I Took A Ride To Meet An Enemy

When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend. -William Blake

Dominic Cobb never took for granted that he had his children back. After two years he could not make himself ever look at a moment he had with them and think that he would rather be anywhere else. He also never felt the desire to go back into the dream despite the fact that he had not touched a PASIV since. His natural dreams were beginning to return and they were amazing. The lack of structure and the fact that they felt like dreams and not reality only seemed to solidify the fact that he was once again in the real world. Every now and then something seemed to shift and he caught himself trying to change the structure of the world but considering that he had two trips to limbo under his belt Cobb thought he was in good shape. As far as he was concerned he still had his sanity and that was more than enough because it meant that he could be with his kids. Staying away from the dreams became easier the more Cobb thought about how even one trip could set him back months of progress. He was well aware that his mind was a mess and there was too much at stake to think about using a PASIV for any reason.

Even since the inception things had been going so smoothly. The International Dream Crime Association had come knocking on his door a few months prior but Arthur had taken care of that. Cobb did not consider IDCA a threat because he was confident that Arthur would not let that branch of government touch him. If he was honest with himself he was fairly confident in Arthur’s abilities to keep anyone from touching them. He did not want to become too confident because he had made enemies in the past but Cobb was too distracted by the fact that his kids were still so happy to see him all the time. Every time he returned from somewhere Phillipa and James ran into his arms as if he had just come home again. Cobb felt a little guilty because it was obvious they were still afraid that he was not going to come home one day but he also could not deny that he loved the attention.

“James, eat your peas,” Cobb said as James pushed his vegetables around the plate. The little boy crinkled his nose and looked down at his plate.

“Do I have to?” he asked.

“Yes. You want to grow up big and strong, don’t you?” Cobb asked but that did not seem to have the effect that he wanted it to.

“I don’t like them,” James tried to argue even though the boy had just eaten them the previous week without complaint.

“Just eat them and stop complaining,” Phillipa chastised like the sister she was. Phillipa sat up tall in her chair and held her chin high with pride. She had grown up so much in the time that he had been gone and it felt like there was a major part of her life that he would never see. She seemed more than willing to tell him everything that she possibly could at this point without any filer. Cobb really did not mind because it warmed his heart to hear her talk about how she was planning on bringing him to parents day later in the year.

It was during one of these stories that Cobb heard something odd. The house was not exactly in the middle of nowhere but his neighbors were far enough away that he could not hear anything they did. For some reason it set all of his nerves on edge and for the first time since he had come home Cobb wished he had a gun on him.

“Daddy?” Phillipa asked and he jerked back to reality.

“Yes, sweetie?” he replied.

“You weren’t listening,” she accused and she was correct because something was not right; Cobb could feel it in his bones. This was the first time in a long while that he had doubted Arthur’s ability to protect him and the kids. There was no telling how much time he had before someone took a shot at them, or worse, and he was unarmed.

“I’m sorry, hun,” he said flashing a smile. “I have an idea, why don’t we go see a movie tonight and get some ice cream?” Both of the kids’ eyes lit up and the smiles that followed were ecstatic.

“Yay, I’ll go get my purse!” Phillipa exclaimed and she jumped off of the chair to run upstairs to get her ‘purse’ which was little more than a bag that Ariadne had knit for her a few weeks prior.

“No, no, Phil, we’re going to be late for the movie,” Cobb said. He reached for his daughter and managed to stop her before she went running into a house that he was sure was compromised.

“I’ll be fast, dad, I promise.” She tried to pull away but Cobb held on tight. He was about to argue with her when a shot rang through the house. The wall right next to his head shattered, raining wood down. Phillipa screamed and James attached himself to his father’s leg right away. There was no time for this; Cobb picked James up and tugged Phillipa along muttering words of promise that things were going to be all right. The walls around them shattered with more bullets and he was thankful that the shooter had horrible aim horrible aim. Cobb ducked behind a corner into the guest bedroom and locked the door as a bullet whizzed by his head. He barely acknowledged pain in his forehead as he locked the door.

“Phil, James, I need you both to get under the bed and be as quiet as you can,” Cobb said steadily.

“Daddy, you’re bleeding,” James whispered and Cobb reached up to his forehead; his fingers came away red with blood.

“I’ll be fine, I just need you two to hide,” he said and the kids thankfully nodded. They both climbed under the bed and moved all the way back so they were pressed against the wall. Now that they were out out of the line of fire Cobb dug through his closet and found one of Mal’s handguns. He checked the magazine and it was thankfully loaded. Normally he would have been angry with her for leaving a loaded weapon in the house but this time Cobb silently thanked Mal for her paranoia.

While he was hesitant to leave them alone Cobb did not want to wait until the gunman came to him to take action. He knelt in front of the bed and looked at both of his children. James was crying silently and Phillipa was pale as she held her little brother tightly.

“I need you guys to stay here for me, okay?” Cobb said.

“No, daddy, don’t leave,” James whispered through his tears.

“I have to. Both of you stay here and don’t come out for anyone but me, do you understand? Not even if the person says they are my friend; you don’t come out.” They both nodded and he tried to smile for them. “I love you both so much.”

“I love you too, daddy,” James said and Phillipa nodded.

“Me too. Be careful.” Cobb nodded and stood up. He had not heard any gunshots since they had ducked into the room but he knew these people were not going to give up. If someone wanted to scare him they would have taken shots in a public place so they could stay hidden. The moment it moved into their home it was personal and there was deadly intent. Cobb pressed his back against the wall and reached over to slowly unlock the door. He turned the handle and swung the door open. Immediately, the shooter fired several shots and he counted them. Arthur had told him that being able to tell when your enemy was out of bullets and needed to switch magazines could save his life. Cobb listened until a final bullet was shot.

Cobb leaned around the corner and fired two shots of his own. The gunman dove behind a nearby wall and safely out of sight. Cobb leaned back away from the door and tried to steady his hand. He had never killed someone in the real world before and he was not ready to start now.

“Mr. Cobb, why don’t you just come out here? I’m sure we could work something out,” the gunman called out and he did not recognize the voice but that did not mean anything.

“How about you leave and we’ll go from there,” Cobb said and he could almost hear the assassins snicker.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Another shot rang out and Cobb knew the bullets were going to go through the wall if he did not act fast. Cobb reached around and fired two shots fired two shots to where he hoped the gunman was standing silently praying that he hit his target. The assassin shouted in pain and Cobb heard a body fall to the ground. Cobb changed his magazine and walked slowly around the corner, gun raised. The gunman was on the ground, a bullet wound slowly turning his shirt red. Cobb walked forward until he was standing over the man and kicked his gun away.

“Who sent you?” he asked and the gunman laughed.

“Did you really think finding out would be that easy?” the gunman said with blood on his lips. “I’m sure you can find someone who can do the guesswork for you.” He was trying to get Cobb to admit to knowing someone else in the business, probably Arthur, but Cobb was not going to take the bait.

“I’ll make this much quicker if you give me a name.” Cobb said and the assassin laughed again.

“I think I’ll pass on that offer.” Cobb was not sure what happened next but the gunman managed to reach into his boot and fire a single shot. The extractor hesitated only a ;little before putting a bullet between the would be assassins eyes. He had been standing right over the man so he had no idea how the assassin had missed.

“Daddy?” Something cold settled in Cobb’s stomach and he turned around slowly to see James with a large wound on his shoulder. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.” The boy fell to his knees and Cobb could barely hear himself screaming as he ran toward his son, as he got James’ blood on his hands, as his entire world began to end.

Arthur blinked slowly awake and listened to the sounds of London at night. He was not sure what had woken him up but there was no way he was going to fall back asleep now. Arthur had plenty he could work on, he had some plans he needed to pick apart and a background check to do, but his bed had seemed much more appealing at 11pm. Now it was 3am and he was wide awake as usual. Arthur rubbed his hands over his face and tried to will his body into going back to sleep but it was no use.

“Arthur, what are doing awake?” Eames said from his side of the bed. The forger had been fast asleep not a minute before and now he was staring at Arthur with bright eyes. Over the course of just under a decade he had become very close to Eames. They met fresh out of the dream program when Arthur was barely twenty-one and now he was twenty-nine and there was no one in the world that he trusted more than the man in bed with him. They had been through so much together that there was no doubt in his mind that they were meant to be together. There was no definition of what they had and that did not bother Arthur in the slightest.

“Just woke up for no real reason,” he replied. It had been nine months since the inception on Robert Fischer had taken place. Things had been relatively quiet since save for an IDCA agent that had gone snooping around. He and Eames had taken care of the situation and spared the life of the agent. Arthur was not expecting any further problems from the International Dream Crime Association but he kept a close eyes on Cobb and his former teammates anyway.

“It’s two in the morning, you should be asleep like a normal person.” Eames was talking into his pillow though he did not sound that annoyed or surprised.

“I’m awake so I might as well get something done,” Arthur replied.

“Fine, since I know you won’t be persuaded otherwise,” Eames sat up and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’ll help you so maybe I can get you to go back to bed before six in the morning.” Arthur smiled and stood.

“I’ll put some coffee on,” Arthur said as he pulled on a pair of flannel pajamas and a t-shirt. Eames waved him off and Arthur grabbed his cellphone off of the desk as he walked out into his flat. He kept his own place in London and Eames did as well but sometimes he wondered why they did this at all. If they were not at one apartment together then they were both at the other apartment. He rarely worked with anyone else and Arthur had long since stopped caring what the rest of the world thought of that. He and Eames had made their choice believing the benefits of having someone you could trust outweighed any potential danger.

He was halfway done with making a pot of coffee when his phone started ringing. Arthur set down the beans, picked up the phone and saw Cobb’s name . That made no sense to him because Cobb knew he was in London . While Arthur knew he kept odd hours it was not like Cobb to assume he was awake at two in the morning. He picked up on the second ring just as Eames walked in the kitchen.

“Cobb, why are you calling me at--”

“Arthur, Arthur, I need your help, god, I need your help.”Cobb sounded frantic, manic even, and Arthur had not heard that tone of voice since the frantic and slightly manic call he had received the night Mal jumped. He was still mumbling about how he needed Arthur’s help and, god, please, he needed help right now.

“Cobb, Cobb, calm down and tell me what happened,” Arthur said a little louder than necessary but it seemed to snap the Cobb back to reality.

“Someone tried to kill me and the kids.” In the background he could hear Phillipa crying but did not hear James which worried him.

“Is anyone hurt?” Arthur asked and Eames moved in close so he could eavesdrop on the phone call.

“Yes, yes, Arthur, James is hurt. They shot him, god, they shot him and I can’t just take him to a hospital but he’s going to die if I don’t please, Arthur, I don’t know what to do.” The babbling did not stop as something cold settled in Arthur’s stomach and he met Eames’ eyes. Eames nodded and ran into the bedroom to get his own phone.

“Cobb, I need you to listen to me, all right? Is it bad enough that you can’t wait for medical help at all?”

“It’s a graze but it’s deep and I’m trying to keep the bleeding down but he’s so small, Arthur, I--”

“I need to make a phone call and I need you to stay on the line. Eames is here and he’ll try to talk you through getting the bleeding under control. He’s also going to ask you what happened and you’re going to tell him everything.” Arthur did not wait for a response as he handed the phone to Eames. Eames began to talk in calm and soothing tones to try and get Cobb to calm down as Arthur used Eames’ phone to call the local hospital. After being patched through to several different people and using a name that was going to get the attention of a certain doctor he waited impatiently.

