Case Closed

It started with a man named Gregory Turners. Turners had been a member of the British SAS working in the middle east when he went missing. There was evidence that the kidnapping was terrorists and the rest of the military began to look for him. They found Turners three days later in an abandoned building hooked up to a PASIV device. While the dreamsharing project had long since been abandoned that did not stop everyone from being surprised to find a soldier hooked up to one after being taken captive. Only once Turners was woken from the dream did they find out exactly what had happened. The people who had taken the soldier had used the PASIV as a form of torture. They had hooked him up for hours and pulled into a dream with many layers. When he was coherent Turners described being killed, tortured, raped, for hours with no end in sight. They were relentless, brutal, and the man that came back was not the one seen three days before. Turners never recovered and eventually overdosed, unable to handle the real world any longer.

The United Nations took the case of 2nd Lieutenant Gregory Turners very seriously. For the first time they had finally seen what dreamsharing could do to a person and how it could be used to destroy minds. For the first time there was a shared decision amongst the world that steps needed to be taken against those using dreaming illegally. They formed the International Dream Crime Agency, IDCA as it would be called later, and governments from all over the world contributed people to the agency. The crime of extraction and other methods of theft, torture and other crimes were an international problem and there was evidence that there were players from all over the world with no roots to a home country. The IDCA was created as a form of police that could take in suspected dream criminals without the red tape of local governments. The goal was to detain all of those that used the PASIV to illegally obtain information and tracing it back to the people paying for that information.

Nathan Burman, a young FBI agent, transferred to the IDCA division as soon as it was opened two years prior. When asked 'why' Nathan would also relay the story of Gregory Turners but on a personal level, since he had been friends with Turners from young. That was why Nathan wanted nothing more than tp catch criminals who invaded unwilling minds.

On a cold afternoon in the middle of March in the American office of the IDCA, Nathan stared at his computer, fighting the annoyance that always followed the discovery of a particularly promising lead. His brown hair was cut short and styled neatly, his suit was nice but a little wrinkled and his eyes were a light green. For the last three months he had always been a step behind his co-workers on finding players in the dream world. Any leads he found were taken by those with higher ranks and Nathan walked away with no credit. He wanted to advance, he wanted respect, and he was not getting any with his current methods.

“Burman, you still with us?” a voice said and Nathan snapped back to reality. Earl Rogers, a co-worker on a good day and a rival on a bad, was standing next to him. He was an older man with graying black hair, a slim body and mischievous hazel eyes. Rogers had just come back from capturing one of the major chemists in the northern hemisphere on a tip that Nathan had passed along.

“Yeah, I'm here,” Nathan replied. “What is it?”

“I was just wondering if you had any information you'd like to pass on to your senior co-workers with seniority,” Rogers said with a shit eating grin; Nathan really wanted to slap that look off of his face.

“No, nothing,” he lied. He was not going to share any information with anyone from now on.

“You be a good boy and let me know if you do, eh?” Rogers slapped Nathan on the shoulder and walked away. Nathan could hear his teeth grind under the strain of his clenched jaw but forced the anger to melt away. He stood and gathered the file that he was putting together. A man who resembled a dreamshare architect was in a hospital in China and Nathan wanted to be the first one there to see him. He was not going to let someone else take credit for his work again.

+++

Nathan enjoyed his job, and being able to go anywhere in the world was part of the fun. Still that did not ease his nerves because he was going out on an assignment and keeping some of the details from the higher ups. He knew he could do this, he could be one of the best, and if gathering information from this architect was the way to the top then he was okay with that. IDCA knew that this architect was a player but they had only gotten a few things out of him. Nathan, however, thought that there seemed to be more to this man than the IDCA were letting on. He was hiding something from them and that was all the motivation Nathan needed to fly out to China to see him in person.

Nash, first name unknown, was lucky to be alive according to medical records. When they found him there had been a bullet in his back, another in his leg and it looked like someone had thrown him down a set of stairs. It was going to be a long time before any of the broken bones he had were healed enough for him to try and run again. Nathan had a feeling that the man would accept his fate in the justice system because there was someone who wanted him dead. That kind of brutality was not done to some mugging victim. Nathan pushed the door open and Nash awoke with a start at the sound.

“Another member of IDCA,” he said though it was hard to understand him completely because his jaw was swollen badly.

“Yes. I'm Agent Burman, and I was wondering if I could ask you a few things,” Nathan said taking a seat next to the bed.

“I told you lot everything I know,” Nash replied.

“I figured you would say that so I'm just going to start talking and you jump in when you're ready,” Nathan said leaning back. “You've been an architect for several years but the job you were on most recently went wrong. You said that someone sold you out but I'm starting to think that it was the other way around since no other bodies have shown up. After all, if someone had sold you out there would be others because we all know that people like to make examples in this business. I've found records that you were in Japan before China so I'm going to assume that is where this last job was. You fled the country and ended up here but they followed you. Now you're lying here half dead because you know if you go back out there the person that did this to you is going to finish the job. How am I doing so far?"

"By all means, continue," Nash said but he squirmed a bit in the bed. Nathan tilted his head to the side and stared at this man who could build entire worlds; he was afraid.

"Here's what I'm going to do for you, Mr. Nash. You are officially a person of interest for the IDCA so you need to be watched at all times. We have to make sure you don't get away so someone is going to stand outside that door twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Someone who would be protecting you in so many words," Nathan said and that seemed to get Nash's attention. "All I want are a few names, the last people you worked with. Names can go a long way, am I right?" Nash stared at him through swollen eyes and bruises for a long time but Nathan held his stare; it was just a matter of time.

"I can do you better than just names; I know what they were trying to do," Nash said and the agent smiled. Nathan reached into his pocket and pulled out his notebook, a pen, and waited for the architect to start talking. "I did sell my team out and we were trying to steal information from Saito Hiroshi. We were caught and I sold out my extractor and point man. Rumor travels fast when you're on the run. They were hired by Saito and the rumor was they were going to try and perform inception." That word made Nathan's blood run a little cold.

"I thought that was impossible," he said and Nash started to shrug but stopped with a painful hiss.

"If there was anyone who could pull it off it would be this extractor. No one knows who they were trying it on or what they were implanting or if the plan even came to fruition but they were planning to try." Nash narrowed his eyes. "If they succeeded you have a whole new set of problems to deal with."

"I'm aware, Mr. Nash. I would like some names now," Nathan said sounding more impatient than he actually felt but if it got this criminal to talk then it was worth the deception.

“The extractor you're looking for is a man named Dominic Cobb and he has a point man called Arthur Cohen that he almost always works with. They picked up a forger who goes by Daniel Eames and a chemist named Yusuf Sajeev. Their architect was some kid,Ariadne Mauro, I think. That's all I know.”

“And how do I know if those are even their real names?” Nathan asked as he wrote down all the names as fast as he could.

“They are. I have lots of enemies, Agent Burman, and there is no better way to ensure your safety than knowing the details of the people in this business. I'm not a stupid man; I'm just one that enjoys living,” Nash replied leaning back against a pillow and closing his eyes. “Double crossing Dominic Cobb was a mistake, hell, working for that man was a mistake, but he left me to die so seeing him rot in a jail for the rest of his life next to me would be entertaining if nothing else.”

Nathan finished taking some notes and closed the notebook, flashing a smile at Nash “You've been most helpful, Mr. Nash. Someone will be by to tell you about your rights and the next steps to your arrest,” Nathan said as he stood. Nash opened one eye and watched him.

“Tread carefully, Agent Burman. You are dealing with people who have no moral objection about breaking into your mind and stealing your deepest secrets,” Nash said.

“I've dealt with people in the business since this organization was born; I know how to handle you,” Nathan replied waving him off.

“I wasn't talking about the players; I was talking about the employers,” Nash said. Nathan wanted to push the matter further but Nash pushed on a button and gave himself a dose of painkillers. There would be no talking to the man in only a few moments and Nathan was too eager to pursue the leads to really think about it. He was not worried because it would take a lot more than a vague threat to scare Nathan off from his goals. He was ready to move forward and do whatever it took to find the people that were trying to perform inception. Nathan walked out of the hospital room and gave instructions to the local IDCA chapter that Nash was to be placed under secure watch. Nathan made sure that Nash sounded dangerous so they would keep an extra close eye on him. The last thing he wanted was for such a key player in an investigation to be assassinated. Nathan smiled to himself the entire way to the airport to get on the first plane back to Europe; picking up a group that had attempted inception was going to be his ticket in.

+++

Nash woke with a start to the sound of someone moving around his room. He looked around with wide eyes as he tried to take in his surroundings from a drug fueled haze. The sun was down so he guessed he had slept for several hours now that the agent had left. Nash felt no guilt giving away those names because he felt no loyalty to Cobb or Arthur. The last rumor he had heard before being nearly killed in China was that Cobb was back in America somehow. The man must have found a way to get around that murder charge and he had a feeling that Mr. Saito had had something to do with it. Not that anyone had any proof, he was sure, because a man like Saito would have no problems buying off the right people.

“Ah, Mr. Nash, you're awake,” a nurse said smiling at him. His Chinese was a little shaky but he could more or less understand her. “How are you feeling?”

“As good as I can I guess,” Nash replied and she looked at him pityingly no doubt because of his poor Chinese. “I'm sorry, it's been a long time since I've spoken any Chinese.”

“That's quite all right, sir, I appreciate the effort,” the nurse replied straightening a few things around the room. “There are people watching the doors very carefully. Are you dangerous, Mr. Nash?”

“Maybe a little but I wouldn't dare hurt a little thing like you,” Nash managed to say flashing a smile that hurt a lot more than he was letting on. The nurse looked up at him but did not smile. Instead her expression went cold, stony, emotionless, and a dead look in her eyes made Nash's blood run cold. He knew those eyes, he knew what someone had to do to get eyes like that, and panic settled into his chest, making it hard to breathe.

“You're right, Mr. Nash,” the nurse said speaking flawless English now, reaching into her uniform and revealing a small pistol, “you're not dangerous, not anymore.”

Nash closed his eyes and the gunshot echoed throughout the hospital.

Nathan was staring at the files that he had found over the last few hours. There was a flight out of China that he had managed to get on right away and he had had just enough time to go through the database to find out if there was anywhere in particular he should go first. Fortunately it took almost no digging whatsoever to find Ariadne Mauro. She was in France going to school for architecture, which made sense from the information he had gotten from Nash, but hiring a student for a job like inception seemed like it would be a bit of a stretch. Nathan brushed it off and spent the entire flight looking over the things he could find about her. She was twenty-four, originally from Nova Scotia, Canada, and currently in the graduate program. Ariadne had a few papers published from her undergraduate career but aside from things that a general internet search could find, that was all he knew so far. As soon as he landed in Paris he was going to make sure to do some more research on this girl and start to look into the other members of this team. The idea that it was possible to plant an idea in someone's head terrified him; Nathan could only think about how those people who were extracted from felt afterward, how violated they all felt, and that was just from someone poking around in their heads. He could not even imagine what it would be like to know that a thought was not your own.

