like a scene change in a movie. It's dangerous to do with a subject because that much alteration sends the projections into a frenzy. Cobb used to call it 'whipping.'" He smirked wryly. "It's one of those things he'd tell you to never do."
Ariadne chuckled. "Then I assume he's done it once or twice."
"To disastrous results, let me tell you."
Yusuf jogged over to them, and Ariadne scooted closer to Arthur so there'd be room on the bench for him. Arthur lifted his arms to the bench's back, which earned him a strange look from Ariadne, but they did fit better.
"So," Yusuf said, grinning, "you're catching on as quickly as Arthur said you would. You should be proud."
Ariadne shot him half a smile. "They're just clouds, doing what clouds always do."
"I'm serious. I think even Charla will be impressed."
Arthur cocked an eye at him. "How well do you know Dr. Banks anyway?"
"Very well!" Yusuf chirped, but then he had to clear his throat and correct himself. "Not personally, of course. We only first met a few days ago. But I've followed her work very closely, ever since she and Dr. Gavde created Somnacin." He looked Arthur over with appreciation. "I don't know her nearly as well as you do, in any case."
"How do you know Dr. Banks?" Ariadne asked abruptly, turning on Arthur as well. "The two of you weren't...." Her eyebrows furrowed. "You know?"
Arthur honestly shuddered. "God, no. It's not like that."
"Then I wish I would have asked sooner," she laughed. "You could have spared me the image."
He frowned at her. You were imagining that?
"Rumors say you were a student of hers," Yusuf said before he could dwell on the thought. "Is it true?"
"Yes, I suppose you could put it that way." It wasn't a story Arthur was thrilled to share, but he couldn't find a reason not to. "It was just after the government started regulating PASIV use," he explained. "Dr. Banks didn't think it was 'fair' that she didn't have the freedom to use her own invention as she saw fit. So she started experimenting off the record, and eventually on people that didn't volunteer. But she realized that if she was going to live like a criminal, she'd need the help of other criminals. And that's where I came in."
"Wait," said Ariadne. "You were a thief before you were an extractor?"
"More like an information broker," Arthur continued. "I was still pretty young then, but I grew up well, I had connections. Plus I know my way around a computer. I made good money selling information to criminals."
"Aha, so it's true." Yusuf pointed at him. "You were one of Dr. Banks' first extractors."
"Not the first. But after I helped her a few times, she offered to pay me with a PASIV lesson." He smiled, bittersweet, with the memory. "As I'm sure both of you can imagine, it wasn't like anything I'd ever experienced."
Yusuf sighed fondly. "I remember my first time using Somnacin. I was sharing a dream with a friend who had just flown in from the Netherlands." He beamed. "She showed me snow for the first time."
"Paris, for me," said Ariadne. She smiled up at the clouds that were still making their way slowly across the sky. "But it wasn't so much the dream as what I was able to do with it. It's just so..." She curled her fingers, searching for the right word. "I don't know, so everything. There's nothing like it." When she turned toward Arthur there was light in her face. "I've been writing down my dreams since then, trying to make myself remember better, but it's not the same. I almost don't want to sleep, knowing my dreams don’t live up to it."
Arthur stared up the sky. "That's why I didn't tell you," he said under his breath.
"What?"
He shook himself. "It's time for combat training."
"Huh?"
Arthur pointed across the field, where the projections had again turned away from their game and were headed swiftly in their direction. "You lost your concentration," he told her, motioning for her and Yusuf to stand. "Come on, let's get out of here." He turned and headed for the closest of the bordering fences, his peers close behind.
***
Several hours of dream time later, they awoke once more in the warehouse. "When you said combat training, I thought you meant we were going to fight," Ariadne said as she freed herself from the PASIV. "Not spend the whole time running away."
"Retreat is an important part of any combat strategy," Arthur replied. "But we'll do some weapons training with you next time, I promise."
Yusuf retrieved his bottled water and took a long gulp. "Running away is just fine with me. But unlike last time, let's make sure we--"
Arthur heard footsteps, and he slapped Yusuf in the arm to shut him up. The three of them turned toward the hall as Charla stepped into view, a man beside her. The man's left arm was in a cast and he was limping, and when he got closer Arthur realized he recognized his face. Or rather, half of it--his left cheek and half his jaw were badly scarred. His injured state in addition to his fresh shave and short haircut nearly disguised him perfectly, but when their eyes met, there was no mistaking the gleam of apprehension in his deep set brown eyes.
Arthur cursed under his breath. "Nash."
"Ah, so you do know each other," Charla said, as always deliberately oblivious to the tense look the two men were sharing. "I should have known there's hardly a dreamer left in the world you haven't met or worked with, Arthur." She gestured to the man at her side. "This is Mr. Nash. Nash, this is Miss Ariadne, and Yusuf, our chemist."
Nash offered them a crooked smile. "Nice to meet you."
Both did an admirable job of not staring at his extensive injuries. "Good to be working with you, Mr. Nash," Yusuf greeted.
"Same," added Ariadne. She pulled a folding chair away from their card table. "Do you want to sit down?"
"Yeah, thanks."
Arthur took Charla's elbow and turned her away from them. "This is our fifth?" he asked incredulously. "Where did you find him?"
"I purchased him from Mr. Woodruff of Cobol Engineering," she replied. He couldn't tell if the tone in her voice was real sympathy or not. "He's an architect by trade but I've been working with him for the past few weeks to broaden his skills."
"He's not good enough for this job. You know how meticulous the dream-building will have to be." Arthur glanced behind him, where Ariadne was offering Nash some water. "I've worked with him before; I know his limits."
Charla shook her head. "This is going to sound cruel, but what he's recently been through has done wonders for his subconscious," she insisted. "His dreams are extremely detail-oriented, and very stable. I've tested him myself, you know. Haven't I always been a good judge of talent?"
"If not character," he grumbled. "The last job we were on together, he sold us out."
"Dr. Banks saved my life," Nash interrupted suddenly. "I'm not selling anyone out."
Arthur frowned awkwardly at him, and exchanged looks with Ariadne and Yusuf. The eyes Nash was fixing him with were not bitter as far as he could tell, but then, he had never been the best judge of character, either. "Whatever Cobol did to you was your own fault," he told Nash firmly. "You know that, right?"
Nash lowered his eyes. "I know."
Arthur waited a moment, trying to gauge Nash and be sure, but he didn't say anything more. After an uncomfortable silence Ariadne sat down next to him, and lowered her voice. "Can I ask...what happened?"
"I, uh." He winced at her, which might have passed as a smile. "I was run over by a truck."
Ariadne grimaced, but then Charla cleared her throat and joined them at the table. "But that's all in the past now. We should be focusing on the job at hand, no?" She pulled over more chairs and took a seat. "Now that we're all here, we can get right to work."
Arthur didn't join them right away. He continued to watch Nash, unconvinced. He's a liability, his rational self kept telling him. And he can't be trusted, not if he's loyal to Charla. At last he took a seat next to Ariadne. She looks a little shaken, he noted. Maybe it's good that she sees what can happen in this line of work. Even as he had the thoughts his stomach churned.
"All right," said Charla, setting her laptop on the table. "Let's talk about Robert Fischer."
To Chapter 4