“Arthur, how nice of you to call,” a female voice on the other line said.

“Lydia, I’m afraid I don’t have time to catch up; there’s an emergency,” Arthur said and Lydia was all business now.

“Tell me what happened,” she said and Arthur explained everything he knew so far. Lydia was a doctor that owed him a favor from a few years back. While he and Eames were apart he had extracted some information from a colleague of hers. The job unfortunately ended with a very unhappy mark that decided that hitting Arthur with a car sounded like a good idea. Despite the fact that it could have easily been traced back to her Lydia offered to set the bone on his arm. It had come at a great personal risk and she was now the only physician he trusted. They were fortunate that she was based in LA. “Tell him to get here right away and go through the back door. I’ll be waiting.”

“Thank you Lydia,” Arthur replied.

“You know I don’t work for free, Arthur, so I’ll expect payment. Get that boy here right now.” Lydia hung up and Arthur took his phone out of Eames’ hand without a word.

“Cobb, I have a doctor you can go to and you’re going to have to trust that I know what I’m doing. Can you do that?” he asked.

“Yes. just tell me where to go,” Cobb replied. Arthur explained exactly where the hospital was, what entrance to use, and who he was looking for. He hung up because the last thing they needed was for Cobb to get pulled over for talking on his cellphone. Arthur took a deep breath and turned to see Eames already at their desktop.

“The next flight to LA leaves in forty-five minutes. If we hurry we can make it,” he said without looking up. Arthur nodded and he went into the bedroom to find the two suitcases they kept packed for this exact reason. There was no time to call in a favor to the airport and it was not the airline that Saito owned so they could not bring the PASIV. Instead, as Eames got dressed after printing their tickets, Arthur stored the machine in the safe hidden deep within the closet. He did not like leaving the machine behind but there was no time to waste. He trusted Lydia, to an extent, and he trusted her more because she was not willing to work for free. It meant that she saw this as a business transaction and was less likely to turn them in. There was not enough time to think of an alternative and if there was fallout he would deal with it later. “Are you ready?”

“Let’s go.”

They barely made it to the plane and even then they were running down the halls to the gate. The next flight did not leave for another three hours and Eames knew that Arthur did not want to wait that long. They got a few dirty looks from the other passengers in first class when they fell into their chairs gasping for breath. As the plane began to pull away Arthur visibly relaxed. They were going to have to sprint when they got to New York as well but they both knew JFK well enough that Eames was not too worried. What he was worried about was Cobb doing something rash. There was no way of getting in contact with him since he seemed to have turned off his phone. Arthur swore and hung up the phone provided by the plane and pointedly ignored the horrified look from the mother in the next seat.

“What’s the plan?” Eames asked because Arthur was lead on this one, no questions asked; he was just along as a backup gun and support.

“Cobb has a corpse cooling in his house right now and it’s not going to be pretty by the time we get there. We’re going to have to take care of that first and then we’ll go to the hospital. Lydia will take good care of James,” he replied and Eames was glad that Arthur sounded so sue of himself. Eames did the math and concluded that the body of the assassin would have been in Cobb’s house for twelve hours before they got to it. He crinkled his nose.

“It’s time like these that I wish we could hire interns to do all the dirty work for us,” Eames mused and Arthur snorted as he opened his laptop. No one around them was listening and Eames considered now as good a time as any to try and relax a little. He would tell Arthur to do the same but he knew that would not happen. He briefly considered drugging his friend but that would probably end violently. Instead Eames began to mentally catalog the area around the Cobb house and what they would need to do to take care of body disposal. Being good at that type of work was not something he was proud of but Arthur seemed to find it handy and was not bothered by it. Arthur’s was the only real opinion that mattered in the end.

Despite his best attempts Eames fell asleep and jerked awake when something poked him in the ribs. He almost reached for a gun when a hand grasped his arm and held fast. Arthur raised an eyebrow and chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Eames asked as Arthur released his arm.

“Just that little spastic wake up you just did,” he replied. Eames rolled his eyes and settled back into his seat. The flight attendance announced that that they were going to be landing soon and they began to pack their gear. It was time for another sprint across an airport and they once again barely managed to get to the plane in time. Arthur opened his phone and dialed a number before they pulled out of the gate.

“Yes, could you patch me through to Dr. Lydia Connors?” Arthur paused and listened for a moment. “Yes, I understand, thank you.”

“What happened?” Eames asked and Arthur dropped his phone into his bag.

“She’s ‘very busy’ right now and you can ‘try again later,’” he replied. “So we have nothing to go on until we get to California.”

“She’s probably trying to keep James under the radar as much as possible. We’ll get through eventually.” Eames squeezed Arthur’s forearm and it made the other man relax just a little. Ten minutes into the flight and Arthur was sound asleep in his chair. Considering the travel day and the three hours of sleep they both had gotten Eames was not surprised. He made sure not to wake up Arthur as he took out the the other man’s computer and turned it on. Arthur had not shared his passwords but a few guesses later and Eames was into the system.

The first thing he found was a list of who could have put the hit out on Cobb which included Cobol, but they were keeping a low profile and Nathan Burman the IDCA agent they had let free. Eames crossed those two off right away because Cobol would not risk going after Cobb and assassinations were not Burman’s style. There were several other names that Eames recognized but no one that he could see taking a hit out on someone with kids. Arthur’s laptop was back in its proper place when the other man woke up an hour or so later. Arthur looked at Eames, to his laptop bag and then back to Eames.

“You know you could have just asked.”

“That would take all the fun out of cracking your passwords,” Eames replied grinning. Arthur shook his head but he was smiling too. Eames savored the moment because he was fairly sure that was going to be one of the last smiles he was going to get out of Arthur once they landed.

When they touched down Arthur was on the phone right away as Eames got them a car. He smiled a bit too wide and flirted a bit too much but it worked and the girl behind the counter gave them a different car than what was on the rental sheet. She blushed and giggled when they turned and walked out of the airport toward their car.

“Very smooth,” Arthur deadpanned as he hung up his phone. “Could you lay it on any thicker?”

“I didn’t alter my accent at all?” Eames replied and Arthur gave him the ‘oh come on now really?’ look. “Well I didn’t call her any pet names or wink.”

“Well done.” Arthur surprisingly got into the passenger seat but pulled out his phone as soon as they settled down. Eames took the wheel and made one stop at a hardware store to pick up the supplies they would need to take care of the body. Everything was too quiet when they pulled up to the Cobb house and they both pulled out their guns without hesitation. Eames considered it a turn of fate and pure luck that no one had called the cops. That would have complicated things .

Arthur took point, as always, and Eames backed him up. As much as it felt like a cliche everything was a little too quiet. They made their way into the house slowly but Eames knew something was wrong the moment they stepped inside; a body would have started to smell twelve hours after death and there was nothing. If anything the house smelled clean, like bleach, which meant that someone had taken care of the body for them. As Eames had begun to suspect there was no evidence at all that there had been a shooting. The walls were even clean and re-plastered but looked the same to anyone who did not know the Cobb house.

“I’d say it was nice that someone did our work for us but that just worries me more,” Eames said as he put his gun in his holster.

“Nothing is out of place,” Arthur said as he holstered his gun and knelt down to look at the spotless carpet. “Not a splinter of wood or a drop of blood. Whoever did this did not want someone to find the body of their gunman. Which means we’re dealing with someone who is not messing around.”

“Professionals then, but we assumed that to begin with. A burglar wouldn’t get the drop on Dom Cobb even if he was distracted by finger paints. At the same time a professional wouldn’t have missed either.” Eames hooked his thumbs in his belt loops and looked around the house. “I don’t think we’re going to find anything here, Arthur.”

“I don’t either,” Arthur replied as he stood up. “Let’s get to the hospital.” They both walked out of the house and began the drive toward the hospital. They hit rush hour traffic and Eames said a few choice words in a few different languages as they moved mere inches in ten minutes. Arthur looked a little amused by his outbursts but remained silent. Eames knew the other man was deep in his own head thinking of exit strategies, where they could go next, what they were going to do next, and preparing to tear apart any plan that Cobb might have come up with in a panic induced delirium.

It was the middle of the night by the time they got to the hospital. Anyone else would be expecting some sort of trouble but it was like the staff did not even see them. Eames guessed that was Lydia’s doing but that did not make him grateful. The aliases they had were not dirty but they were not exactly the most convincing . Arthur looked from door to door until he stopped and opened one that lead into a white room. Phillipa was curled up on the bed with her brother who was alive but fast asleep. Cobb looked up from his chair and instantly looked relieved.

“You’re here,” he said and Arthur stared.

“Of course we are,” he replied. Eames could hear the implied ‘you idiot’ but Cobb seemed too distracted to notice. Arthur closed the door and the three of them stood as far away from the bed as possible.

“How is he?” Eames asked quietly.

“He lost a lot of blood and they had to do a transfusion but he’s going to be okay,” Cobb replied and Eames was tempted to ask Cobb if he was going to be okay. His hands were shaking, there was a bandage over his right eyebrow and he was pale. “Am I going to be able to go home? What with that...”

“Someone took care of that for us,” Arthur replied grimly. “I don’t know who you pissed off this time Dom, but it’s someone who doesn’t want it traced back to them. Your house is probably cleaner than it was before the gunfight.”

“What should I do?” Cobb asked after a long silence.

“Go underground,” Eames said and Arthur nodded. “You are going to hide until the two of us can figure this out. You’re going to stay there until one or both of us expressly tell you that you can leave. ”

“And you’re not helping,” Arthur finished. Cobb opened his mouth as if to say something but James stirred in the bed. “You stay with those kids or I’ll find some way of making you stay with them.” Eames knew that Arthur would make good on that threat and if the way Cobb’s eyes widened was any indication than he knew as well. “I’m going to find Lydia and then one of us will stay here while you get some sleep.”

“What if he wakes up--”

“Cobb, I was there when James was born and he met Eames when he was six months old. He knows us and he knows he can trust us because you trust us.” Arthur crossed his arms and stood a little taller somehow towering over the other man. “Don’t you?”

“Yes, yes, I do, thank you for coming out here so quickly. I owe you so much,” Cobb said softly.

“I’ll add it to the list,” Arthur deadpanned and he left the room. Cobb gave Eames a horrified look and Eames shrugged.

“He hasn’t slept much.”

Arthur walked out of the hospital room and ignored anything that Cobb might have said. At this point being the man’s friend was more like being a babysitter. Right now there were more important matters to deal with before he had any time to think straight. The world just needed to leave him alone so he could get everything done. Right now those things included finding the doctor that had saved James’ life. The doctors and nurses did not seem to notice Arthur as he made his way through the masses which was fine with him until he spotted the woman he was looking for.

Doctor Lydia Connors was looking over a chart when she noticed that someone was watching her. She was in her late thirties with long brown hair clipped up and round glasses sitting on the top of her head. Lydia set aside the chart that she was working on when she saw Arthur and tilted her head to the side. She walked toward him, a smile forming on her face, as she pulled him into a tight hug, kissed his cheek and told him he owed her $75,000 cash.

“Still as subtle as ever aren’t you,” Arthur said as they pulled out of the hug and Lydia beamed at him.

“It’s what I do,” she replied.

“I’ll pay you as soon as I get a little more settled here,” he said as the two of them walked through the hallways.

“I know you will,” Lydia said smugly but her smile faded slowly. “I don’t want to have to stitch up a kid like that again, Arthur.”