The sound of the pilot announcing that they were getting ready to land was almost a shock to Nathan. He glanced out the window and watched Paris come into view. Somewhere in that city was a woman that had designed dreams so someone could plant an idea in a completely unsuspecting person. Nathan cracked his neck and leaned back in his chair until the plane touched down. The first thing he did when they landed was turn on his phone. As soon as it connected, text after text and several messages began to appear. Alert after alert dinged on the phone and the other passengers glared at him. Nathan smiled sheepishly and called his office.

“Nathan, it's about time you called,” Earl said sounding a little winded.

“Earl, why did you call me ten times? That's a little excessive,” Nathan replied annoyed.

“You idiot! I'm calling because that man you just interviewed is dead,” Earl snapped and Nathan froze.

“What happened?” he asked.

“We're not sure. Someone got through the security checkpoints and put a bullet between his eyes. By the time the guards got through the door the assassin was gone, jumped out a window, and we don't have much to go on. The camera caught sight of a woman, but she managed to hide her face and she wore gloves since she looked like a nurse,” Earl said sighing heavily. “Look, Nathan, we know you're looking into something on your own, and that's not against the rules by any means but someone is not messing around with this group. Whoever you're after beat a man within an inch of his life and sent someone back to finish the job right underneath our noses. Maybe you should leave this to those with more experience.

“Back off Earl,” Nathan said without thinking.

“Excuse me?”

“I said 'back off.' I'm sick of you constantly taking all of my leads and getting all the credit. I'm working this one, I got permission long ago to run my own investigation if need be, and you can find your own lead. This one is mine and I'm perfectly capable of handling myself.” Nathan was not sure when he had decided that now was a good idea to have this conversation but the words spilled out like he had no control over his mouth. The silence on the other end of the line was deafening and Nathan was not sure he wanted to know what Earl was going to say.

“Look, Nathan, this isn't about that. You could be walking into something ugly; I'm trying to look out for you. I'm not really in the mood to bury a body,” Earl said keeping his voice even; Nathan did not believe a word the other man said.

“Of course you are,” he deadpanned, “but I'm fine. I know when to back off. Let me know if you hear anything else.” He hung up on his fellow agent and was almost sure he heard Earl start to say something else. Whatever it was did not really matter; this was his case and there was no possible way he was going to be convinced to let this go.

The ride to the Paris field office was uneventful because all Nathan could think about was finding this Ariadne and seeing her for himself. Her name was easy to find but she had no public profile on any social networks and had always declined having her photo attached to her papers. Not that he could really blame her; with the way technology had advanced over the last few years it had become laughably easy to find everything on someone simply by having their name. Nathan was fairly sure he could have found her with a first name and the knowledge that she was an architect.

The Paris field office was welcoming, as they had to be since it was not uncommon for other agents from all over the world to show up unannounced, and gave him access to a desk and the database for the area. From there it was much easier to find information on Ariadne. Her record was completely clean, not so much as a speeding ticket in Canada, the short amount of time she spent in the States, and in France. She had a mother and father, still married, and no reason to pursue a life of crime. If anything she seemed like the exact opposite of someone who would want to get into such a dangerous business. All of her cell phone records from the last year did not show any outgoing calls to anyone on his list of suspects and no keywords were flagged in her text messages. Still, there was only so much he could learn from her records. A quick internet search revealed a picture of a small, young woman, with big eyes and a nice smile. If she was not under suspicion of invading other people's heads he would almost think she was attractive. However, the mere fact that she was under suspicion for dreamshare was enough to make her lose all of her appeal. It appeared that she was still enrolled in a few classes and that seemed to be his best chance to corner her for some questions. Nathan stood up and walked out of the office feeling confident.

He decided not to rent a car so he didn’t have to deal with the Paris traffic. He also took off his tie and messed up his hair to look a little less imposing. Several buses later he was in front of the campus. People were moving throughout the campus and a few of them shot him a few curious glances which Nathan pointedly ignored. The architecture building came into view and he paused for a moment. Ariadne would be out of class in a few moments and he debated lurking out in the hall. However, she was in a class with her academic adviser Professor Albert Miles so there was a good chance she could stay late. The name of the Professor seemed familiar for some reason but Nathan brushed it off. Lurking in the hallway seemed like the best idea and he had just found the lecture hall when a stream of students came out with Ariadne nowhere in sight. A quick glance in the room revealed that his instincts were correct; Ariadne was looking over the Professor's shoulder as they exchanged words. Nathan knocked on the open door and they both looked up.

"Hello there, young man, how may I help you?" Professor Miles said. Nathan had to hold back a reaction to the 'young man' comment.

"Professor, I was wondering if I could have a word with Miss Mauro," Nathan replied and she stared at him.

"Me? Who are you?" she asked. She looked legitimately confused, but Nathan was sure she could get out of a lot with those big brown eyes.

"I'm Agent Nathan Burman, a member of the International Dream Crime Agency," he replied and she raised both of her eyebrows.

"Did you make that up?" Ariadne asked laughing a little.

"No, he didn't, but this conversation doesn't concern you, Ariadne, so you can leave now," Miles replied locking his eyes with Nathan.

"I think that is my line, Professor," Nathan said.

"Do you have a warrant?" Miles asked without waiting for Nathan to reply. "I didn't think so. You're free to go, Ariadne. We can meet up later for some coffee." Ariadne glanced at Miles, then back at Nathan, and gathered her things, walking out of the lecture hall. "What does IDCA want with one of my students?"

"That's classified," Nathan replied.

"Of course it is. You IDCA people are all the same," Miles said rolling his eyes. "Ariadne doesn't know anything about the dream share program."

"And why do you, Mr. Miles?" Nathan asked and the professor laughed.

"Are you new at this? I was sure all of you people knew who I was," he said with a chuckle. Nathan ran the name trying to pin point where he knew it from before it dawned on his jet lagged mind: I’m such an idiot. Miles was one of the original architects when the dream program first started. "Ah the young man remembers. My student has nothing to do with any of it. Unless you have any other questions for me, I'd like to prepare for my next class."

Nathan was a little floored and very embarrassed that he could not think of a smart remark. "Thank you for your time," was all he could come up with before he turned on his heels and left the building. As he crossed the field he saw Ariadne getting a cup of coffee from a local cafe. Nathan watched her for a moment. Somewhere in his mind he knew that this girl had something to do with the program but instinct was not enough to get her in for questioning. There had to be some flaw in her alibi and Nathan intended to find it.

+++

Most of the time extractions, or in this case inception, did not take place in the city where they did all of the planning. The chance of running into the mark was too great. Since Miles and Ariadne were both in Paris he reasoned that it seemed likely that this is where all of the planning had taken place. All he needed was some sort of proof that Ariadne was involved in the planning process. So far he had jumped to conclusions and rushed into things. This was too important to jeopardize and he was not going to let his ego blind him anymore. It was time to take a step back do this the old fashion way.

Nathan felt a bit like a stalker as he watched Ariadne from a good distance. She did not seem to notice him and that raised some doubt in his theory. A player in the dream crime business always watched their back to the extent that some of them developed extreme paranoia. Ariadne, however, did not seem to have a care in the world. She spent time at home doing what appeared to be studying. Records indicated that she was exceptionally bright and that was the reason she had finished her undergraduate studies in two years instead of four. If she was not at home she was either at the university library or a cafe a block from her apartment. There was a few times that she went to a pub or a club with a few friends, and nothing of any real interest seemed to happen there either. She had a scholarship and kept a tight budget, and there was no indication that she had obtained a large amount of money from a job. Ariadne Mauro was ordinary.

It was on a night that she was going to a club two weeks into his surveillance that Nathan decided to take a different approach. Breaking and entering was illegal and anything he found in the apartment could be thrown out of court, but IDCA worked outside the basic justice system. All he needed was some proof that she was involved with the dream share world and he could launch a full investigation. Nathan waited outside of her building and smoked a cigarette. When someone exited the building Nathan walked in as if they had just been about to open the doors at the same time. He flashed a smile at the young man who let him in and glanced around the building. It was not a very modern building and he did not see much in the way of security cameras. Even if someone managed to get some sort of incriminating footage of him breaking and entering there was always a way to delete these sorts of things.

The stairwell was empty and devoid of anyone that might find him suspicious but that did not stop Nathan from watching his back at all times. The third floor hallway was also empty and any sounds he heard were from televisions and people having dinner. He knelt down in front of the door and picked the lock easily. For some reason he felt like this was going to be the break he needed. That feeling lasted all of thirty seconds until he walked into the apartment and found that it was normal. There were abandoned coffee mugs on the small kitchen table and the coffee table in the small living room. There were notebooks and a few models lying around but as Nathan walked through the room, nothing stood out.

There was a model of a city that could have been used as a dream level but there was no way to prove that. Not when there was a paper about paradoxes and illusions in architecture graded by Miles. There did not seem to be any connection to dreams or any evidence that she had ever heard of it. Nathan began to feel a little bit like a pervert as he looked around her apartment, went through some papers and sketches, and while there were lots of mazes, none of them were detailed enough to prove that they could be dream levels. There was nothing here that could incriminate her and the more he looked the more frustrated Nathan got. There was a box under her bed but it just had pictures in it of people that did not seem to matter. Old friends, family, all of it was useless.

After an hour of looking Nathan gave up. He almost did not want to put everything back the way it was just so Ariadne would worry that someone was watching her. At the same time he did not want that focus directed at him. Nathan did not want to explain why he was breaking basic laws when all he had to go on was a name from a now dead architect. In the end logic won and Nathan put everything back where it was. He was out of the building and making his way back to his car when he saw Ariadne walking with her friends. She would begin to suspect that he was on to her if she saw him so Nathan made no attempt to hide his face. When they passed on the street her big brown eyes looked a little confused. He nodded politely and continued on his way.

“Who was that?” one of the girls with Ariadne asked.

“I don’t know,” she replied and she sounded unsure. Nathan smiled to himself and continued along the street, determined to go about this from a different angle.

+++

Nathan woke up early and checked his phone for any messages. There was one from Earl which he deleted right away and an email from another co-worker which he did not bother to read. Instead he gathered the rest of his things and left them in a locker in the Paris main office. A quick phone call and dropping a few important names and Nathan was able to stop by the records building to get the last of the information he wanted. From there he took a few cabs and walked to the campus. Without waiting to see if anyone was nearby Nathan walked into the building and looked into Miles’ classroom. The professor was alone grading some papers so Nathan just let himself in. Miles did not look up from his work as if he did not care.

“Agent Burman, I thought I told you not to bother me no my student again,” he said.

“And I’m just here to collect the attendance records from the last semester. You know, to make sure that Miss Mauro was in all of her classes,” Nathan replied, his hands in his pants pockets and he watched Miles carefully. The professor set his pen on the table and turned to face Nathan.

“She is in a graduate program so she only has a few classes. No university student attends all of their classes all the time so I don’t see how a few missed classes will prove anything. I want to know why you’re harassing my student.” Miles folded his hands in his lap and did not take his gaze off of Nathan. The agent met the stare and did not break eye contact.