“I know and I’m sorry that I had to ask you to do something like that. I’m going to take care of this .” Arthur rolled his shoulders and looked straight ahead. “We need to leave as soon as possible.”

“I understand and as soon as I think that little boy is going to be okay, I’ll let him go.” Lydia glanced over at him. “Should I be worried about my safety?”

“I would keep the windows locked,” he said evenly which was all he could really tell her. Lydia always locked her windows but now she knew to keep a loaded weapon nearby. Arthur liked Lydia and he really did not want to have to hack any databases to keep her safe. They stopped in front of the window into James’ room and Arthur looked in at Cobb as he stared at the kids and Eames as he looked at something in a bag that was probably a weapon.

“That’s him, right?” Lydia asked. After he had completed the job for her Arthur had managed to become friends with Lydia just as she was about to finish medical school. The two of them had decided to be two cliches and got very drunk off of wine one night while watching terrible movies. Later Arthur had summarized that he had drank a bottle and a half by himself and he had somehow ended up telling Lydia about Eames. In return she had told him about the ex boyfriend of hers that had slept with her sister and they ended up falling asleep on the couch together. It was a moment that he had almost regretted letting his guard down until they came to an agreement not to blackmail each other. They had become friends after that even if they did pay each other for help.

“Yes,” he replied. Lydia did not say anything but she smiled to herself as if as if she was seeing something very entertaining. Arthur did not bother to ask because he knew she was just thrilled to meet the person that he had talked about that night.

“Are you going to be all right?” she asked after a brief silence.

“Let’s worry about that little boy first.” That seemed like a good enough answer for Lydia because she nodded and walked into the room. Cobb jumped as if someone had taken another shot at them but Eames looked up as if they did not have a care in the world. Lydia explained to Cobb how it was going to be another day or so before she was going to let James out of the hospital. He kept on thanking her over and over again and by the fifth time Arthur suspected that the good doctor was going to get annoyed at her patient’s father. Since James was so young Lydia wanted to keep him for an extra day. That meant Arthur had to split the next day between Eames so they could get Cobb out of the room and get some sleep. It took some effort but they managed to get Cobb and Phillipa out the door.

“I’ll see you in twelve hours,” Eames said as he pushed Cobb out of sight. Arthur nodded and sat down on one of the chairs in the room. James had woken up briefly but Lydia had given the boy some painkillers that put him right back to sleep. Now Arthur was alone in the room and had plenty of time to clear his thoughts. He began to look into places where he could hide Cobb and the kids, he called Miles and told him that it would be in his and Marie’s best interests to come for a visit right away and generally tried to restore some order. When he opened up the list of possible suspects Arthur rolled his eyes.

He knew that Eames had been in his bag and on his computer but he had not thought the other man had actually done anything. While trying to clear his head Arthur had jotted down a few notes about who could have made the hit and Eames had taken it upon himself to edit some of them. He had crossed Agent Burman and Cobol off of the list and both of his reasons made sense.

Cobol Engineering - come on now Arthur really? These people wouldn’t risk that.
Nathan Burman - I’d love to see this guy take a hit out on someone because it would be funny.

“Commentary is always appreciated,” Arthur muttered to himself but shut up when James shifted on the bed. He sat back and looked at the list in front of him and tried to come up with other people that Cobb could have pissed off enough to do this. Every time he thought of someone Arthur went back and crossed them off because they either did not have a strong enough motive or the resources. Everything he checked out seemed to backfire and he had heard no rumors anywhere about someone wanted Cobb dead. Arthur rubbed his temples as the hours dragged on. James Cobb was asleep in a hospital bed after nearly getting shot and and he could not seem to figure out why. The fact that the assassin had missed bothered Arthur just as much. Professionals came back and cleaned the scene but professionals did not miss targets standing right in front of them. Someone taking a hit on Cobb worried him but if Arthur was completely honest with himself the assassin missing was somehow worse.

Arthur took a deep breath and released it; there were still several hours until Eames came to take over and he intended to find something before then. There had to be a reason this happened.

Three days later and Eames finally collapsed onto a bed with every intention of sleeping for the next three days. Since they had left London he had only gotten a few hours of sleep and Arthur had probably gotten even less. When Eames was not at the hospital he was helping Cobb and Phillipa gather all of their belongings, picking up Miles and Marie from the airport, and then watching James. While at the hospital Arthur had taken over and had put the final parts of their plan into motion and arranged for a safe house. As soon as Lydia walked into the room and released James Eames took the boy to the location where Cobb and Company were to stay until further notice. They had finished that all of two hours ago and now he was lying in a hotel room in downtown LA lying down for the first time since this had all started.

Arthur was on his computer doing something that Eames was not really that concerned with because they needed to get some sleep. They had all but erased Cobb from existence so no one would be finding the him anytime soon yet Arthur was still buried on his computer as if an assassin was going to break down someones door at any given moment. The sound of the typing was like little bugs and it made Eames’ skin crawl.

“We need to get some sleep,” he said into the pillow.

“Don’t let me stop you,” Arthur replied easily and Eames did not need to look at his friend to hear the exhaustion in his voice. If Arthur had had five hours of sleep under his belt from the last three days Eames would have been surprised. However, he also knew about Arthur’s tendency to tunnel vision focus even when he did not really need to. The idea of starting an argument about it seemed like the next logical course of action but Eames was not in the mood to try and convince Arthur to get some sleep. Eames shifted so he was lying on his back and watched Arthur carefully. If he noticed Eames watching him he did not react or he was too tired to notice but either way Eames chalked it up as a good thing because he was able to reach over and take Arthur’s laptop without giving him a chance to retaliate. “Eames, what are you doing?” Instead of explaining himself Eames set the set laptop aside and pulled Arthur down into a kiss. Unlike most moments in their lives the other man did not fight this, he must have been much more exhausted than Eames originally thought, and Arthur melted into the kiss.

Eames had it on good authority that he did this ‘thing’ with his tongue that was very ‘distracting’ according to Arthur. This distraction let Eames move so he could hover over his friend, kissing him deeply. The distraction and exhaustion played a pivotal role in how Eames managed to pin Arthur’s wrists to the side before the other man could react.

“Here’s how this is going to work,” Eames said against Arthur’s lips. “You’re going to get some sleep or I’m going to stay here and tease you until you get too frustrated to keep your eyes open.”

“That’s dirty pool,” Arthur replied though he did not sound overly bothered.

“So what’ll it be, dear? Are you going to get some sleep or am I going to have to get mean?” Eames nibbled on Arthur’s earlob and the other man arched a little.

“I absolutely hate everything about you.” Eames was about to agree that he hated Arthur just as much when Arthur freed his wrists and yanked Eames back down for another kiss. This one was like all of their kisses, hard with teeth and tongues as they fought against each other. Eames would be damned if he gave Arthur an inch in their sexual relationship. Eames bit Arthur’s lower lip and loved the groan that it drew from the other man. They reached for each other’s clothes. Eames was fumbling with the buttons on Arthur’s button down while Arthur all but ripped Eames’ jacket off, and they broke apart only long enough to free their respective bodies of the constricting fabrics. He almost had Arthur’s pants off when the phone rang and they both froze. “I’m all but convinced the universe has something against us fucking because we get interrupted by phone calls more than we actually fuck.”

“We really need to turn them on silent,” Arthur replied, breathless. As the shrill sound of the phone echoed in the hotel room Eames moved back enough so he was staring at the man he could easily call his best friend. They were inches apart, close enough that Eames could count Arthur’s eyelashes, and he impatiently waited for the Arthur to throw him off so he could answer the damned phone. “Cobb’s not supposed to be calling anyway.” Arthur did not give Eames time to process that before they were kissing again.

“You must be deliriously tired if you’re ignoring the phone,” Eames said as he kissed down the Arthur’s neck and bit along his collarbone.

“Maybe there are just other things I’d rather be doing right now. Emphasis on the word ‘doing’ of course,” Arthur replied sounding a little too coherent. Eames grinned and pushed Arthur’s boxers down to wrap a hand around his cock. If Arthur had anything snarky to say after that it was lost which was probably a good thing because the room was suddenly too small for Eames to think clearly either. They managed to kick Eames’ pants off as well and Eames wrapped his hand around both of them, moving slowly. Arthur muttered various curses in a variety languages and when his orgasm hit him, Eames briefly saw stars. Arthur followed not long after and they both went boneless on the bed side by side. “If this is how you plan on getting me to sleep from now on I’m going to work myself into the ground more often.”

“Hysterical,” Eames deadpanned as he pushed himself to his feet and got a wet cloth to wipe them both down. “What’s the plan?” he asked as he settled back onto the bed.

“I have tickets booked to New York. We shouldn’t hang around the area any longer than we need to,” Arthur replied and he glanced at Eames. “Even if Cobb is safe I don’t want to risk it.”

“I know you don’t so let’s get out of here,” Eames replied. “New York it is.” Arthur flashed a tired smile and they kissed briefly before rolling onto either side of the bed and drifting off to sleep.

Arthur woke up to the sound of the alarm on his phone going off and he really wished that he could ignore it. Despite the fact that he had slept almost as soon as he finished talking with Eames his body was still two days behind. Arthur pushed himself to his feet and kicked Eames in the foot to wake him up as well. Normally a fight that ended in sex would have followed but judging by the way Eames simply woke up and began to get dressed he was just as sleep deprived. Two quick showers later and they were on the way to the airport but Arthur could not stop obsessing over Cobb, the kids and their safety. He had just finished lecturing Cobb about calling him and hoped that the man would understand what he was and was not supposed to do but now he was just worried.

“Stop obsessing or you’re going to give yourself wrinkles,” Eames said.

“Sometimes I honestly think you can read my mind, Mr. Eames,” Arthur replied evenly.

“Don’t be stupid, Arthur, I can’t read minds ,” Eames replied waving him off as they drove. “I don’t need to be able to read your mind to know what you’re thinking.”

“Did you really just say that?” Arthur asked raising an eyebrow. “I can’t believe you really just said that.”

“It’s like you don’t know me at all.” Eames grinned and Arthur rolled his eyes as they drove through the city toward the airport. The traffic was light and they were able to get on the plane without any problems. They did not talk about the attempt on Cobb’s life for the entire flight because as soon as they were in the air they were both asleep again. The announcement that they were about to land jerked Arthur back to the waking world and another kick to Eames’ foot had him awake. As they gathered their belongings Arthur tried to think about what they needed to do next. It was nearly six in the evening, though, and they had only eaten a little since the day before. It did not take a lot of convincing to get them both in a taxi toward one of their favorite restaurants.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Arthur said over a bottle of wine.

“What doesn’t?” Eames asked as he broke off another piece of bread.

“No one has any information about the hit. There isn’t anything else Cobb could be involved in that someone would want to kill him over and no one in the community is talking.”

“Usually when there is a bit hit like that you can’t get people to shut up about it. Why the silence over this one? What is so different about this one that no one is talking?”

“Maybe they just aren’t talking to me,” Arthur suggested as he poured himself some more wine. “Most people knew that Cobb and I worked together so it seems like something that no one would want me to know about. At the same time, though, I’ve got people out there that I at least trust a little and they would tell me if something was going on. The way the house was cleaned suggests a professional but the guy missed his target makes me want to lean toward an amateur. This entire thing doesn’t sit right; something else is going on that someone isn’t telling me.”

“I’ll get in contact with the people I know too but we’re just as connected as you and Cobb were if not more so. If someone is keeping something from you the last person they are going to tell is me.” Eames sat back in his chair and creased his eyebrows deeply. “Are we really going to have to bribe our own contacts?”

“I’m starting to think I should charge Cobb for protecting his ass,” Arthur grumbled as he rubbed his temples.

“You’d bankrupt the man,” Eames replied grinning.

“I have to retire somehow,” Arthur replied smiling fondly and Eames laughed as they high fived across the table. A table over from them was a family with two kids, a girl too busy texting on her phone and a boy about Phillipa’s age, looked at them oddly. High fiving in a five star restaurant was probably not commonplace but at this point Arthur really did not care . The boy giggled when he looked over at them and Eames flashed his most charming smile at the mother which Arthur countered by nodding politely to the husband. The family seemed amused by them which was a good way of livening up a meal in a place like this.

A bullet shattering the window next to them was another wave of livening up a meal but not in the way that Arthur really wanted. The bullet had narrowly missed him, inches from his head, to the point where he felt it go by. They both dropped to the ground and kicked up the table to shield them from any more bullets as the people around them began to scream.

“Arthur!” Eames shouted at him and he blinked to see the other man staring at him with wide eyes. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine!” Arthur yelled back over the chaos as another shot ricocheted off of the wood work. It hit some of the china and tiny shards of glass rained down on them. They were too far away to get to the exit without getting shot. Eames tried to move so he could see where the gunman was but a bullet narrowly missed him as well as they took cover again. “They’re shooting at both of us?” Eames did not respond, he was too busy looking at something, and Arthur followed his line of sight.

The girl at the next table was on the floor, cell phone in her hand when the bullet pierced her head and she fell to the ground in a heap. The father was next to her; he had gone to his daughter’s aide, but had gotten shot in the process. He was bleeding out from a wound on his chest and choking as his lungs filled with blood. His wife and son were nearby screaming and crying over their lost family members, as a little boy watched his father die slowly, and he looked up at Arthur as if he knew that it was all their fault.

The sight of that little boy made Arthur see red and when he looked back at Eames he saw a familiar fury. He really did not want to pull a gun out in public but they had to get the assassin to stop firing long enough for them to escape. The particular aliases they were both traveling under had conceal carry permits and they had both put their pistols back in their holsters after the flight. Arthur pulled out his gun and glanced over at Eames who did the same. Arthur thought quickly about where the bullet had come from and what kind of angle it deducing where the assassin could be.

“Seventh floor to the right!” Arthur shouted and they both looked up to see someone in the window of a building across the street. Arthur fired three shots at the assailant and the shooter ducked out of the way. They both scrambled to their feet and raced out of the restaurant. Eames had the presence of mind to grab their overnight bags as Arthur kicked open the back door into an alley, gun at the ready.

“Logic dictates that we head to ground,” Eames said. “But that person is our only lead.” The ‘and he killed two innocent people’ was unspoken but Arthur did not need convincing. Eames handed Arthur his bag, they both loaded new magazines into their guns and walked out into the chaos. The good people of New York were too busy taking care of the wounded wounded to pay any attention to the two men making their way through the masses. The chaos worked to their advantage because the cops were also too busy to think about the fact that they had an assassin in the building nearby. The assassin did not take another shot at them as they made their way through the crowd but Arthur made sure to keep his head down .

The assassin chose a business building and the back door was locked. Arthur did not like the idea of breaking into a building without knowing it’s layout or security but they had to get to that assassin. Arthur nodded as he watched their surroundings and Eames picked the lock.

“Brilliant,” Eames whispered as he got the door open. They walked in carefully, guns held high, but left their bags at the exit. While Arthur did not like the idea of leaving something behind they were going up against someone who had taken shots at two former military dreamshare criminals in a crowded restaurant. The chances that this person was going to give them problems were too high to worry about losing a bag or even his computer. Arthur nodded to Eames and they slowly made their way through the building. Arthur was thankful it was Sunday, and there did not seem to be anyone in the area at all. As they made their way toward the room where he was almost sure the gunman was Arthur was beginning to think they had missed him.

While he should not have been surprised when he turned a corner and someone punched him in the face that did not stop Arthur from being irritated about it. The assassin knocked his gun away and kicked Arthur hard enough that he stumbled back, narrowly avoiding hitting Eames. Eames moved to turn the gun on the man but he kicked the gun out of Eames’ hand and sent him back several paces. Arthur did not recognize the gunman but that did not mean anything. He also felt his age because this kid looked like he was about eighteen if you looked anywhere but his eyes. His eyes were dark, haunted, they reminded him of people that he had seen tortured in dreams or those lost in limbo.

Arthur straightened and rushed the kid who ducked his punch and moved much faster than he thought was possible. This kid was a trained killer and Arthur got hit in the stomach hard enough that he swore he saw stars for a moment. The assassin roundhouse kicked and sent Arthur down to the ground hard. As he tried to get his breath back Eames regained his footing and he went for the assassin. He was thin, much like Arthur was, so he was faster than Eames but the punch Eames landed looked like it should have taken down a smaller man. Instead the kid brushed it off and punched Eames in the stomach. When he doubled over the assassin through his knee into Eames’ face and knocked him to the ground. Without waiting an extra second the assassin kicked Eames hard enough in the ribs to break something and Arthur hard enough in the chest that he bit through his tongue in pain.

“Who sent you?” Arthur asked as he spit some blood on the ground. His ears were ringing and he could feel blood running from a wound on his head. Eames did not look much better with a possibly broken bloody nose and at least a bruised rib.

“You are not my client therefore I am not obligated to talk to you,” the assassin replied as he gathered his things.

“Maybe you should listen to your elders,” Eames warned but when he moved the kid turned with a gun pointed directly at him; Eames stilled.

“Where is Dominic Cobb?” he asked as he walked over to them, taking another gun out and training it on Arthur as well. There was a beat of silence and, for the first time since they had seen the kid, Arthur saw a flicker of emotion. “I have permission to use torture if need be but the threat of such things will not affect either of you.”

“You can fuck right off, buddy,” Arthur said and when the kid looked at him he kicked the assassin’s feet. The gun pointed at him went off and he felt something burn his side but there was no time consider what it meant. He snatched the weapon and looked down at the little assassin as he stared back at him. “Now, we’ll ask again, who sent you?” The kid stared at them for a moment, his head tilted to the side,. The assassin smiled as he opened his mouth to reveal a small pill inside that was now broken. Foam formed in the kid’s mouth and he twitched for only a moment until he fell still.

“I didn’t know people used suicide pills in the real world,” Eames said as he looked down at the kid. Arthur did not respond. He just looked down at the kid, and noted that he really was nothing more than a teenager. “He got a piece of you.” Arthur blinked and looked to see that, yes, he had been grazed when he decided to kick the gun toting assassin’s feet out from underneath him.

“We can’t stay here,” Arthur replied as he put a hand on his wound and winced. They gathered their weapons and moved to get out of the building as fast as they could. Despite how much pain he was in Eames put Arthur’s arm over his shoulder as they limped through the building.

“There’s only one person the three of us have worked together for recently,” Eames said quietly.

“I know,” Arthur replied carefully as they retrieved their bags, fortunately before any police decided to look into the building. It had dawned on him the moment the kid had fallen to the ground; there was only one person the three of them had worked for in years and only one powerful enough that could order a hit on all three of them. Arthur was trying not to think about it because the prospect made his head hurt even more. “They missed again and I’ll look into it.”

“I know you will,” Eames replied. Neither of them said anything more as they ducked their heads down and vanished into the crowds of a panicked New York City.

It took a few hours to make their way to one of the many safe houses they had located around the world and by then Arthur was ready to pass out. It was not so much from blood loss, though he guessed that the wound in his torso was not helping, but also that he was just exhausted. There was a lot going on right now and he was having trouble getting all of it sorted in his head. They needed to get out of the country as soon as possible and go into hiding. Someone wanted them dead and they were willing to take shots at civilians. Whoever they had angered was not taking any chances and neither was he.

Eames moved swiftly toward their first aid station as soon as they opened the door to the tiny studio apartment.

“Let me see your ribs,” Eames said. They both sat down on the small bed in a corner. Arthur pealed off his jacket and shirt. The blood made it stick and he tried very hard to hide the wince of pain but he was sure Eames noticed it. Without needing to be told he lay down with the wound facing the other man and put his arm above his head allowing the forger to get to work.

“We need to get out of the country,” Arthur said as he felt the needle slide into his skin.

“Sooner rather than later. I don’t really want to die,” Eames replied as he worked.

“I don’t either,” he said. “Do we have any passports that are clear?”

“Yes, I have a few that’ll get us out of America.” Eames tied off the stitches and sat up straight. Eames did not wince as Arthur checked over his nose and decided that it was not broken though it had been a close call. Arthur leaned over and put pressure on Eames’ ribs; there was no grinding which meant that they were not broken but Eames still winced in pain. “Fuck that hurts.”

“I don’t think it’s meant to feel good,” Arthur replied a bit too smugly as he applied tape to keep it in place. “We probably both have concussions.”

“Guess that means no sleep for now,” Eames replied. “Shall we get ready to high tail it out of here?”

“Always a good time.” Arthur flashed a smile which the other man returned and they both went off in different directions in the apartment. Arthur pulled out his laptop and looked for flights that were taking off in the next few hours. He was running on fumes and so was Eames but there was no way they would get any sleep until it was safe. Eames was checking over their passports for any errors when Arthur’s phone went off. They both stopped and looked at each other.

“Were you expecting anyone to call?”

“No, I put out notice that we were going on vacation and were not going to be available for work,” Arthur replied as he picked up his phone. The name on the screen read Saito Hiroshi and for the first time in his life Arthur froze up completely. Eames must have noticed because he was next to him in seconds, his eyes wide.

“The timing is way too convenient,” Eames said.

“And it will look obvious that we know that if we don’t answer,” Arthur replied as he answered the phone. “Arthur here.”

“Mr. Arthur, this is Saito Hiroshi,” Saito said casually.

“Mr. Saito, what can I do for you today?” he asked.

“I was wondering if you could fly out to Tokyo for a dinner meeting. I have some work I’d like you to do and it’s not something I’d like to discuss over the phone.” Eames was pressed against his body so he could listen and he pulled away his eyes wide.

“It’s very last minute for me to fly out to Japan,” Arthur said carefully. Eames mouthed ‘no’ very blatantly.

“I’d pay for the flight. of course. I do own an airline after all. Is that something holding you up?” Saito asked. His phone beeped, signaling another call, and he looked up to see Eames calling his phone.

“Mr. Saito, I’m afraid I have an urgent call I need to take quickly, may I place you on hold?” Arthur asked.

“Yes, yes, do what you need to.” Arthur placed Saito on hold and looked up at Eames.

“You can’t go,” Eames said sternly. “For all we know he’s the one that’s trying to kill us and you want to go have sushi?”

“That was a little racist, Eames, and who said anything about me considering it?” Arthur asked.

“I know you,” Eames said, which was really answer enough because he was considering it.

“If we say ‘no’ he’ll know we’re onto him. We need to find out one way or another and Saito isn’t someone to leave a paper trail I could track. I need to go,” Arthur replied. Eames stared at him, eyes narrow, and crossed his arms across his chest.

“I’m going,” he said. Arthur opened his mouth to disagree but Eames held up a hand. “You are not going alone. Period. This one missed too, remember? Something else is going on here and there is no way I’m letting you go alone,” The truth was it was a good idea to have Eames with him for backup if things went wrong. Arthur nodded and switched the phone back to Saito.