“Her name came up with a contact. Anyone who has been flagged in the system must be thoroughly investigated. I’m sure you understand, Professor Miles, since you know what can be done with shared dreaming.” Nathan felt confident until Miles smiled and laughed to himself.

“Someone finally did their homework, I see. Well, Agent Burman, you can look all you want because Ariadne Mauro is not involved in anything regarding the dream share world. Now I have work to do, so I suggest you leave before I ask security to remove you,” Miles said and turned back to his papers. Nathan stared at this pioneer of the program and technology that he loathed so much but he did not have any proof. So he turned and left the building and went straight to the records. As Miles said Ariadne’s attendance was not perfect but she never missed two classes in a row. He almost wanted to throw the paper to the ground and stomp away. As Nathan made his way across campus he saw Ariadne sitting at a table in the shade taking notes from a textbook.

He decided to drop all pretence of subtlety and walked over to her with purpose. When he sat down she looked up and stared at him.

“Agent Burman, right? Is there something I can help you with?” Ariadne said and set her pen off to the side so she could watch him.

“I know you’re involved in illegal dream work somehow and it’s only a matter of time before I find some evidence to prove it,” Nathan replied and he narrowed his eyes. “There is no perfect alibi and I will find the flaw in yours.”

“Illegal? Like how you broke into my apartment the other night? Like how you’ve been stalking me? I should call the police and inform them of all of these little things,” Ariadne replied nonchalantly. The way she sounded so casual about the entire thing was enough to make Nathan grind his teeth together. “Agent Burman, I don’t know why you’re so hell bent on finding out that I’m involved in something I’ve never even heard of, but I will report you to your superiors if you don’t stop harassing me.”

“We’re going to meet again,” Nathan said and he stood up. This was a dead end but the dream teams always had some sort of connection. If he could not find proof on Ariadne specifically then there was a good chance he could link her to another player. Nathan opened his phone and purchased a ticket to the next flight to America.

+++

Ariadne watched the IDCA agent walk away and did not move until he was out of sight. She gathered all of her things and walked across campus. Ariadne pulled two cell phones out of her pocket and set her normal one back into her bag. She dialed a number on the phone and waited for it to ring a few times.

“Arthur, I did what you said and we may have a problem.”

Nathan was still seething when his plane took off from Paris and began to make its way across the Atlantic. There was no way his intuition was that far off. He knew Ariadne was involved in this somehow, but without any proof there was no way his superiors would allow him to progress any further. So it was time to move onto the next person, Dominic Cobb. Cobb looked like any normal person that was living in Los Angeles with two kids and no wife. It was listed that his wife died several years before but the reports made no mention of how she died. That was suspicious but he did not want to use the airplane’s internet to look into police records. If someone found out who he was looking into he could lose all leads on this case. Nathan was not going to risk losing everything because of impatience.

There was an immediate connection because the late Mallorie Cobb was formerly Mallorie Miles. That was a connection from Ariadne to Cobb but it was not nearly enough to launch an investigation. It did link Cobb to dreaming and that was enough to cause plenty of suspicion. There was still room for doubt though and after the situation with Ariadne he was sure Miles was going to warn his son in law that he was on the way. That did not bother Nathan because he was still confident that he was going to get these people and bring them to justice. Justice for whomever they incepted despite knowing that he would probably never find out who that was.

The layover in New York was annoying but not surprising. The airport internet was still not secure enough that he wanted to look into anything specific, but the more he dug around, the more it seemed like Cobb was just as ordinary as Ariadne. However, from what Nathan could see, there was a two year gap where he and his wife were not off the grid but not nearly as prominent. It was something he noted to look into along with other things that seemed a little off. There was not much in the way of records that were easy to access of how Mal Cobb, as she was referred to in the obituary, died but that just made the situation seem all the more odd.

It seemed like a long time before Nathan finally touched down in Los Angeles. It was hot to an irritating degree and it took far too long to rent a car and finally make his way to the IDCA field office. Nathan was not sure if anyone was already looking into Dom Cobb but he decided that he was going to be the one to take it a step further. There was a connection between these people and he was going to find it. It was nearly an hour later before Nathan arrived at the downtown office. The people in this office were not nearly as accepting or generous as the one in Paris but they still let him in the door and provided him with a secure internet connection.

The first thing Nathan did was look into Cobb’s police records. While Ariadne's record was clean, Cobb's was not. A few years prior he had been under suspicion for the murder of his wife. When he fled the country, he had looked even more guilty. He had returned to the States a month or so ago and all of the charges had been dropped. It turned out that the position of Mrs. Cobb’s body was that of someone who had jumped and not been pushed. Cobb had been declared a free man and was currently living with his two kids. It looked like the police were fairly convinced that Cobb was the culprit, but the new evidence had made them give up all together. Nathan decided that he needed to look into the LAPD and make sure that no one had bought them off.

The next thing he noticed was the reason that Cobb and Mal Miles had vanished. It appeared that they had been involved with the original dream project though from a different angle. They had not been involved in the military section of the project but the design factor. Cobb had a Masters in Architecture, which made no sense since Nash had listed Cobb as the extractor. Mal, however, had had a degree in psychology which pointed more toward someone who would do the extractions. When the project ended, they had both worked at an institute that was using the technology to try and help trauma victims and other such things. There was even an incident listed that they had tried to go into the mind of a suspected murderer. The man had gotten out of the dream early and attacked Mal, breaking her wrist and giving her a black eye. It had been enough to hold the man, but that seemed like their last big project. After that they had settled down and had two kids.

Nathan had talked to people who were in the program and even interviewed a few people that IDCA had captured and they all said the same thing: it was an addiction. Once they started dreaming it was all they wanted to do. To Nathan it seemed unlikely that the Cobbs would stop dreaming all together and he thought it was likely that they had kept a machine with them at home. It still did not sit right with him that Cobb was the architect while his wife had all the skills, on paper, of an extractor. There did not seem to be any obvious reason as to why Cobb would have switched from building to extracting. It was interesting but not important.

After gathering as much information as he could Nathan decided it was time to start looking at Cobb in person. The direct approach had not worked with Ariadne and it had less of a chance to work on Cobb. Cobb was considered an extractor now, according to Nash, and extractors were masters at twisting words around to fit their needs. It was how they dug people’s secrets out of their heads with the mark being none the wiser. Instead he looked up where Cobb’s kids went to school and decided it was time to start watching from a distance again.

From a distance there was only so much Nathan could glean about the man. Cobb had an almost terrifying tunnel vision focus on his kids. After being away from them for three years Nathan could see why Cobb would be like that even if he could not understand it. Then again Nathan could not understand why Cobb had run in the first place. There was significant evidence against him but there had not been enough for an arrest. If he had stayed Nathan was fairly convinced that Cobb would have been cleared of charges long before that. Men did strange things in a panic, Nathan thought. When Cobb was not taking or picking his children up from school he was at his house. Whatever he was doing Nathan could not see from a distance. For all he knew Cobb was brewing somnacin and he was none the wiser. It was irritating and Nathan had found his road block; he had no choice but to establish contact.

After much debate Nathan decided that it would be best to accost Cobb when his kids were not home. He was much more likely to withhold information if they were present. After compiling what little evidence he had Nathan drove up to the Cobb house and was surprised to find the other man waiting for him on the porch. For some reason it set Nathan on edge and he was half tempted to say that he was armed. He climbed out of the car and Cobb smiled.

"Agent Burman. I was wondering when we were going to meet in person," Cobb said and that smile did not waver.

"I'm assuming your father in law must have told you I was coming," Nathan replied and he slowly walked toward Cobb, who still had not moved.

"He did but he only told me your name and what you looked like. You've been following me and my children for several days." Cobb paused and continued, "You're not as sneaky as you think." Nathan did not let the fact that Cobb had noticed him affect him in any way; people in the illegal dream business were paranoid after all.

"So let's stop dancing around the issue. I'm here to ask you a few questions about your involvement in illegal dream work," Nathan replied.

"Naturally. Would you like to come in?" Cobb stood and opened the door, holding it open. Nathan was armed and on edge enough that he did not think the other man could get the drop on him. At the same time he did not want to show weakness to a suspect.

"Of course." Nathan walked past Cobb into the house. It was a nice open house with lots of dark wood furnishing and a big glass door leading out into the backyard. Cobb brushed by him and settled in the kitchen, leaning against the counter, keeping his hands in sight. From where Nathan was standing he could see all of the exits and somehow he did not think it was an accident.

"You knew someone in the military," Nathan said.

"I did," Cobb replied. "You have good observation skills but you need to work on your stealth."

"Let's get through the basics; my name is Agent Nathan Burman of the Internation Dream Crime Association. Are you aware of what that is?" Nathan said and Cobb blinked at him.

"Oh you people are being formal these days? What a welcome change. Yes, I’m aware of what IDCA is,” Cobb replied.

“Are you aware of the dreamshare program and the PASIV?”

“Yes, I know what a PASIV is and about the dreamshare program. It is a matter of public record that I was part of the original project and research after it was canceled.” Cobb almost looked amused by this entire situation.

“Are you aware of what extraction is?” Nathan was waiting for something in Cobb’s demeanor to change but nothing happened.

“Yes, I was part of an extraction right before I ended my career. This is also a matter of public knowledge.” Cobb paused. “Are you ready to ask the real questions and skip all of this formal stuff?”

“Fine, if you want to have it your way, we’ll skip to the good part. As of right now your name has appeared along with a number of suspects regarding a team that recently attempted inception. Do you know anything about that?” Nathan asked his voice hard.

“I’m afraid I don’t, Agent Burman. I haven’t been part of the dreamshare community since my wife and I quit to start a family. Not to mention that inception is impossible,” Cobb replied and there was not a single twitch in his features. If he was lying he was exceptionally good at it and it seemed that trying to break him was going to be a lot harder than Nathan originally thought.

“Do the names Arthur Cohen, Daniel Eames, Yusuf Sajeev, Saito Hiroshi or Ariadne Mauro ring any bells?” he asked and Cobb at least had the decency to look like he was thinking about it.

“The first three no. The name Saito sounds familiar but I don’t know him, is he someone important? And I’ve heard of Ariadne Mauro but only from my father in law. As you probably already know, I studied architecture, and Miles likes to bounce ideas off of me when trying to teach someone who is younger. Appealing to the younger generation, I’m sure you can understand, Agent Burman.” Cobb did not outright mock Nathan for his age but somehow it sounded like it. If Cobb was trying to get under his skin it was working far more than Nathan was willing to admit.

“I see. So you admit a connection to Ariadne Mauro,” he said and Cobb shrugged.

“If by ‘connection’ you mean ‘my father in law teaches her and he and I talk on the phone sometimes.’ I have never met any of those other people in my life. Are those other people that have shown up on your little list?” Cobb asked and now Nathan was sure he was being mocked.

“Extraction and inception are both serious crimes, Mr. Cobb, and the fact that your name came up at all should be more distressing.”

“I’m aware, Agent Burman, I did say I was familiar with IDCA and what you people do. I also know that innocent men have nothing to worry about when being accused of something they did not do,” Cobb replied.