“Sorry about that, Mr. Saito, but business called,” Arthur said.

“That’s fine, can I expect you out here for dinner? Where are you currently and is Mr. Eames with you as well.? Does he need a ticket?” Saito asked. Arthur briefly considered saying that they were not together but there was also a chance that they could be split up. With assassins gunning for them he felt much more secure as a duo than solo.

“We’re in Boston and another ticket would be great.”

“Excellent. I will email you the boarding passes and when you get here we’ll discuss dinner. Have a good night, Mr. Arthur.” Saito hung up and Arthur stood in the apartment with his phone in hand, Eames watching him closely.

“We need to get ready,” Arthur said.

Saito was unsurprisingly efficient at getting them plane tickets to Japan on short notice. Fortunately they had enough time to travel the four hours or so to get from New York to Boston. The drive plus checking into the airport left them both enough time to get to the terminal without any problems. The problem, however, was how many people kept giving them looks because of their injuries. His nose had swollen into two black eyes and Arthur’s fat lip was impressive (if a little distracting). They made small talk and to anyone walking by it would have sounded like they had been jumped by someone and had barely made it out alive. A few people walked by and seemed interested. Eames told them the story and made sure it was as extravagant as possible. The passerby either laughed or dismissed him as a comedian .

The flight was a total of eighteen hours, with a connection in California, and sleeping seemed like the best idea. They were in first class with businessmen who did not seem to care that they were there. Eames could not settle down, however, because they were on the airline that Saito owned. If Saito was trying to kill them, he was someone who had no problem shooting teenage girls and Eames Eames would not have been surprised if Saito was willing to crash the entire plane despite the fact that both of the assassins had missed their targers.

“We’re not both going to dinner,” Arthur said as they waited for their plane in California. The other man had slept on and off for the flight. Eames had as well, but it was not nearly enough rest.

“I need to be your back up,” he replied. “I’ve got your back, Arthur.”

“I know you do.” The assurance was not needed but it still made him smile a little to know how much Arthur trusted him. “I’m not sure if I can find a way for you to listen in.”

“I’d probably manipulate him better, you know,” Eames pointed out.

“You’re a liar and a thief--”

“--thank you for the lovely compliment--”

“--he’ll be much more likely to trust me.” Arthur glared at Eames who just flashed his best smile. “Do we have contacts?” This was Arthur’s way of asking if they knew anyone who could sell them firearms.

“Yes, and our files are safe,” which was code for ‘we got the PASIV on the plane and we’re good to go.’ Arthur nodded, closed his eyes and appeared to be deep in thought. Eames did not bother him because he knew the look of the man forming a plan. Instead Eames busied himself with trying to come up with the best way to help Arthur manipulate Saito into telling them exactly what was going on.

They landed, retrieved the PASIV, checked into a hotel and no one took a shot at them so Eames considered this a victory for now. They both sat away from the windows and out of sight. They had a meeting with an arms dealer in thirty minutes and now it was just a matter of waiting for Saito to invite Arthur to dinner. It was still the afternoon and Eames was beginning to feel the exhaustion straight down to his bones. There was a point that all dreamers reached where they needed sleep, any kind of sleep, and they were fast approaching this mark.

“After we get the guns we need to take naps,” Eames said. Arthur looked up at him, his dark eyes bloodshot with dark lines underneath them. He looked just as tired as Eames felt.

“We’ll take shifts,” Arthur replied. They sat in silence, both collecting their thoughts, until they made their way through the busy streets of the city. Eames could feel eyes on them but they only lingered for so long. They’re just looking at the injuries, he thought more or less to reassure himself.

Fortunately, the arms dealer was in a good mood and gave them a decent discount. He looked tempted to ask about the black eyes and split lips but held his tongue . When they finally arrived back at the hotel they were armed well enough that Eames could feel a little of the tension fading from his shoulders.

“Go to sleep,” he told Arthur. The other man stared, looked like he was about to argue, but nodded. Eames knew that Arthur must be very tired because he just collapsed onto the bed suit and all. The only thing he managed to do was kick off his shoes and was fast asleep in moments. That left Eames with his thoughts and weapons to clean. He tried not to focus on the fact that they were possibly being hunted by one of the most powerful men in the world. He tried not to focus on the fact that a sniper could kill one or both of them when they walked out the door. He tried not to focus on the fact that Arthur could walk into a restaurant and get shot point blank. Eames tried not to think about things because they made his gut twist into tight knots. Instead he focused on cleaning the guns and Arthur’s even breathing.

The three hours of sleep he got were some of the best of Arthur’s life and he felt so much better when Eames woke him up. He slowly opened his eyes and the other man came into focus. They were almost nose to nose, close enough to touch, but Arthur kept his hands to himself. Instead he sat up and stretched.

“Feel better?” Eames asked sitting down next to him on the bed.

“You have no idea,” Arthur replied. It was mid afternoon now and he hoped that he could stall Saito until the evening so Eames could get some sleep. “Well, off to bed with you,” he said with a flick of the wrist.

“You’re a twat,” Eames said leaning in to kiss him briefly.

“Thank you for the lovely compliment,” Arthur quoted Eames’ previous statement back at him.

“I meant every word,” Eames replied and crawled onto the bed. Arthur stood up and noticed that every gun was cleaned and ready to go. He was about to ask about it when he realized Eames was already asleep. Instead he set his phone to vibrate and opened his laptop. When they had arrived in the city Arthur had set up a dummy check in at another hotel across town. They had stopped by, checked in and left while picking up the guns. If nothing else it made him feel a little better to have a decoy location. He busied himself with looking over more escape routes through the city . Arthur hoped they wouldn’t but, he also did not have very high hopes.

Two hours into Eames’ nap, Arthur’s phone rang. He picked it up, saw Saito’s name and promptly took the call in the bathroom.

“Arthur here,” he said.

“Ah, Mr. Arthur, how was your flight?” Saito asked.

“Long but dull.”

“The Pacific is quite large and very boring,” the businessmen said chuckling. “Are you and Mr. Eames ready to meet me for dinner?”

“Eames has some business to attend to here so it’ll just be me,” Arthur replied.

“Ah, well, that’s fine. How does two hours from now sound for dinner?”

“Sounds perfect.” Saito gave Arthur directions to a restaurant and hung up moments later. Without wasting a second Arthur sat down at his computer and looked up the building plus the surrounding area. By the time he needed to wake Eames up so they could change Arthur knew the area better than the locals. Arthur walked over and gently shook Eames awake. Eames stirred and opened his eyes.

“What’s the plan?” he asked sleepily.

“Shower, change and I’ll show you the location,” Arthur replied. “And we’re not sharing a shower, Eames. We’re not going to be late.”

“You ruin all of my fun,” Eames replied smiling. He stood up and vanished into the bathroom. When he emerged, Arthur took his place standing under the hot spray longer than he needed to. It felt good to shower, get into fresh clothes. and they both put new bandages on their wounds. His lip was still split and Eames’ black eyes looked pretty terrible but there was nothing they could do about it.

When Arthur emerged from the shower Eames was already looking at the map and they spent time going over it. Eames was to wait outside armed and ready to back Arthur up. Unfortunately the area was densely populated and a car would not be any use to them for several blocks. The rental car was to be there waiting with all of their things inside.

“We’re going to be late if we wait any longer,” Eames said checking his phone. Arthur watched Eames carefully, realizing he could very well be walking into a trap, and one of them could die. It made his chest hurt just thinking about it. Arthur into Eames’ space and kissed him hard. Eames returned the kiss just as furiously, pulling them close together, and Arthur briefly wondered if his lip was going to split open again. They pulled away at the same time and stared. “I’ve got your back, Arthur.”

“You always do,” he replied . They packed their things, checked out of the hotel and drove the rental car to their destination. Eames lingered behind and Arthur made his way through the crowds to the restaurant. It was busy, which he considered a good thing, but that had not stopped an assassin in New York. Saito was already there and a hostess escorted Arthur to a booth in the corner. Arthur did not like the location; it was too far away from any exits, but it was not like he could ask Saito to move. The businessman looked up as Arthur approached and smiled.

“Arthur, good to see you, please have a seat,” he said. “I have a bottle of warm sake, would you like a glass?”

“I’ll pass, thank you,” Arthur replied. He did not see anyone watching him but that did not mean that there was no one nearby. Eames was just outside, out of sight, blending in the way only a thief and forger could. “How is business?”

“Very good, thank you for asking, but we’re not here to talk about my actual business, now are we?” Saito smiled but it seemed forced.

“What are you looking for?” Arthur asked.

“We’ll get to that in a moment.” Saito waved him off and gestured to a waiter who brought over a large plate. Saito took a piece off of food and added it to a smaller plate but Arthur could not ease the feeling in his gut that eating the food would be a bad idea. “How is Mr. Cobb? Have you heard from him recently?”

“Not in a little while, but last I heard he was doing well,” Arthur easily lied.

“Excellent to hear. After the incident with IDCA and that agent’s investigation I can understand him being uneasy.” Saito took a sip of sake and Arthur tilted his head.

“I never said he was uneasy,” he replied. “But he shouldn’t be because it’s been dealt with. That investigation was closed when Agent Burman left the association.” Saito looked up from his food and their eyes met across the table.

“I’m glad to hear that,” Saito said. He set down his chopsticks. “One could understand how it would make someone nervous though.”

“Mr. Saito, why did you invite me out here?” Arthur asked, tired of beating around the bush. The longer he took in here the higher their chances that Eames would be spotted.

“The investigation with IDCA had made me nervous and I don’t like feeling nervous,” Saito replied. “Mr. Arthur, you’re not a stupid man, and I think you know what is going on here. I have loose ends to tie up and these are not loose ends someone like yourself can take care of. Since they are beyond your abilities I’ve hired others to take care of it for me. I’m sure someone who values security as much as yourself can understand.”

“I’m afraid I can’t,” Arthur replied briskly. “The IDCA incident was a fluke because Cobol did not kill Nash like we expected them to. That being said, however, I’m not sure you entirely realize what doors you’re opening, Mr. Saito.”

The older man smiled, obviously amused, and picked up his glass to take another drink.

“I’ve seen you in action, Arthur; I know exactly what door I’m opening.”

“Cobb risked a lot to pull you out of limbo and this is how you repay him?” Arthur asked.

“Have you ever been to limbo, Mr. Arthur? No, I don’t think you have, because you still carry the air of a young man; a young man that has been and done terrible things but a young man nevertheless. I am not a young man anymore, I’ve lived a full life, and I think I’m going to make things more interesting the second time around. You are correct, I do owe Mr. Cobb my life, and that is why the first attempt missed,” Saito explained.

“And the incident in New York?”

“I had to get your attention somehow.” Saito picked up his drink and took a sip. “There won’t be anymore mishaps like that now. I have your attention and you know what I intend to do.”

“This isn’t a dream. Those weren’t projections that were killed in that restaurant but real people. I won’t let you hurt anyone else.” Arthur clenched his fists and tried to keep his anger under control.

“And I admire that determination even if it is futile.” Saito glanced off to the side and Arthur could see two men three tables over glance their way. “I’m a gentlemen, though, and I do enjoy some sport so I’m giving you a thirty second head start. It is also the honorable thing to do considering the circumstances.”

Arthur stared, unable to believe that someone actually thought that way in the real world, and stood.

“You have no idea whom you’re dealing with” he warned but Saito merely smiled, tapping his ridiculously expensive watch like he was starring in a summer blockbuster.

“Twenty seconds.”

Arthur wasted no more time with this facade and ran for the exit, shoving people aside as he did. The men from the other table were standing , clearing about to give chase. He was out the door in minutes and barely gave Eames time to react as they bolted through the streets. A shot rang out and the people around them scattered.

“How many?” Eames asked as they ducked around a corner.

“Two, minimum, but there could be more,” Arthur replied. “They’re going to shoot someone that isn’t us. I can’t let that happen.” Eames glanced at him and nodded. They turned a final corner and flanked both sides of the alley. The men from the restaurant turned the corner but as soon as Arthur and Eames started firing, they ducked out of sight. Bullets shattered the brick nearby as Arthur turned and fired another shot. These men were obviously professionals . Another shot shattered the brick and Arthur closed his eyes, focusing. He remembered the military and he thought of dreams, he thought of how he could slow this down if he wanted to, and it was surreal because it almost felt like it did. I need to check my totem, Arthur thought, and he looked at Eames. Their eyes met and they did not need to shout at each other, they never had, and they both turned at the same time, firing one shot each.

The bullets struck home and the two men fell to the ground. People were still screaming but there was no more gunfire. Arthur clicked the safety on his pistol , shoved it into the holster in his jacket and looked at Eames. Eames nodded and they took off jogging toward the car.

“Let’s go pick up a pint sized architect from Paris,” Eames said. In any other situation it would have been an amusing statement but it had weight behind it; Saito was gunning for all of them and there was no time.

Eames wasn’t sure how Arthur managed to get them out of Japan but it took four different planes until they finally touch down in Paris. By then he barely felt good enough to walk let alone drive. They took a cab to a small hotel near the university. They had not contacted Ariadne yet because it did not seem safe to tell her what was going on over the phone. Instead they were going to go straight to her between classes. If she suspected anything with Miles being gone she had not mentioned it to anyone and they had both told her to contact them if anything should happen.

The hotel door opened easily and Eames tossed his bag to the side. They had a large one bedroom with bright windows that he resented the hell out of because he was so tired. He turned when he heard the door shut as Arthur set his things down too. Arthur looked so tired to the point that it almost hurt to look at him. They needed sleep or they were going to be worthless

He walked forward, taking Arthur by the jacket. The other man watched him carefully and let Eames pull him into the room. Neither of them said a word . They and the people they care about are in danger, and that was terrifying in a way that the prospect of limbo had never been. Eames pressed their foreheads together and they stood there for a long time. It could have been seconds, minutes, hours, Eames was never sure when it came to Arthur. They were something so different from anything else in the world. He knew he was not the only one who thought that, Arthur had described them much the same way, because they just fit in a way that seemed unreal.

“I’m not letting him hurt anyone,” Arthur said with such conviction that Eames had to smile.

“Don’t worry; I’m not either,” Eames replied and he tapped their foreheads together gently. “He doesn’t get to take anything away from us.”

“I told him that he doesn’t know who he’s dealing with.” There was a certain level of mischief in Arthur’s eyes that was extremely reassuring.

“And he doesn’t.” Eames pulled away and grinned at his friend. “Let’s block out that window and get some sleep. Saito has quite the mess to clean up in Japan so let’s get our heads on straight again.” Arthur nodded and they both stripped out of clothes that smelled of fear and airplanes. Arthur closed the blinds and Eames practically pulled him into bed. He settled onto his own side of the bed, Arthur a warm presence at his back but in his own space, and Eames fell into a deep sleep.

He was not sure how long they slept but the sound of a phone ringing jerked Eames back into the real world. He had been dreaming, a natural dream, and he scrambled to find his poker chip. Arthur was slowly waking up and he creased his eyebrows deeply as he picked up the phone.

“Hello?” he said and there was a long pause as he listened. Eames did not lean in to eavesdrop, not this time, instead he fell back against the pillows and thumbed his totem. The dream, he could not remember it, but it left him feeling very off center in a way even his totem was failing to relieve. “All right, I appreciate it, thanks.” Arthur hung up the phone and stared straight at Eames, waiting for an explanation.

“I had a dream,” Eames said. Arthur raised an eyebrow. “I had a natural dream and I don’t remember it.”

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes, I’ll be okay.” Eames yawned and rubbed his eyes. “How long were we asleep?”

“About twelve hours,” Arthur replied shrugging when Eames stared in disbelief. “We were tired.”

“Apparently.” he said. Slowly he sat up and Arthur did the same. Briefly he thought about pushing the ‘one shower’ issue as he did every time they both needed the bathroom but it did not seem like a good time. Instead Eames got under the hot spray and stayed there until his skin felt raw. His nose still hurt and a brief look in the mirror showed that the once black eyes were now more of an ugly green color. At least it’s healing, he thought. He exited to get dressed as Arthur vanished into the shower as well. When the other man returned, hair slicked back and changed into fresh clothes, it was fairly obvious that he felt much better. Eames was half tempted to make fun of Arthur for it but, in the end, he held his tongue on the basis that he felt much better too.

“Do we still have an ID for Ariadne?” Arthur asked. “We should be able to get out of the country , it’s not like she’s wanted like we are, but we’re going to have to vanish her once she’s safe.”

“I can get something together once I have the right supplies,” Eames replied pausing briefly to think. “We should all just go to Mombasa. Yusuf, while plenty capable of taking out an assassin with some random chemical, is a target too. We all might as well get together to figure out what to do.”

“As soon as we get Ariadne I’ll get us on the next flight to Kenya .” Arthur snapped his suitcase shut as he looked through his phone, “Ariadne has a pistol in her apartment but I plan to get out of here before Saito catches up. He’s going to expect us here and he knows where to find Ariadne but Yusuf has moved his sleep labs since the last time Saito was in Mombasa.”

“When a chemist doesn’t want to be found people tend to turn up with amnesia,” Eames said smirking. “Let’s go kidnap Ariadne.” Arthur rolled his eyes as the two of them walked out of the hotel. A quick check out, a rental car and they were on the way to the university. Arthur already had Ariadne’s schedule, and they opted to sit on the steps outside one of her classes as they waited for it to end. Eames lit up a cigarette that Arthur would pluck out of his hand every so often to steal a drag.

The door burst open and a line of students poured out of the building. When Ariadne emerged she froze staring at them. She looked the same, dressed in her normal scarf and jeans, but the brief horror in her large eyes caught Eames’ attention. Sh scrambled for something in her bag and he could see a chess piece in her hand. Seconds later relief flooded her features and she smiled.

“To what do I owe the pleasure, boys?”

Eames smiled as Ariadne looked both of them over. She still looked at then same way because she knew more than anyone else what they were and how they worked. Ariadne was not as young as she looked nor was she as innocent but that did not mean that she truly understood how ruthless this business could be. She still needed to be protected and that was why Eames felt justified sweeping Ariadne off her feet and into his arms.

"I'm here to sweep you off of your feet, of course," he said smiling.

"I can see that," Ariadne replied rolling her eyes. "Why are you really here?"

"Let's go for a walk," Arthur said standing. Eames set Ariadne on her feet as her smile faded.

"All right," she replied cautiously as if she sensed that something was wrong. The three of them began to make their way across the campus though Arthur did not seem to be in any hurry to tell her what was going on. They walked toward the car and Eames briefly wondered if they were just going to throw her in a car and be done with it.

"I tried to call Cobb the other day and it told me the number was no longer in service."

"I know. I'm the one that took it offline," Arthur replied.

"I sent him an email and I got an error saying that it couldn't send because the account did not exist. I just talked to him via email a week ago without any problems. What aren't you guys telling me?"

"We need to leave the country," Eames said. "And you need to come with us."

Ariadne pressed her lips together looking deep in thought
"This serious," she stated but did not wait for confirmation. "I have a bag packed under my bed with all of the information that you gave me the last time something went wrong. All I need to do is pick that up and we can be on the next plane out of here."

"You're not going to ask why?" Arthur asked raising both of his eyebrows in surprise.

"It's the middle of the semester and you both know how much school means to me. You wouldn't ask me to walk away unless it was important."

Eames had not thought of that but if it got Ariadne on the plane, then he was all right with that. They walked at a brisk pace to the car and Ariadne climbed into the backseat without a word. They were almost to her apartment before Eames decided he had enough of the total silence.

"We're going to Mombasa," he said. "But if you want to ask any questions, I wouldn't blame you."

"How much danger are we in?" Ariadne asked. Eames glanced at Arthur and looked at her in the rear view mirror.

"Enough," Arthur replied.

They arrived at Ariadne's apartment and she told them to make themselves at home. She amended that amended that to 'make themselves useful and get of the perishables' because that was what they were good for. Eames found himself dumping milk down the sink as Arthur get rid of the trash.

"When are we going to explain ?" Eames asked.

"If she's okay with waiting I'd rather rather explained when Yusuf is around, too. It's not exactly complicated but it isn't something I want to announce either. We don't know who's out there and who we can trust. For now we should stay quiet until we get to Mombasa," Arthur replied as he tied off a trashcan. "Saito doesn't want to go near Cobol and Cobol is avoiding Saito. The closer we are to Cobol the further we are from Saito."

"That's the theory anyway," Eames grumbled as he tossed the empty milk container. Ariadne emerged from her bedroom moments later carrying a bag with her sketches, a backpack and another bag on her shoulder.

"Shall we?" she said. Arthur nodded and he looked at Eames; Eames flashed a smile and took one of Ariadne's bags for her.

How Arthur managed to get them a flight to Kenya, even with three airport connections, was a mystery to Eames. Arthur seemed to have some sort of mutation when it came to finding flights and getting people out of countries. While they were separated Eames had raced across borders many times because of incompetent point men with bad information. With Arthur the only time they ran through airports was to catch connections. Now after a full day of traveling, exhaustion was beginning to bleed into Ariadne's features. They were used to running around like crazy people but she was a civilian that had a normal sleep schedule. They were so tired that Eames realized that he had not contacted Yusuf yet. Arthur was too busy covering their tracks, Ariadne looked half asleep and they were in a small cafe. Eames dialed Yusuf's number and the chemist picked up on the second ring.

"I'm in the middle of something, Eames. If you need to get bailed out call Arthur," Yusuf said without hesitation.

"I'm offended, Yusuf; if I needed to be bailed out Arthur would be sitting right next to me saying 'wow we should really do that again.'" Eames smirked when Arthur scoffed from across the table but he ignored him. "Actually no one needs any bailing out but I was wondering if we could meet."

"What, to catch up?" Yusuf said dubiously.

"Something like that. You should tell me where you are so we can come over. Make some tea; it looks like Ariadne is about to fall asleep on me, Eames said. Ariadne glared at him though her bloodshot eyes made it hard to take her seriously.

"Ariadne is with you? You took her out of Paris in the middle of the semester?" Yusuf asked. Yusuf was an academic like Ariadne so he understood the implications of leaving in the middle of the school year.

"Yes, she's sitting across the table from me, glaring effectively," he said which just made her narrow her eyes.

"Ariadne's glares are always effective," Yusuf deadpanned. "I’m going to text you the address against my better judgment. I’m guessing I’ll see you soon.”

“That you will,” Eames replied and they hung up. Ariadne was still glaring but she did not say anything. They all sat in quietly in the cafe until his phone beeped with Yusuf’s address. Eames was thankful for Yusuf’s paranoia, but he was uneasy about traveling to an area that they were unfamiliar with.