“Is that why you fled the country when you were under suspicion for your wife’s murder?” Nathan knew it was a low blow but he had to find some way of rattling this man somehow. He was almost pleased when the smile faded from Cobb’s face.

“That was not a smart move on my part and I panicked. I know that running was wrong and I lost three years with my children because of it. It is not something I need reminding of. It is, again, a matter of public record that I was cleared of all charges when it was declared a suicide.” Cobb’s voice had dropped in pitch but he was talking about his dead wife so there was no way of knowing if it was guilt or not.

“What did you do while you were out of the country, Mr. Cobb?” Nathan asked.

“Sulked and brooded, mostly. I went to various countries and tried to figure out what I could do to clear my name. When I realized that running had been the wrong decision I came back and let the law clear my name. I flew from Sydney to Los Angeles and I have been with my children ever since.” Cobb crossed his arms across his chest. “I was a player in the dreamshare community years ago, Agent Burman, so the fact that my name came up is not surprising. Anything you need to know about me is either in those records or somewhere just as easy to find. Now I would appreciate if you stopped following me around, and if you have any other questions, you can talk to me directly or through my lawyer. As of right now I need you to leave.”

“Kicking me out before we can really get this conversation going, Mr. Cobb?” Nathan asked smirking.

“Actually, I need to pick up my son from school. I would assume your research had covered that,” Cobb said and he walked over to Nathan. They were the same height but for some reason Nathan felt much smaller before this man.

“This isn’t over, Mr. Cobb,” Nathan said quietly as they walked toward the door.

“I don’t doubt it, Agent Burman. Have a good afternoon,” Cobb said and he closed the door quietly. Nathan stared at the the door and then walked back to his car. Cobb had obviously underestimated him due to his age. The man could not have been more patronizing if he tried, and Nathan was more than eager to prove him wrong.

+++

For the next three days Nathan poured himself into research concerning Dominic Cobb. Every time he thought he found something it was like running into another road block. For every inconsistency there seemed to be some sort of explanation concerning it. It was getting to the point that he was beginning to think that someone had tampered with these records because there was no way a man who was wanted for his wife’s murder had walked away this clean. There should have been more photographs, more people asking questions, more sightings around the world, but it was as if Cobb had vanished for two years. If he had been involved with extraction then it was not surprising but that just made it all the more frustrating. There was nothing he could find on this man that pointed toward him being involved in anything illegal. All records came up clean and everyone he talked to said that Cobb was a stand up guy who had panicked in the wake of watching his wife commit suicide. They all said that it was not a surprising reaction because the Cobbs had been very close. They all said that Mal had been Cobb’s entire world. The weeks prior to her suicide had been the first time anyone had witnessed the couple having problems.

Nathan held up a picture of Mal and Cobb standing in Paris together. It was a snapshot that was attached to an article concerning their work in the dream share project. They were not married at the time but there was an engagement ring on her finger. They were looking at each other fondly and that just confused Nathan even more. He could not understand why this couple would get involved with illegal dreaming. They were brilliant but normal, exactly like Ariadne. He was beginning to wonder if all of the people on his list were going to appear as good citizens to the rest of the world. Nash would not have given him a list of random people with minor connections to dreaming. Not when he thought that the information could save his life. Not like it mattered in the end, he thought. There was nothing here that he could prove. Once again he was staring at someone that he knew was part of illegal dreaming and there was nothing he could do about it.

He knew it was a bad idea but Nathan decided that cornering one of Cobb’s children and asking questions seemed like the only option left. It was massively illegal but if it led to an arrest of an extractor IDCA would be willing to overlook it. He put on his best suit and waited outside of her school. When Phillipa, five years old, emerged, Nathan walked casually up to her.

“Hey, Phillipa, my name is Nathan and I’m with the police,” he said trying to lighten his voice because he had no idea how to act around kids.

“My daddy didn’t hurt my mommy,” she said firmly and he was not surprised that it was the first response she made.

“I know he didn’t. I just wanted to ask if you’ve ever heard some of these names before. Is that okay?” Nathan asked and she stared at him.

“I’m not supposed to talk to strangers,” Phillipa said and she looked around nervously. It was going to draw attention.

“I’m the police, remember? Here.” Nathan took out his badge and handed it to her. “you can hold it, okay?” She looked over the badge but did not say anything. “Do you know anyone named Saito?” She shook her head. “Yusuf?” Another shake. “Ariadne?” That was a no. “Eames?” She shook her head again and now he was annoyed. “What about Arthur?”

“I don’t know any of those people,” Phillipa said without breaking eye contact. “I don’t want to talk to you anymore.” She handed him back his badge and walked away without another word. If Cobb had told his kids to lie to a federal agent he was going to have some serious words with the man.

Somewhere between deciding that he was about to punch a hole through the wall and trying to get a hold of someone who could send him in the proper direction Nathan decided that he needed to go talk to Cobb in person again. There was no way he was leaving California without some sort of evidence. There had to be something and he intended to find it.

It was evening when Nathan pulled up and he made no attempt to hide his presence. Instead he walked right up to the door and knocked. There was the sound of someone running toward the door and it opened to reveal a little girl watching him carefully. It was Phillipa and she stared up at him.

“Uh, hi, is your dad around?” he asked.

“Daddy! That guy is here to talk to you,” she called and bolted around a corner when Cobb emerged.

“Agent Burman, what can I help you with this time?” he asked.

“You’re involved with this, with the inception that took place recently, and I know that you got out of your murder charges from it.” Nathan realized that his ranting was probably doing the exact opposite to help his cause.

“Agent Burman, first of all, inception is impossible. The mark can always trace the idea back to the source. You can’t tell someone what to think. It doesn’t work that way, and I would hope IDCA would have explained all of that to you. Second of all, can you present me with any evidence to back up the claim that I’m somehow involved in a job that can’t be done in the first place?” Cobb sounded almost annoyed at this point and Nathan was hoping that it meant he was getting under his skin.

“Perhaps I do. If you tell me about the rest of your team, when I arrest them, I’ll put a good word in for you. You don’t want to leave your children behind again, do you?” Nathan asked and he knew it was a low blow but if it meant he got one of these people he was going to go as low as needed.

“Agent Burman, you have no evidence because there is no evidence to find because I was not involved with this job. There is no point to any further conversation with you. If you would like to continue to speak with me, you can do it through my lawyer,” Cobb replied.

“Getting antsy, Mr. Cobb?”

“No, getting annoyed, because you tried to get information out of my daughter. IDCA is not a safe organization and I don’t want you people anywhere near my children. This conversation is over.” Cobb slammed the door in Nathan’s face and he grit his teeth together. There was nothing that could justify a warrant and there was no way Cobb was going to just let him walk around. Nathan clenched his fists tight enough to leave half moons in his palms and walked away from the house. There were still four more people on his list and Nathan was confident that once he got one, the rest would follow.

+++

Cobb looked out the door and watched the IDCA agent pull away from his house. When the car was nothing more than dust on the road, he turned and saw Phillipa staring back at him.

“I told him I didn’t know anyone,” she said firmly.

“I know you did,” Cobb replied kneeling in front of his daughter. “You were very brave.”

“I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Phillipa said, tears welling up in her eyes. Cobb pulled his daughter into a tight hug.

“Don’t worry. No one is going to hurt anyone. We’ve made sure of that.”

After barely sleeping Nathan woke up and looked over his list. The next person was Saito Hiroshi but he needed more time to look into the businessman. Yusuf Sajeev seemed a little more interesting. Nathan booked a flight to Kenya and almost laughed at the business expense list he had racked up thus far. No one was going to complain though, because he was going to get these people one way or another. He had a few hours to kill so Nathan used the LA office to look into Yusuf’s background. There was not a lot to go on, however, as he did not seem to have much of a paper trail. This was not something that most people could do these days so either he was very private or someone was very good about covering his tracks. Either way he was the most suspicious one he had investigated thus far.

Yusuf was originally born in England and had lived the majority of his life there. He had gotten a Masters in chemistry and taught for exactly one semester before leaving. From there things seemed to get a little hazy. There was evidence of him being in the America's, Asia and finally Africa. There did not seem to be any logical reason a man with a chemistry degree would be in Mombasa but that was where Yusuf was currently. If he was sending out for any chemicals he was not doing it anywhere that was apparent. There did not seem to be a lot of activity in Mombasa or Kenya as far as illegal dreaming went, but that did not mean that Yusuf was not a dream share chemist.

Nathan stared out the window as he made his way through the Los Angeles traffic toward the airport. The cabbie had made some attempts to speak with him but had long since given up. Nathan was not in the mood to deal with any small talk, not when there were two players out there that he could not arrest, but he did not let himself lose confidence. He was still sure that once he caught one of them the others would follow soon after. Even more so if he managed to catch someone like Cobb or Saito who had the most to lose. For right now Nathan focused his attention on Yusuf and the easiest way to capture a chemist. They were notoriously the hardest to find but the easiest to convict. They were the only group that tended to have the most in the way of hard evidence. All Nathan really had to find was proof he was creating somnacin and that would be the end of it.

There were several messages on his phone when Nathan arrived at the airport, most of which were telling him that he should look into these people more before traveling all over the world but that was just the money talking. After a last minute ticket to Kenya he was not surprised to see that expenses were starting to catch the eyes of his superiors but a quick message back assured them that he knew what he was doing. The flight to Kenya was long but it gave Nathan time to gather his thoughts. He was not going to let Ariadne and Cobb get to him; if he got distracted now there was no way he was going to capture this group. He wished he knew who they had performed inception on so he could interview them. Maybe they could at least place some of the players in the same city.

The heat of Mombasa was intense and it made the suit that Nathan was wearing feel like too many layers. The mass of people that were moving around was going to make it hard to find a single person. Even more so because Yusuf did not seem like the kind of person that would be found easily. Nathan also had the trouble of there not being an office in Mombasa. It meant he had to make nice with the local police, and as much as IDCA might brag about being able to use any department in law enforcement, the locals could make his life hard if they wanted to. That did not mean it was going to happen that way, but judging by the way people were looking at him, he decided that while this was a tourist town that did not mean people like him were welcome. The first person Nathan asked for directions ignored him straight away as did the second, third and fourth. There was not a lot of trust here for a white man in a suit who looked like a government agent.

By the time that he managed to get to the office the sergeant was not there to approve his use of their equipment and Nathan was sent on his way. Hot, hungry and frustrated, Nathan decided that drinking in his hotel bar sounded like a good idea.

“Having a bad day?” the bartender asked after his third drink in less than an hour.

“Just hitting a lot of roadblocks,” Nathan replied. He had since changed out of his suit and into just a button down with a pair of slacks since it was way too hot to wear a full suit and he was not really working right now anyway.

“Things aren't nearly as fun without them though,” the man replied, setting the drink down in front of Nathan.

“Have to keep life interesting,” a voice next to Nathan said and he blinked to see a man sitting next to him. The man was a few years older than Nathan, five at the most, with sandy blond hair and a gray suit with a light pink button down. “Whiskey on the rocks and surprise me with the brand, mate, thanks.”