Yusuf answered the door on the second knock and he narrowed his eyes as soon as he saw the three of them. He opened the door and let them in anyway, even taking the time to get everyone water as they settled into the living room.

“So are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Yusuf asked.

“I’d like to know too,” Ariadne said.

“Someone has placed a hit on us,” Arthur said.

“That’s bad okay but why are you keeping the details to yourself?” Yusuf set his water aside and frowned deeply.

“It’s Saito,” Arthur explained. He went on to tell them about the hit on Cobb and the person that had tried to kill them in New York. Ariadne and Yusuf both looked considerably more worried the more information Arthur told them. “He believes that the inception has been compromised in the eyes of the law and he has to get rid of any evidence in case anyone like the IDCA decides to open another investigation.”

“And the people he employed are pretty much the biggest pieces of evidence possible, hence why we need to die,” Eames finished. “As of right now we’re the top of the list”

“What are we going to do?” Ariadne asked after a long silence. She did not sound scared but she did not sound very happy either.

“I’m not sure yet,” Arthur replied honestly. “But I’m going to figure something out. I am not going to let him get us.” The tension in her shoulders did not ease and Yusuf did not look convinced but it was enough for now.

Over the course of the next week Arthur realized two very important things. The first was that while Mombasa was Cobol’s backyard they were not in any danger from them because he had shown up on their radar and nothing happened. He was extremely thankful because the last thing he needed was to worry about another extremely powerful company renewing the hit on him. The second thing he realized was that while he was fortunate to know almost the entire dreamcrime world and everyone who was in it, most criminals who worked outside of dreamworld were not as honorable as he had hoped. It was a little naive to think that someone would not take a chance and shoot him between the eyes if they were offended enough money but he had hoped that there were certain people in the world that he could count on not to pull the trigger. By the seventh day in Mombasa he was not very happy to find out just how wrong he was.

Arthur was in the middle of massaging his temples when Eames sat down next to him at the desk. Fortunately the arms dealer in the city was still loyal enough that she was willing to sell to them which meant they were armed if nothing else. That eased his mind a little but Arthur still was not exactly sleeping well.

“I got your message. What did you find out?” Eames asked.

“You know I don’t exactly like putting a price on someone’s head but in this case I thought it was the most direct route to get rid of this problem.” Arthur sat back in his chair and stared at the computer screen trying to will the information to change.

“I agree, on both accounts, so what’s the problem? We just match Saito’s bounty on us and someone will take the job. Seems pretty cut and dry to me,” Eames replied.

“The problem is we can’t match him.” Arthur crossed his arms tightly across his chest as Eames stared.

“Arthur, we’re not exactly ‘poor.’ Neither is Yusuf and Ariadne has a decent amount of money leftover from the job. What do you mean we can’t match him?” he asked.

“I mean even of all four of us pooled every cent we have we can’t match the price he has on our heads and no assassin is going to change targets for less money,” Arthur explained evenly. “I’ve done the math over and over again; there is no way we can outbid him.” The two of them sat in silence as Yusuf and Ariadne spoke about academics a room over. Arthur was not sure what they were going to do next and that made him nervous. The direct approach had been what he was going for and now that did not seem to be an option. Saito was going to be way too heavily armed for either of them to try and get the job done. “I should keep trying.”

“Did something happen?” Yusuf asked as he walked into the room. He closed the door behind him and Arthur heard the sound of books opening. Ariadne was studying since she still wanted to graduate, and that meant that she needed some alone time. Arthur was about to tell the chemist that they were fucked seven different ways when a window shattered. Arthur ducked as more glass in the room rained down upon them and it was not until something bounced on the ground that he realized someone had tossed something into the room. The room felt warmer and he looked up to see that the ceiling was on fire.

“We need to go!” Eames yelled in his ear.

“Go get the PASIV, and get the people out of the basement,” Arthur yelled back as he closed his laptop, packing his bag quickly. Eames nodded and he vanished to get the machine. The smoke was beginning to fill the room and Arthur put a hand over his mouth . He was about to leave when he realized he had not seen Ariadne. The room she was in did not have a backdoor and the only way she could exit was through the room he was in. Arthur rushed over and tried to open the door but it was stuck. “Ariadne, can you hear me?” There was no response and that made something tight clench in his stomach. Arthur threw his shoulder into the door but it took another three hits to give way.

Ariadne was on the ground, unmoving, her shirt over her mouth. Arthur wasted no time picking up her small body and running toward the door. He heard a small explosion somewhere in the building and Arthur hoped that Eames and Yusuf had gotten out of the building in time. As he stumbled out of the building he dimly realized someone had tried to lock them in . Some of the locals were gathering around now but he managed to duck around a few corners until he found Eames and Yusuf. As soon as they saw him Arthur set Ariadne on the ground and breathed into her lungs. It felt like too long until she coughed and sucked in a deep breath.

They were moving now and Yusuf seemed to know where he was going and after some quick turns he lead them into a small building.

“This way,” Yusuf said as he pulled out a small oxygen tank. Arthur laid Ariadne down on the bed as she coughed violently and the panic of being unable to gather a full breath seemed to be making it even harder for her to breath.

“Ariadne,” Eames said as he knelt down next to her using a voice that could only be described as soothing. “I need you to take some deep breaths for me, all right?” It seemed to do the trick because she took some slow breaths and seemed to calm down a little.

“They tried to burn us alive,” Yusuf said chewing on the tip of his thumb. “There were still people in the basement too. Someone died.”

“They’re willing to burn people alive and we don’t have the resources to counter the hit Saito has on us,” Eames said.

“Oh that’s just great, what are we supposed to do now?” Yusuf asked throwing his arms in the air.

“There is only one person who has the money to counter someone like Saito,” Arthur said. All three of his teammates looked at him. He did not want to consider this option but when he thought about someone suffocating or burning to death in a dream and they soot on Ariadne’s face, he knew they did not have any choice. Eames narrowed his eyes dubiously.

“Yeah and who could possibly have that kind of money and a motive to go against Saito?” Eames asked but it seemed to dawn on him who Arthur was talking about. “Oh you’ve got to be joking. Come on, Arthur, really? That’s insane.”

“You two are doing your mind reading thing again,” Ariadne whispered from beneath the mask; her voice sounded awful.

“The only person that has the money and a possible motive to help us go after Saito is Robert Fischer,” Arthur said carefully.

Ariadne needed some time to rest and Arthur needed some time to get his head on straight. The idea that they were going to have to not only approach the man that had performed inception on, was a terrible idea by itself, but they were going to have to convince him somehow to help them. It made a migraine slowly start to form and really all he wanted to do was climb into a closet to hide from the world. Eames seemed to have other ideas when Yusuf volunteered to sit with Ariadne and be the first watch. Arthur was a little dubious at first but the glare he received and the pain in his head deterred him.

“You’re getting a migraine,” Eames said as they went into the backroom where there was one very small bed. “I can always tell because your eyebrows crease in a way that defies physics.”

“Just let me figure out how we’re getting out of the country and I promise I’ll lie down,” Arthur lied because there was too much to do.

“I’ll start looking into Fischer then, because I know that’s on your to-do list.”

Arthur thought about arguing but Eames was already pulling out his own computer and settling down on the bed. It was going to be a tight fit but Arthur settled down next to Eames so they were shoulder to shoulder. The other man’s presence was almost enough to deter the migraine but it was getting harder to focus. He was just about to tell Eames his plans for getting them out of the country when he said something very vulgar in French.

“What is it?” Arthur asked as he set aside his laptop.

“I was just asking around around with our” Arthur raised an eyebrow “your contacts and someone is talking about their contract. I managed to get a name and we have a problem.”

“Please don’t tell me that--”

“Saito has put a hit out on Fischer too,” Eames finished. Arthur leaned over and pulled out the laptop to get them on the next flight in the morning To Sydney, Fischer’s current location. Arthur stripped out of his clothes and Eames was a solid presence next to him. He managed to ignore the pounding in his head long enough to get some sleep.

After they relieved Yusuf of duty for a few hours they broke the news to Ariadne that she was going to have to travel. She took a long shower and came back looking better than she had the day before. Arthur asked her if she was going to be all right and she nodded without a word. Ariadne still smelled vaguely of smoke but no one seemed to pay them much mind as they got on the plane. She slept through most of the flight and Yusuf spent most of the time on the internet talking to a contact about chemicals. They had not had enough time to pay someone off to move his lab but Arthur knew that Yusuf would find some way of dealing with it. That left Arthur to his thoughts and how he might be able to fix this.

Saito was not an untouchable man but there did not seem to be much in the way of activities they could use as blackmail. As far as the rest of the world was concerned he was a law abiding citizen of an extremely profitable company. There were no indications that he had hired Arthur and his team to implant an idea into Robert Fischer’s mind. That was another problem: how to get in touch with Fischer. They could always kidnap him but Arthur had no idea how they would convince him to help them. It was extremely frustrating to the point that Arthur wished that he could just tell Fischer what was going on without it all falling apart.

The flight to Australia was long with several layovers. No one spoke much because it was not safe to do so but, for now, Arthur let himself relax a little every time they got on a plane. He was fairly sure Saito would not blow up the plane and obsessing over it was not going to make any difference. He did not remember falling asleep but Eames shaking him awake jolted him back to the real world.

“Does he always jump like that?” Ariadne asked raising an eyebrow.

“Only when he purposely wakes me up like he’s an enemy,” Arthur grumbled but Eames just laughed.

“You two are something else,” Yusuf said and Arthur did not know what he meant but the fasten seat belt sign came on as they started the descent. Arthur glanced out the window as Sydney came into view. He just hoped that Fischer would be willing to meet with him. The man knew about dreamshare so if he dropped the right words they could find a way to explain everything.

From the moment they walked off the plane Arthur had a bad feeling. When he glanced at Eames he found that the forger was taking in their surroundings with the same paranoia. They got a car, drove to the hotel, and checked in. Ariadne collapsed into a bed immediately.

“I don’t care what you boys say, I’ll never get used to the sheer amount of jet lag this business entails,” she grumbled.

“I have to meet with a client to purchase some useful compounds,” Yusuf said as he dug through a bag and produced a gun.

“How exactly did you get that on the plane?” Eames asked clearly baffled as the chemist put on a shoulder holster.

“I have my ways. Find Fischer and figure out what we’re going to do.” Yusuf turned to leave but stopped to look at them. “I can take care of myself, by the way, so don’t even bother to offer.” Without another word Yusuf opened the door and left. Ariadne looked surprised as she stared at the door.

“I was a little worried about sharing a room with him but suddenly I find myself feeling much better about it,” she said.

“Clearly,” Eames replied as he gathered his things to go into their adjoining room. Arthur followed and closed the door behind him so Ariadne could get some sleep. “We shouldn’t leave her alone.”

“I agree,” Arthur replied. “We need firearms though. I have a contact out here that can help us out but they won’t talk to anyone but me.”

“Go ahead. I’ll stay here and guard the lovely Ariadne,” Eames replied waving him off.

Arthur smiled and pulled Eames into a brief kiss before he thought about it too much. It was an easy way to tell Eames that he was going to be careful and not to worry too much. Arthur turned and left the room. Fischer’s office was close but not close enough that he was too worried about running into him. His contact was in the opposite direction but he was close enough to them as well that he could walk. Sydney was busy and it made it easy to keep his head down. He knocked on the door to a nice looking building and waited until a young woman opened it. She stared at him for a moment without so much as a word.