“Interesting isn't always a good thing with my line of work,” Nathan grumbled without even realizing that he was replying to this stranger.

“I hear that,” the stranger said and toasted the bartender when he came back with his drink. “Toast to jobs that should remain uninteresting?” The man raised his glass and Nathan raised an eyebrow but conceded and clinked their glasses together. The stranger did not say anything else and the next time Nathan looked up he was gone as if he had never been there to begin with.

The next morning he had a fight with the local sergeant, who insisted that there was no dream activity in his city, and Nathan had to threaten to call the main Africa office before they would even let him use their computers, not that it did any good. Yusuf was in the city; he had found credit card records and other things, but no address. When Nathan confronted the members of the general service they all said that they did not know who Yusuf was. There were a few that were lying, and Nathan knew it, but the sergeant had not wanted him there in the first place, so Nathan didn't push the issue. The streets seemed like the next logical progression, but Nathan had a feeling that it would tip off Yusuf that he was coming toward him. The last thing I need is for him to dump all of the chemicals if he hasn’t already. The others probably already told him about me but there might be a chance, he thought. He drummed his fingers on the table and stared at the information in front of him. The only thing he could really do at this point was wander until he found something. There had to be someone somewhere that knew Yusuf, and maybe he would get lucky if he just listened in public places .

Nathan went back to his hotel and changed into the most touristy outfit he could find. He had to blend in with the locals and that also meant purchasing a map while looking lost half the time. The first day was a bust as was the second and third. By the fourth day Nathan was almost ready to just give up and move onto the next person on the list when a conversation caught his ear.

“So I told Yusuf that his cat probably wouldn’t survive another incident like that,” a man said from several tables over in a coffee shop. “I don’t know what the bloody idiot is dealing with but I don’t think pets should be around it. I gave him a vet lecture and moved on.” It was the only break he had and now he just had to find some way of getting the vet to reveal where Yusuf lived. He listened for a little while longer until he had a name to go on and decided that hacking into the vet’s database was probably his best bet.

If anyone asked he would deny it, but by the time he had an address, Nathan was almost giddy. This was the first time he felt like he was really onto something. Ariadne and Cobb were both too clean cut for anything to be glaringly obvious. While they had more to lose, it was going to be harder to catch them. Yusuf, on the other hand, was a chemist and all he had to do was find some evidence that the man was dealing and that was all it would take for an arrest. He was sure he could get Yusuf to turn in at least one of his teammates with the right pressure applied.

It was late afternoon by the time Nathan was standing in front of what looked like a normal house. People were pushing by him but he really did not care. Wandering in seemed like a bad idea but it was not like he could just stand here either. Nathan shoved his hands in his pockets and knocked on the door.

“Come in,” an accented voice said. The room was littered with various multi colored vials and there was a man who looked like he was of Indian descent sitting at a desk on the far side of the room. Nathan smiled sheepishly.

“I’m a little lost; are you Yusuf?”

“Depends who’s asking,” the man replied slowly.

“I’ll take that as a yes. I was wondering if you could help a stranger out?” he asked.

“I can certainly try,” Yusuf replied standing. “What are you looking for exactly?”

“The time zone change has really messed with me and I was wondering if you had anything to help me sleep?” Nathan asked.

Yusuf raised an eyebrow and narrowed his eyes. “How did you come across my name exactly, Mister...?”

“Johnson, Reggie Johnson. Just word of mouth from a few people around town,” Nathan lied, shrugging. “Can you help me out?” Yusuf stared at him, as if trying to get a read on him, and Nathan knew he was not someone who looked threatening. If anything he thought he played the part of a tourist fairly well and many people underestimated him for it.

“I might have something. Wait here.” Yusuf turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Nathan knew that the man could be getting a gun to kill him right here but that was a chance he was willing to take. There was too much at stake right now; someone out there had been incepted and he could not let that stand. A cat hissed at him the moment he stepped closer to the desk but all of the labels on the vials were legal. All of the ingredients for somnacin were here, that was obvious, but they could be used to create legal compounds as well. He had nothing, yet again, but Nathan also had a strong feeling that there was more to this place. He needed a look around, an in depth look around, without anyone watching.

Yusuf returned moments later with a small box.

“This is a strong herbal tea and it will help you sleep,” Yusuf explained. “You’ll want to be in bed when you take it.”

“Thank you so much. How much do I owe you?” he asked, suddenly panicking because he had almost no cash on him.

“A hundred US dollars,” Yusuf replied. Nathan did not have to fake his surprise as he dug through his wallet and found the last of the cash he had on him. Yusuf was watching him carefully and did not hand Nathan the box until after the cash was in hand. The man flashed a smile.

“Nice doing business with you, Mr. Johnson. Sleep well.”

Nathan took that as the hint he was supposed to and left. He briefly contemplated throwing the tea away because there was a good chance that it could be drugged or poisoned but decided to keep it simply because he had paid $100 for it. He did make a mental note to get it tested before he even touched it.

Nathan hung around the area for the better part of the day save for a quick run back to his hotel to get his supplies for gathering evidence. No one seemed to pay him any attention, and by the time the lights went out in Yusuf’s lab and there was no movement for a while, he decided that it was time to get inside. There was no back door so he had to pick the lock while trying to make it look like he was not up to anything. Fortunately it was a residential area and was generally abandoned at this time of night. The lock turned and Nathan grinned as he pushed his way into the lab. The vials were all still present but there was still nothing illegal that he could pin on Yusuf. Nathan quietly began to go through the desk but did not find anything there that caught his eye either, save for a set of large, rusted keys.

He smiled to himself as he took the keys and walked toward the large door on the far side of the door. As quietly as he could, Nathan turned the key and made his way down the stairs, and what he found made him stop dead in his tracks. He had never seen a real dream den before and the sight of so many people hooked up to so many machines made his heart pound. He had heard rumors of people who would spend years in the dreams and it made him a little sick to his stomach to think of how these people were manipulated into thinking a dream was reality.

“Do you like what you see, Agent Burman?” Nathan turned around and found Yusuf standing at the top of the stairs. Surprisingly he did not appear armed.

“How did you know who I am?” Nathan asked as he reached for his gun. Yusuf, however, seemed to have other ideas in his mind and moved much faster than Nathan was anticipating a chemist to move. His gun was knocked out of the way and skidded a few feet away. I’m going to die.

“I have my sources. Contrary to what you might think, there is some loyalty in the dream crime business.” Yusuf crossed his arms across his chest looking extremely annoyed. “I really wish you hadn’t come down here. I don’t want to do this.”

“If you’re going to kill me you should know that my superiors know where I am and will know when I don’t report in,” he warned.

“Oh, no, I’m not going to kill you. Far too messy. I just don’t want to waste this.” Yusuf raised his hand and a brief puff of smoke came out of a small mechanism under his sleeve. Nathan coughed violently as he struggled to get his breath. The world around him was already starting to fade to black as he collapsed to the ground. Yusuf stood over him and shook his head.

“What a shame,” he said and the world went black.

+++

Nathan sat up, gasping for breath, completely disoriented. A hand gently rested on his shoulder and pushed him back into a bed. The world around him slowly came into focus and he looked up to see a nurse.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“What happened?” Nathan managed to ask as she handed him a glass of water.

“You passed out from the heat. Apparently you did not drink enough water, and when you tried to walk back to your hotel, you collapsed in the street,” she explained but that did not seem right. The last thing he remembered was that he had had some sort of lead on Yusuf but nothing from most of the afternoon.

“Blood work, did you do any blood work on me?” he asked panicking a little because the prospect of being drugged terrified him.

“We did and nothing came up. You were dehydrated, Mr. Burman, and we’ll release you once you get some more fluids in you. Now get some rest.” The nurse turned and walked out of the room. Nathan stared at the ceiling and struggled to remember what had happened the day before but nothing came to mind. He looked through his things and did not find anything that could help his memory. The only thing he had on him was a blank notebook and his gun. He could not remember anything from the day before, where he went, what he did, and that was not from the heat. Yusuf had drugged him somehow, he was sure of it, but he did not even know where the man was. Nathan closed his eyes and drifted back into sleep.

+++

After he was released from the hospital Nathan wandered the streets for some sort of hint of what had happened. A landmark, a person, something that would jog his memory. No one around him seemed to pay him any mind either and that was just as frustrating. He made his way to a residential area where he saw a house that looked vaguely familiar. The door was unlocked and he walked inside, suddenly hopeful that he had found something. Instead there was nothing but a thick layer of dust over everything in the small house. It looked like it had been abandoned for a long time, not a sign of life, and it was the only lead he had.

“Fuck,” Nathan muttered as he closed the door behind him. There was nothing left in Mombasa. He had no leads, and he wandered back toward his hotel to book a flight out of the country. The prospect of another failure had him far too distracted to notice that he was being followed.

+++

Yusuf set the tea he had sold to Agent Burman back in the cabinet and cracked his neck. He was still getting settled into his new home and everything was still disorganized. He had to dig to find his phone when he heard it chime. Yusuf smiled to himself when he read the text from an unknown number that simply said ‘clear.’ He did not respond.

Out of all the people on his list Saito Hiroshi was the one that worried him the most. It was one thing to go after a graduate student or a stay at home dad, but it was another thing to instigate an investigation of one of the most powerful men in the world. When he called his superiors from the plane they had yelled at him for twenty minutes. They wanted results and they did not see how going after Saito was going to bring them. After the first five minutes Nathan had tuned his boss out and was too busy thinking about how he was going to do this. He heard something about expenses, which he ignored, and something else about reputation, which he also ignored. There had to be something he could pin on one of these people and he was going to find it.

By the time he touched down in Tokyo he had a plan to spend the day doing his own research and keep out of the IDCA offices. The last thing he needed was to give the police a reason to let Saito what was going on. He assumed that someone with as much power as Saito did had moles in the police, maybe even in the IDCA, and it made it impossible to trust anyone. That was why he was locked in a hotel room looking through files on his own.

Nathan scrolled through and found absolutely nothing.

“That’s impossible. There has to be something on this man,” he said to himself but everything was coming back clean. He had a mistress but he was not subtle about it and if his wife knew, which she probably did, she did not care. Aside from that there did not seem to be anything to raise suspicion. There were no major money transfers that were suspicious and the few that he found went toward legitimate resources. His company, Proculus Global, was at the top of the energy tower and there was no one left to compete. Saito seemed to know that because he did not make any attempt to lower his prices. If anything he made the smart businessman decision and raised them.

Something that made him nervous was the set of bodyguards that followed Saito everywhere. There was nothing on those men as well; they were ex-military and not trying to hide it, and wherever Saito went they followed. The man was aware that he could have enemies and had taken precautions against it. There was nothing he could pin on this man that even connected him to dream crime.

Over the course of the next two days Nathan charmed his way into the good graces of Saito’s personal assistant. She was a lonely woman and took to his flirting easily. While she was in the restroom Nathan easily copied the entire contents of her phone onto a flash drive and soon had Saito’s schedule for the next two weeks.

“If there’s nothing on paper, the next step is to follow him,” he mused out loud later in his hotel room.

Following Saito turned out to be surprisingly easy because the man moved with an air of confidence that bordered on narcissism. He seemed to know that he was untouchable and did not seem bothered by it. No one was untouchable, despite what some people might think. It was at a lunch meeting that Nathan realized he was being watched by one of the bodyguards. He picked up his phone, trying to make it look like he was texting but the man sauntered up to him.

“Come with me,” he said.

“Excuse me?” Nathan asked acting surprised.

“Agent Burman, I need you to come with me,” the guard repeated and without warning he was being yanked to his feet and dragged over to the table where Saito was waiting. No one in the restaurant even looked up from their food and idly Nathan wondered how many people Saito had under his thumb.

“Agent Burman, how nice to finally meet you,” Saito said as he ate. “After three days of following me around I was beginning to think you wouldn’t take the risk of being spotted.”

“You’re under suspicion of being involved with illegal dreaming, and international law says that I have the right to follow you,” Nathan replied as he was forced into a chair.

“Do you have any evidence linking me to dreaming?” Saito asked but waved Nathan off before he could answer. “Of course you don’t, because there is nothing to find.”

“Your name came up in the investigation of a possible inception. Someone out there has an idea in their head that is not theirs and I intend to find out who that is.” Nathan folded his hands on the table and stared the other man down. Saito stared right back, not even flinching, and set his fork down.

“Agent Burman, I’m afraid you’ve reached a dead end. I would suggest that you cease your investigation of me.”

“Are you threatening an IDCA agent, Mr. Saito?”

“Not at all; I’m simply telling you to stop wasting your time. There is nothing for you to find and this harassment will not be tolerated.” Saito looked at one of his bodyguards and nodded. The man pulled Nathan back to his feet roughly. “Good luck with your investigation, Agent Burman.” The guard led Nathan through the restaurant and pushed him a little harder than necessary out of the door. The bodyguard glared and walked back into the hotel, leaving Nathan standing in the middle of the sidewalk as people walked by. There was no telling how many people Saito had on his payroll; for all he knew the entire country was answering to him, and Nathan clenched his fists tightly.

“God damn it,” he muttered. Someone bumped into his shoulder roughly, muttered an apology, but Nathan did not stop to look at the person. Whoever they were they were not a problem right now. He was, once again, left with nothing against these people. “No one is untouchable.”

+++

Saito finished his meal quietly and made a mental note to tell his PA that she should watch who she had lunch with. Being followed was extremely irritating and altering his schedule was not something he liked doing. Saito picked up his phone and dialed a number, waiting patiently as it rang.

“Arthur. I have an update for you.”

Nathan was on the next flight out of Japan and spent the majority of the flight staring out the window watching the scenery pass by. He did not need to look hard for an excuse to arrest the next people on his list because they were already wanted criminals. Arthur Cohen and Daniel Eames were both wanted on several counts of fraud, robbery and two counts of possible murder. They were the only ones that he could arrest on sight. That would have been comforting if they were not impossible to track. All of the information he had on them was scattered, a sighting here, a rumor there, and he had found nothing go on recently.

Nathan sighed when he landed in Vienna and checked his phone. There were three missed calls, all from headquarters, and all three he ignored. Now was not the time to lecture him about expense reports and how he was still empty handed. Instead Nathan checked into the Austrian IDCA office and poured every resource he had into finding Arthur and Eames. They were well known in the dreamcrime world; their names had been mentioned several times by people IDCA had arrested in the past, and what they did know was that Arthur often took point and Eames was a forger. That means they’re both very good at covering their tracks, he thought as he looked over the information. His phone rang for the fifth time in the last twenty minutes Nathan picked it up and was surprised to see Rogers’ number on the screen.

“If you called to gloat I’m not in the mood,” Nathan said.

“Why would I call to gloat? You’re too busy being a fucking idiot,” Rogers replied harshly. “Director James has been ranting about you for the last two days. I also know that you’re looking into that point man and forger.”

“Did the Austrian government tattle on me?” Nathan asked.

“No, me watching you is what gave you away.” Rogers took a deep breath and slowly released it. “These two are dangerous, Nathan, and I don’t think you should go after them alone. Let someone come help you, anyone, because they wouldn’t hesitate to shoot you.”

“I can handle myself. It’s not like I have any leads anyway.” Nathan paused and thought about it for a moment. “You wouldn’t call to tell me to bring back up if you didn’t have some sort of angle. What do you know?”

“They were spotted in London two days ago,” Rogers replied after a long silence. “That doesn’t mean that they’re still there but I thought that it might help you get started. Just promise that you’ll call for backup if you need it. I don’t want to bury you.”

“You’ve said that before; you won’t. Stop worrying so much and thank you for the lead.” Nathan hung up before he heard a word of Rogers’ response and booked the next flight to London. He was getting somewhere, he was sure of it, because he could only be wrong so many times before he got it right. These two were the key and he did not have to waste time looking for evidence. “All I have to do is find you.” Nathan looked at the picture of the two men, both inconspicuous, and wondered how many times an IDCA agent had passed them by without a second glance.

+++

London was a dreary city but that did not stop Nathan from running around like a mad man. He tracked one of the aliases that Rogers had sent him around the city. It seemed like whenever he got to the location where they were supposed to be they were already gone. It was almost like they were playing with him, like they knew he was following them, and they wanted to see if he could keep up. After he raced across town to a small grocery store a building stood out. Nathan jogged across the street and looked at the names on the mailbox. They matched one of Arthur’s aliases and this almost seemed too easy. He threw the door open and took the stairs two at a time to the door.

Nathan pulled his gun out and kicked the door open, ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. No one came running out and there was no sound anywhere. Nathan made his way through the apartment and found plenty of evidence that someone lived there. Judging by the double toothbrushes he guessed that Arthur had someone else in his life that they did not know about which complicated things. Someone who would notice he’s gone, he thought. There was a cup of tea on the counter and when he touched the mug it was still a little warm. They were just here. Son of a bitch, Nathan thought.

Frantic for some sort of clue Nathan tore the apartment apart. It was spotless; there was nothing to indicate where they were going, but when he opened a desk drawer, buried beneath some papers, there was a train schedule. Nathan looked over the schedule and saw that there was a train leaving the station in exactly ten minutes. He did not bother to lock the door as he left and told the cab driver to move as fast as he could through the traffic. The driver took one look at his badge and did as he was told. As they weaved in and out of traffic, people honking and screaming obscenities, he counted down the minutes. If they managed to get away they would be in Paris before he had a chance to catch up with them.

Nathan threw money at the driver and pushed his way through the station. The train was supposed to leave any second but if he could get someone to stop it he might have a chance. He ran through the legions of people and got to the platform but it was empty. He looked at the clock and saw that his watch was behind and he was a few minutes late. Nathan clenched his fists tightly, tight enough that he could feel the nails biting into his palms, and it took a few minutes before he was calm enough to unclench them. The chase was on and he was not going to lose.

+++

After almost two weeks of going from airport, to ferry, to train stations, Nathan was not so sure about winning the race. No matter how fast he moved, no matter how many times he tried, Arthur and Eames were always just one step ahead of him. In the middle of Rome he had chased them through several streets after spotting them blending in with a crowd of tourists but they lost him. It was enough to make Nathan want to put his fist through a wall. There was nothing he could do about them. He had no idea how they kept managing to be a step ahead of him and the calls from the higher ups were getting more and more frantic. They screamed at his voice mail about the last minute, very expensive flights, the train rides, the hotels where he stayed exactly one night.

Somehow they were in Antwerp in Belgium, and Nathan all but collapsed onto a bench. In the last three days he had had something like ten hours of sleep total and he just could not make himself go any further. He felt winded, like everything was too much to handle, and despite being so close Nathan contemplated giving up. There was a chance that he would get chewed out for having almost nothing save a few credit card numbers. If I’m going to be in Belgium I might as well get some of the local specialties , Nathan thought as he stood and made his way over to a small cafe. Waffles really did sound quite fantastic after such a long day, but when the girl tried to swipe his card she looked a little confused.

“Declined, have cash?” she asked in broken English. Nathan just stared at her for a moment and smiled sheepishly as he dug out his wallet. He handed her his debit card which was also declined. Now she looked a little impatient and Nathan had a feeling she was going to snatch that waffle away from him. Luckily he had just enough cash to pay for the waffle and sat outside on a bench on the street. He had mobile banking but a lump formed in his throat as he looked at his empty bank account. Every cent had been withdrawn, all of his savings, and when he checked his credit cards they were all maxed out. Frantically he called headquarters.

“Sir, my expense card isn’t working anymore. What happened?” Nathan asked when he got patched through to Director James.

“Burman, you’ve racked up almost $10,000 in expenses and you have nothing to show for it. We’ve also received several calls from people saying that you were harassing them, stalking and breaking and entering. Care to explain yourself?” Director James asked.

“They were suspects, specifically named by a former architect. I was doing what I had to do to get evidence against them,” Nathan replied and he knew the director would take his side because--

“And you found no evidence. In fact you have absolutely nothing to show for the expenses you’ve racked up. I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist you take a leave of absence,” Director James replied.

“Sir, you can’t do that, all of my bank accounts have been--”

“Then call your bank. Take some time off, Burman, and get your head on straight.” The next thing he heard was a click and dial tone. For the first time since grade school Nathan was sure he was going to have a panic attack. He had no money, no job, no way of getting back home and he had not picked out a hotel yet so nowhere to sleep. Nathan buried his hands in his face and tried to calm his breathing. He was so out of it he did not notice that someone had moved up and sat down next to him.

“You look like you’re having a really terrible day,” a voice said.

“You have no idea,” Nathan replied.

“Oh I think I do,” the man said. Nathan sat up to tell the man that he really did not have any idea what he was talking about when he realized the person sitting next to him, as if he did not have a care in the world, was Arthur. “Agent Burman, it’s nice to finally see you in person.” Nathan inched his hand toward his gun but Arthur shook his head. “You’re not licensed to carry that anymore so I wouldn’t recommend pulling a gun on me. Not to mention that you wouldn’t get your finger on the trigger before we shoot you.” Arthur gestured with his head and Nathan looked over to see Eames across the square, leaning against a lamp pole, and he gave a little two fingered salute. Seeing him in person Nathan realized that it was the same man from Mombasa.

“How long have you two been following me?” he asked bewildered.

“Since Paris, though I guess we’ve been leading you along since London,” Arthur said smiling. “You didn’t really think it would be that easy to find us, did you? I would have died a long time ago if that was the case.”

“Did you drain my bank accounts?” Nathan asked because if there was anyone that would do that it would be these two.

“Agent Burman, all I want you to do is to close your investigation. You’re not going to find any evidence of anything related to the inception. I’m not denying that it happened, because it did, but you won’t find anything to prove it. If you close your investigation I’ll return all of your assets and you can at least get back to the States and maybe even get your job back if those harassment accusations are taken care of.” Arthur stood, stretched and handed Nathan a single 100 Euro note. “The choice is yours, Agent Burman, but I’ll give you a day to think it over. You could try and catch us or you could have your life, more or less, back.” Arthur walked across the square toward Eames and the two of them spoke briefly until they all but vanished into the crowds. Nathan stared at the money in his hand, his mind racing, and walked off to find a hotel to stay at, waffle in hand.

+++

Nathan was sure that someone had died in the hotel room he was staying in but it was all he could afford with the money Arthur had given him. It did not make sense for Arthur to drain his bank accounts, max out his credit cards and then give him cash so he did not have to sleep on a park bench. Nathan rubbed his temples and tried to clear his head. Arthur had given him an ultimatum. To anyone else the decision would have been easy but the idea that someone, somewhere, had an idea that was not theirs made him sick. Could he really let these people get away with that? There was not much he could do without IDCA backing him up and he could do even less with no money at all.

“God damn it,” Nathan muttered running his hands roughly through his hair. This should not have been a hard decision to make.

A loud knock on the door made Nathan jump. He said he was going give me a day, he thought as he unlocked the door. The man standing in front of him was not Arthur but that did not mean Nathan did not recognize him. He had seen this man in Mombasa, in Tokyo and nearly every city he’d been to, he just had not realized it until now. He had been followed by someone else besides Arthur and Eames. Nathan was about to ask who they were, what they wanted, when he was hit on the forehead hard enough that he was unconscious before he hit the floor.

Arthur swore under his breath the moment he saw the two men walk toward Burman’s hotel room. Nathan Burman was being tailed by two lackeys from Cobol Engineering. No doubt they thought they could get to Cobb or himself through Burman and that was not something he wanted. The IDCA agent had not had anything to do with Cobol and he did not want an innocent man to get killed over them. Eames joined him so they were standing just out of sight as they carried Burman’s body out of the hotel room.

“Well you were right about them going after that guy,” Eames said bumping shoulders with Arthur. “I owe you $20.”

“You can pay me later. Right now, I think we have bigger problems to deal with,” Arthur replied as the car sped away.

“Yeah, I know, it’s just a shame that we can’t let Cobol deal with him. It would make our lives a lot easier, that’s for sure.” Eames shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. “I know we won’t let that happen, but still.”

“But still indeed.” Arthur turned and began to walk back to the car, Eames by his side. “We have work to do.”

+++

The world was slowly easing back into focus and Nathan had no idea how long he had been out. He blinked and looked around, taking in his surroundings. He was in a room with no windows and one steel door. There was a single light swinging above him, making the corners of the room dark. His head was killing him and Nathan put a hand to the large bump on his forehead. He remembered getting hit by men he had seen but not acknowledged before. I’m such an idiot, he thought. Nathan checked his pockets and was not surprised to find nothing there, not even his wallet. The room was completely silent with nothing but his own breathing. Even the light was too bright and Nathan closed his eyes to block it out. Closing his eyes and lying down was a bad idea but exhaustion outweighed logic and Nathan slipped back into sleep.

Since there was no window Nathan had no idea how long he slept. The pounding in his head was not nearly as severe as before and he considered that a victory. Or he did until two armed men opened the door and looked down at him. Nathan was not going to face these people sitting down and he struggled to get to his feet. The room spun and the men chuckled as he swayed on his feet.

“Agent Burman. I want you to know that this can end well for you if you just give us the information we need,” the bulkier of the two men said.

"It's not going to be that simple, and we all know that. How about we skip most of the foreplay and I just tell you that I'm not going to talk," Nathan replied, really not in the mood to deal with this.

"You might change your mind when you hear what we want to know," the smaller man said. "We don't want any information on IDCA or any of your fellow agents; I want to know about one of your cases."

"I'm sorry but that is classified," Nathan replied like he was supposed to but he was curious now.

"All we want is the location of Dominic Cobb. We know that you have been investigating him and we just want to have a nice chat with him." These two had something to do with he dreamshare community and Cobb must have done something to merit the kidnapping of a federal agent. He did not owe Cobb anything so there was really no reason he could not let Cobb deal with his own problems.

"'A nice chat?' I didn't know that people actually said that outside of the movies. You've gone through the trouble of taking me, you might as well be honest with me," Nathan replied. The smaller of the two men punched Nathan hard enough that he saw stars as he fell to the ground. He blinked and tried to clear his vision, tasting blood.

"What we have to say to Mr.Cobb doesn't really matter. What we need from you is his location or the location of Arthur Cohen. Tell us where they are and we are done here."

"Arthur won't tell you anything," Nathan said spitting some blood on the carpet. He was not sure how he knew that Arthur would not give them any information but he was sure of it.

"We have our ways. Now we know that you have been investigating them. This is the last time I'm going to ask nicely." The larger man was trying to threaten him but Nathan also knew that these people were not the type to ask questions. He thought about the two children in the Cobb house and how they had just gotten their dad back. He thought about how he was a danger to Arthur but had given him money for a hotel so he did not sleep on a bench. Nathan was sure that he would not sleep at night if he handed anyone into the hands of torturers. "I'm waiting, Agent Burman." This was his only out because there was no government that was going to come help him. The information was all he had and Nathan knew that he really did not have any other options. The only way he was going to make it out of this alive was to tell these men what he knew.

"I'm sorry, gentlemen, but I don't know what you're talking about."

+++

Arthur wished he had the morals of a real criminal. He did not delude himself into thinking that saving one IDCA agent was going to get him into heaven. The problem was that Nathan Burman had had nothing to do with Cobol Engineering yet the latest group of mercenaries sent by Cobol. That single moral fiber he and Eames both seemed to have was the reason they were now planning the rescue of an agent that was actively trying arrest them. So far Arthur had been able to trace Burman's cell phone, so they knew where he was being held, but going in guns blazing was going to get someone shot.

"And an IDCA agent filled with bullets isn't something I want to deal with," Eames replied when Arthur brought that fact up.

"So we're going to have to come up with another way to get in there," Arthur mused. "He's probably not safe here either. All three of us need to make ourselves scarce as soon as possible."

"Great idea but now we just need to get in and out of a small hotel room where a federal agent is currently being tortured for information about us. And let's not forget how he'll come after us again once he has his badge back."

"Logic dictates that helping is a bad idea," Arthur said.

"And yet we're still going to help," Eames stated.

"Yes," Arthur replied. Eames nodded and they began to look into ways of getting out of the country with minimal risk.

+++

During training they had prepared him for this sort of thing, but Nathan had decided that headquarters had downplayed how truly painful being tortured was. They had taught him to keep his mouth shut at all costs and that to say anything would be treason against his country. They might have even mentioned that he could be arrested if he talked. Right now Nathan was not entirely sure if he could talk because his jaw was throbbing. No one had ever hit him the way these two men had. They were making sure that whatever they did to him hurt as much as possible. It hurt to breathe now and idly he wondered if a broken rib was going to puncture his lung and that would be the end. They had tied him to a chair to keep him upright and slapped him across the face anytime he almost passed out.

“Agent Burman, we really don’t need to be doing this,” Jim, the larger of the two men, said, as he cracked his knuckles. He was trying to sound like Nathan was the one being unreasonable in this situation. “All you need to do is tell us where Cobb is. Arthur will come running later.” In the midst of the beatings Jim had more or less revealed that he was hired not only to find Cobb but to kill the extractor. The other man, Wil, seemed to be looking forward to the killing part to a sadistic degree. He heard them talking as he slipped in and out of consciousness about how they were going to kill the Cobb children as well. That will make Arthur come running, he had thought to himself at the time. He was not sure how much time had passed or if anyone would notice that he was gone.

“He’s not talking, Jim,” Wil nearly whined. “We should stop wasting our time and try to find the fucker on our own.”

“We’ve had shit luck for that and the boss is getting impatient,” Jim replied. “It’s not like we have any leads anyway.” Nathan was not really paying attention and thus the punch across his cheekbone took him completely by surprise. When he grunted in pain that just seemed to egg Jim on and his torturer threw another punch. He was going to lose a tooth at this rate and his head swam.

“I’m going out for a smoke,” Wil said and he left without waiting for a response from Jim. Jim seemed like he was done for the time being because he took a seat across the room and cleaned the blood off of his knuckles in a way that was supposed to be intimidating but just looked overly dramatic. Nathan closed his eyes and wondered how long it would take before they lost interest in him. Talking was simply not an option; there was no possible way he could live with himself if he knew he had gotten two kids killed.

The sound of stamping feet, far too soon for Wil to have smoked an entire cigarette, made their way toward the room. Jim was on his feet as Wil came in and threw someone onto the ground. The person stumbled and landed on their knees and Nathan felt his eyes widen when he realized the person was Arthur. He looked supremely irritated and there was a deep cut on his temple that was bleeding freely.

“Caught this fucker trying to sneak in,” Wil said, a gun pointed at Arthur’s head. “Looks like he was trying to take us by surprise. Empty your pockets.” Arthur did as he was told and emptied his pockets of exactly two guns and one knife. He kept his hands in the air in surrender but did not say anything.

“Were you trying to rescue Burman?” Jim asked.

“He has nothing to do with this,” Arthur replied reasonably.

“He was our link to Cobb, but now we have you, which is much better.” Jim knelt in front of Arthur and grinned. “I’m sure he’ll come out of hiding when he hears his right hand man has been taken.”

“He won’t,” Arthur replied.

“He always travels with that forger,” Wil pointed out. “Where is Eames?”

“We just split up.” If Arthur was lying he was perfect at it.

“Maybe we can convince him to tell us where Cobb is,” Jim said and Arthur smirked.

“You’d have to find him and you won’t. Cobb has moved since Burman last saw him so you let the agent go and we’ll keep this on the illegal side of dreaming. No need to get the feds involved in this.” Arthur was trying to be reasonable but Jim smiled as he stood up. He went through a bag and suddenly Nathan was staring down the barrel of a gun.

“How about this? I won’t shoot this guy in the head if you give up Cobb.” In that moment Nathan knew he was going to die. There was no possible way Arthur was going to give up Cobb for him and he was going to die in this hotel room. Arthur met his gaze head on and did not look sad, worried, or even distressed; if anything, he appeared to be smirking. Jim cocked the barrel back, for dramatic effect again, but Arthur did not look away nor did he say a word. He did not flinch when Wil punched him across the cheekbone and he did not look away. “Last chance to save this guy or his blood is on your hands,” Jim warned. The sudden crack of a window breaking drew both of their attention. The room quickly filled with a foul smelling smoke and Nathan saw Arthur twist and knock Wil off his feet. The door opened and Eames strolled in, shooting Jimwithout hesitation. The smoke must have been drugged because the world was beginning to darken around the edges as Arthur fired a shot into Wil. Eames walked over and knelt in front of him .

“Sorry about this, Agent Burman,” Nathan thought he heard Eames say when everything faded away.

+++

The first thing Nathan noticed when he woke up was that he was not in as much pain as before. There were sounds around him, someone was talking, but it did not sound like they were talking to him. He was also lying on something soft, like a bed, and when he finally managed to open his eyes he was looking at a ceiling. There was something cold and metal around his wrist which Nathan discovered was a pair of handcuffs with a long chain attached to the bed.

“I wish you hadn’t done that,” a familiar voice said and Nathan shifted, despite the pain that shot through his entire body, to see Eames and Arthur sitting across the room. “You got beat up the last time too.”

“Someone had to go in,” Arthur replied as Eames cleaned the wound on his head. “Besides, you know that I wasn’t actually in any danger. We took the antidote for the smoke so I wasn’t going to pass out.”

“Nearly cracked your bloody skull open,” Eames said as he applied butterfly stitches to the cut on Arthur’s temple. Surprisingly, Eames leaned forward so their foreheads were pressed together. “My turn to take the beating next time.”

“Whatever you say.” Arthur smiled and looked over, their eyes meeting. “Ah, Agent Burman is awake.”

“About time.” Eames sat back and began to look through a bag. When he pulled out a needle Nathan felt his pulse jump. He was about to struggle when two hands held him down firmly. He had not even seen Arthur move but now the other man was so close Nathan could see the cut had a large goose egg underneath it and he had the makings of a black eye. A prick in his arm and he saw Eames pulling out a needle. “That should help with the pain. Get some more sleep.” Nathan wanted to argue but the painkillers were already making the world hazy. The last thing he remembered was the pressure being relieved from his sore shoulders.

+++

The world seemed much clearer the next time Nathan opened his eyes. He was still lying in the bed in a small bedroom. The door was closed and he did not see any indication that Arthur or Eames were about. Nathan sat up slowly and found that the handcuffs were gone and he could feel bandages on his face. His body protested as he stood and he was surprised to find that his injuries felt a lot worse than they looked. His lip was split, he had an impressive black eye, there was a bandage on his cheek and another wrapped around his torso because he guessed a few of his ribs were bruised or cracked. Nathan was not surprised to find that he was unarmed and that made him nervous. There were voices outside and he pressed his ear to the door to listen; he could not make out what they were saying.

As carefully as he could Nathan opened the door and looked outside. Arthur and Eames were sitting on opposite ends of a table, both working on something. Arthur was typing on a laptop and would stop every now and then to write something down on a piece of nearby paper. Eames had an Exacto knife in hand and was cutting away at something, setting it aside to pick up glue and scissors.

“How are we looking?” Eames asked without looking up.

“Almost have everything,” Arthur replied also without looking up. “We should be ready to move out within the hour.”

“Good do we have--” Eames began.

“--yes, it’s all ready and--” Arthur interrupted.

“--don’t worry, it’s already done so--”

“--I’m not worried, just need to make sure clean--”

“--taken care of,” Eames finished. Neither of them looked up from what they were doing as they reached across the table and high fived one another. It was one of the single most bizarre things Nathan had ever seen; never before had he seen two people who truly looked like they were so in sync that they could read each other’s mind. There are partners that have been together for over a decade in the FBI who aren’t nearly on that level, Nathan thought as he watched the two men carefully. Near the door was an endtable and there sat his gun and wallet. If he could get his wallet he could get away without any problems. Nathan pushed the door open and walked as quietly as he could toward the table and his gun was just within reach when Arthur and Eames both picked up a gun and pointed it at him without looking away from their work.

“You can have that later, Agent Burman. Why don’t you come over here?” Arthur suggested. Nathan was hurt, unarmed, and really did not have much of a choice. He walked over to the table as the guns followed him and sat down on a nearby chair. They both set the guns down at the same time. A long silence passed as the two men worked diligently on something much more important than him.

“Why did you do it?” Nathan asked.

“Why did we do what?” Arthur asked writing something down on a paper and putting it in a folder.

“Don’t be dense; you’re both way too smart for that,” Nathan replied.

“You aren’t involved,” Eames said as he began to pack up his supplies, apparently finished with whatever he was working on. The man leaned forward and watched Nathan carefully; he was being studied by a forger and it made him nervous. “They never would have come after you were it not for Arthur and Cobb’s botched job.”

Arthur closed a folder and his laptop, leaning back in his chair. “There is no reason for you to die for me, for Cobb, for any of us,” Arthur said. “So we got you out.”

“You didn’t have to. In fact, it would have been in your best interests for me to die,” Nathan said quietly as Arthur raised an eyebrow.

“Are you trying to convince me to kill you, Agent?” Arthur asked.

“Thank you.” Nathan looked between the two men and relaxed a little. They were not going to kill him, not now at least, but he was not sure what was going on. They both just watched him very carefully.

“Why didn’t you give them Cobb’s information? Even if they had gone to an empty house they would have let you go. You don’t owe him anything and you were willing to arrest him a few weeks ago,” Arthur asked.

“It’s one thing to take in a criminal. It’s another to send them to the gallows and those guys were going to kill Cobb and his kids. I couldn’t live with that,” Nathan replied. He was surprised when Eames laughed.

“You didn’t want to ‘send him to the gallows?’ Oh that’s rich coming from an IDCA agent. Those assassins would have killed him faster than you lot. Hell, an assassin would have been a mercy killing compared to what he would go through at your hands.” Eames was smiling and shaking his head sadly.

“What are you talking about? IDCA takes in dream share criminals and locks them up, just like any other form of police,” Nathan argued.

“You really have no idea,” Arthur mused as he dug through some folders. “The dreamshare community is scared of IDCA but only because we know what happens when you need information. Ah, here it is.” Arthur pulled out a large folder and held it out to Nathan. The agent reached for it but Arthur pulled it just out of reach again. “You are not going to like what you see in here, Agent Burman, and if you like, we can pretend this conversation never happened.”

“Give me the folder, Arthur,” Nathan insisted though there was a lump in his throat. Arthur nodded and Nathan began to look through the stacks of papers. There were pictures, testimonies, paperwork, of the dreamshare criminals that IDCA had taken in. There were pictures of tiny rooms with nowhere to lie down, of torture, of killing, the names of everyone that they had taken. There were even some names that he recognized, people he had helped bring in, as they screamed in security pictures with familiar faces and guards laughing mockingly. Bile was threatening to rise in his throat and he shut the folder. He knew that being at the bottom of the ladder meant that there were things that he did not know but he never expected this.

“Somewhere between 80-85% of people taken in by IDCA and before IDCA was formed are killed after being tortured for information,” Eames explained. “The ‘lucky’ 15% are the ones used to help improve the technology or ones that strike a deal to save themselves. They get to spend the rest of their lives in a tiny cell.”

“This is what your organization was going to do to Cobb, to Yusuf, to Ariadne, if you had found enough information to justify an arrest,” Arthur said. Nathan looked between the two of them and the folder in his hands. He thought about how he wanted justice for those violated by the PASIV, he thought of the haunted looked on Gregory Turners face, of how he wanted these people off the street. This was not what he wanted, he did not want this blood on his hands, yet as he opened the folder and saw the morgue report from the extractor he had helped bring in a year ago the sheer amount of injuries was sickening.

“We need to get moving or we’re going to be late,” Eames said and the two of them began to gather their things. Nathan did not move from where he was sitting, staring at the folder in his hands, unable to shake this sick feeling in his stomach. Eames was right; those assassins would have been a mercy killing compared to this. And I’ve helped put these people in the ground, Nathan thought. He looked up when Arthur handed him his jacket and he pulled it on silently. When he walked outside Eames was holding open the door of an old, remodeled police car. Nathan climbed in without a word and sat back, unable to look away from the folder in his hands. The door closed and Nathan knew he would not be able to open it from the inside

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Arthur and Eames standing close and talking to each other. Eames pressed something into Arthur’s hands and did something that got Nathan’s full attention: he kissed him. It was not a long kiss but it was heated, passionate, unlike any kiss Nathan had ever experienced in his life. The movement between these two men seemed to make more sense as they pulled away from each other. They spoke for a moment more until Arthur walked toward the driver’s side door. Eames did not follow and he nodded to Nathan. Arthur started the car and drove off without looking back.

“Judging by your reaction I’m guessing that wasn’t something that you knew about us,” Arthur said but he was smiling when he said it. “What do you know about us, Agent Burman?”

“Not that much; you’re very thorough but no that wasn’t something we knew about and we try to know about the couples in business,” Nathan said and he felt like he was going to be sick because he understood why now. Arthur looked at him in the rearview mirror but did not say anything. “I didn’t know.”

“I know you didn’t because you’re a good man and a good man wouldn’t have anything to do with this business.” And that was all they said on the matter. The car ride was silent and Nathan frowned deeply when he realized that they were heading to the airport. He was going to mention that he had no money when they pulled up to what appeared to be a private jet. “I have something else for you.” Arthur opened the door for him and handed Nathan another folder. “In here you have everything you need to prove that Cobol Engineering hired an extraction team. When the team did not produce results Cobol sent armed men out to ‘take care’ of the problem. They decided the best way to get this information was to kidnap an IDCA agent but persons of unknown origins got the IDCA agent out of the line of fire.” Arthur also produced what appeared to be a new passport with a fake name; it smelled new. “This is a private jet of someone with money to take you to Paris where you can fly under your real name. The fake passport is flawless and you will have no trouble getting into the country. The chemical used to knock out your assailants was professionally made and does not have any side effects. When you get to Paris you’ll find that, if needed, there is somewhere safe to stay as long as you go as yourself and not an agent. Do you understand everything that I’m telling you?” Nathan was stunned to silence as he took his wallet and gun from Arthur’s hand as well.

“I understand,” Nathan said. “I just don’t know why.”

“You gave me a run for my money, Agent Burman, and you’re very good at your job. If you were tracking any other team you would have walked away with at least one suspect. You’re also a good man, you want justice, and IDCA does not provide justice. You can do whatever you want with that information but rest assured that your assets will be returned to you. Also, for some reason, the people who logged the complaints that got you fired are going to withdraw them.”

“I’m never going to catch you, am I,” Nathan said smiling to himself.

“No, you won’t, but I admire the effort. The plane needs to take off so you had best be on your way.” Arthur put his hands in his pockets and waited patiently. Nathan looked at the papers in his hands, at the wallet, at the passport, at the ticket that was getting him out of the country and the two folders. One that could make his career and another that could end it. Nathan nodded, not needing to say ‘thank you’ again, and climbed onto the jet. He looked out the window as he got settled and Arthur watched. Arthur gave a two finger salute and climbed into the car. Nathan watched it drive away and did not open the Cobol folder until they had reached 10,000 feet.

Director Jones,

I would like this to be my formal letter of resignation. After much consideration I have decided that I am no longer able to operate underneath the jurisdiction of the department and have looked for a transfer to other services. Enclosed with this letter you will find my report on the ‘inception’ job that I believed had occurred. My information was wrong and no such event took place. Everyone that I believe was linked to the case has been cleared of wrongdoing and their files have been closed. Also enclosed is a folder of information I have gathered on Cobol Engineering and how they are one of the employers of the business. You may do with this information as you see fit.

Thank you for the opportunity to work here. It has truly opened my eyes to what human beings are capable of doing to one another.

Sincerely,

Nathan Burman