Her name was Abby but Arthur had a feeling that might not be her entire name. She had long blond hair that came all the way down to her waist and dull blue eyes. She was an arms dealer that dealt exclusively with dreamers. She had worked legitimately selling to the military for a few years until she was captured overseas and held hostage for a week. Abby had spent almost all of that time in a dream and came back completely disconnected from her emotions. She never talked to anyone about what had happened and now she seemed eager to take out anyone in the dream crime world that stepped on toes. Arthur had known her for a few years now and she seemed to like him as much as Abby was capable of liking anyone.

“I was surprised to hear that you were in town,” Abby said as she led him to a wall with a keypad on it. She typed in a few numbers and a door opened that was invisible to anyone that did not know to look. Abby had to be careful; she ran her business out of her home. “I was surprised to hear from you at all.”

“You’ve heard about the hit then?” Arthur asked as he sat down in a chair across from a desk. Abby sat down and tilted her head at him.

“Yes, and I’ve had several people come to me looking for weapons. It seems that people in the dreaming world are after that bounty. I overcharged them greatly.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, Abby,” he replied; that was about as close to a favor as he would ever get out of her. “I need weapons. There is someone important here that I need to protect.”

“Robert Fischer. Joe came in bragging about how he was going to snag that reward mighty fast. Purchased several weapons, but he was too green; he seemed to think that a sniper rifle without a top of the line scope would be good enough. I neglected to point that fact out because he needs to learn a lesson.” Joe was a point man from a team that Arthur had run into on a job several years back. They had both been hired, but only the best team would get paid. With the help of several associates he had managed to secure the paycheck and Joe was known for holding a grudge. He was also sloppy and overconfident.

“Sounds like a good time will be had by all,” Arthur deadpanned. Abby stared at him for a beat until she reached under her desk and pulled out three cases. Inside were four 9MM pistols, two automatic shotguns and one sniper rifle with the best scope money could buy. When Abby named her price he was relieved to hear that she was undercharging him by quite a bit; that meant they were still in good standing. Arthur gathered the guns and they both walked out of the backroom toward the door. The cases were designed to look like normal suitcases but he still planned to call Eames to pick him up.

“Arthur,” Abby said when he was halfway toward the street. “You have always been good to me and you never pay with a check. I would appreciate not losing your business.” She closed the door before he could respond but he took that as the Abby version of ‘don’t get yourself killed.’ Arthur dialed Eames’ number and the other man picked up on the first ring.

“I swear to god if you got yourself captured already I’m going to be very cross,” he said without preamble.

“I need a ride,” Arthur replied unable to suppress a small smile. Eames grumbled something about keeping a low profile but agreed. Less than ten minutes later their rental pulled up and Arthur put the guns in the backseat and climbed into the passenger side. They drove in silence because Arthur was too busy learning the layout of the city and where they could hide if they needed to. He had a plan but it was not one that he really trusted. As they pulled into the hotel and made their way upstairs to their room he began to realize that they might not have a choice.

Ariadne was awake when they entered and Yusuf was looking at some vials of god knows what. She smiled when she saw the cases but did not ask about them.

“What’s the plan?” she asked.

“I only have one for now and it’s not exactly a good one,” Arthur said. “We know of one assassin that is here for Fischer and not us right now. We have no way of knowing when he is going to attack but he bought a sniper rifle so we know it’s going to be from a distance. The only thing I can come up with is tailing Fischer while Eames and I watch from nearby buildings. We see him line up the shot, you two get him out of the way, and Eames and I take care of Joe.”

“You want to have him take a shot at Fischer? What if he’s really good?” Yusuf asked.

“I’m sure you have something that will conceal you,” Eames said waving him off. “We don’t want him to take a shot but we might not have a chance to get a good shot before that. We really will have to hope for a terrible shot.”

“How long?” Ariadne asked.

“Abby said that he was around recently. He’s a former point man so we know he’s going to be careful. I’d give him another twenty four hours. We’re just going to have to stick close to Fischer and hope we don’t get killed.” Arthur shoved his hands in his pockets; he did not want to put Ariadne or Yusuf in the line of fire but there did not seem to be any avoiding it. “Let’s get some rest. Everyone will take a shift to keep watch and we’ll have to start surveillance tomorrow.”

“Let’s just hope you’re right about your timeline,” Eames mumbled, clearly not happy with this plan. Arthur ignored him and focused on the task at hand; right now they needed to keep Robert Fischer alive.

The sound of Arthur’s phone ringing pulled Eames out of sleep. The other man reached over him and took the phone off of the table. He stared at the screen for only a second before answering it.

“Arthur here,” he said. Eames rolled onto his back and watched as Arthur’s half asleep expression turn dark and professional. “Are you sure?” He waited a moment, clearly listening to whomever was on the phone. “Yes, I’ll make it up to you, thanks so much.”

“What’s happened now?” Eames asked.

“That was Abby. Joe just returned to purchase some pistols as well. Now we have no idea how he’s going to attack.” Arthur fell back on the bed and rubbed his eyes. “We need to get him out of there today. I don’t care if that’s kidnapping, we can’t let him die.”

“Joe isn’t smart enough to break into the hotel where Fischer is staying. It can wait until he leaves for work later today,” Eames said and Arthur raised an eyebrow. “I may have gotten his schedule for the next week off of the private servers of what remains of his company.”

Arthur nodded and turned to face away from Eames on his side of the bed. Eames stared at the ceiling for a long while until he closed his eyes and welcomed a few more precious hours of sleep.

The alarm that woke them up a few hours later made Eames want to throw the phone against the wall but he was already wide awake. Arthur rose as well and vanished into the bathroom, no doubt to shower. They had three hours before Fischer would leave his hotel; the man liked to keep to a schedule, which was a good thing as far as they were concerned. Eames opened the adjoining room and flipped on the light. Ariadne swore in French which Yusuf followed with swearing in Swahili, both of which he understood.

“Change of plans. We need to leave soon so get ready.” Eames closed the door just as Arthur opened the bathroom door in nothing but a towel. The temptation, the need, to ravish him never went away and it took some considerable self control to walk by half naked Arthur and into the bathroom. His shower was short but hot and refreshing. When he opened the door Arthur was dressed in a button down with the sleeves rolled up and khaki’s; he looked like a tourist. He was also completely engrossed in whatever he was looking at on his computer and did not even look up when Eames dropped the towel to change. Arthur told Eames about his latest plan and they both decided that it was the best idea.

When they were both presentable The sniper rifle was going to be useless but they could not leave it behind. Instead they checked out of the hotel and left everything in the locked trunk of the car.

“Arthur and I will be on foot nearby but we need to make sure you two stay close to the car. Drive down the road but stay close. Fischer is going to get his morning coffee and find parking, which is when you can grab him,” Eames explained.

“What about you two?” Ariadne asked.

“Don’t worry about us; we can take care of ourselves,” Arthur replied. Ariadne and Yusuf were both armed as well but Arthur did not want to rely on their shots. Ariadne had gotten her license since the IDCA incident and Yusuf was trained as well but not nearly enough to take out a gunman with Joe’s kind of training. “We’ll meet up at the safe house location that I gave you earlier.” They both nodded. “Then let’s go.”

Ariadne and Yusuf took their rental car and Arthur started down the street with Eames several paces behind him. It took almost no time to get to the hotel where Fischer was staying. The former CEO’s car was nearby and the driver looked far too indifferent considering who he was driving around. Arthur turned around and nodded to Eames who crossed the street and lingered nearby, acting as if he was having some sort of argument on his cellphone. Arthur, however, waited to see if he could spot Joe. There was no sign of the man and once Fischer was in his car it would be much harder to to take him out since he was going to be in meetings all day.

Fischer emerged from the hotel and made his way down the street to the coffee shop he frequented. Ariadne and Yusuf were parked on the side of the road looking over a map as if they were lost. That was when Arthur spotted Joe because the man had not even bothered to hide his face. He had managed to slip right next to Fischer without Arthur noticing. Fischer was walking out of the coffee shop when Joe raised his arm to fire a gun hidden in his coat jacket and Arthur moved. He tackled Fischer to the ground as the gun went off. The sound of screams filled the street as people fled. Joe stared at Arthur until he recognized him and raised the gun again. Another shot went off and Joe barely managed to side step in time. He scowled and took off running as Eames joined him.

“Bugger got lucky with too many civilians around,” he said as Arthur moved away from Fischer whom he had managed to knock out. There was also a deep graze on his arm from the bullet that had narrowly missed going into his chest. Ariadne opened the back door and Arthur hauled Fischer into the back seat.

“We can’t let him just get away. Drive and we’ll see you later.” Arthur did not wait for Ariadne to argue before he took off after Joe. Eames was right beside him and they barely managed to see the would-be assassin duck down an alley. Arthur pulled out his gun and nodded to Eames. Eames nodded and the two of them rounded the corner slowly, making their way in the direction Joe had gone.

Eames had Arthur’s back as they walked down the alley toward Joe. As they came to the end of the alley it split into two directions and the logical thing would be to split up, yet all Eames could remember was the Shatner job where they had split up and nearly gotten each other killed. He was not going to do that again, because the thought of not being able to help Arthur made his stomach hurt. Arthur turned the corner as Eames watched the other alley but there was no sign of Joe. He was about to suggest that they move on when he saw movement down his alley.

“This way,” he said and Arthur followed. Arthur glanced around the corner just in time for someone to hit his hand with a metal rod. Arthur dropped the gun and Eames pulled Arthur out of the way. His wrist looked okay, maybe sprained, but his gun was out of his reach. Eames turned the corner and ducked to avoid a crowbar to the skull. Half a dozen men swarmed him and started throwing punches and swinging blunt objects. Arthur was on his feet trying to pull the men off but another half dozen swarmed Arthur. Eames felt a punch connect with his jaw just as he saw a kick take Arthur’s legs out from underneath him. Eames did not back down and three of the men hit the ground bleeding and with broken bones. Arthur had taken down four but one of the remaining two landed a sharp kick to Arthur’s stomach, enough to knock the wind out of him. They surrounded him. Eames threw another punch but the two men managed to grab his arms, twisting them painfully behind his back.

Eames could feel blood running from his previous injuries that had not healed entirely and he felt a little nauseous from the pain. Arthur did not look much better with a split lip and a cut on his temple. They looked at each other, not saying a word, until Joe emerged from around the corner. Arthur began to struggle but one of the men holding him twisted Arthur’s wrist enough to subdue him.

“Arthur and Eames. I’d say I’m surprised to see you here but I’m not,” Joe said cracking his knuckles. “There is a considerable price on your heads that I plan on investing in.” He walked forward and glared at Arthur. “I know all about you, both of you, and I know how close you are. Everyone in the business knows which is just so sloppy of you. Don’t you know what can happen when you’re close to someone?” Arthur did not reply but Joe did not act like he was expecting one. Instead he turned to Eames and backhanded him hard enough that he saw stars. “Talk, Arthur, or this is going to get worse.” Joe punched him again and his damaged nose exploded in white hot pain. Arthur was struggling now but Joe turned and hit him with something; Arthur went down hard. The men threw him to the ground and kicked him in the stomach, hard enough that he should have stayed down. But Eames was pretty sure it was just an act to get the men to drop their guard. Joe pulled out a phone and dialed a number.

“Yeah, hi, tell him I got two of them alive,” Joe said looking impatient. “Well, patch me through then, we have a deal to sort out.”

Eames looked at Arthur as he waited for some sort of movement from the point man; he was not sure he could take all of them in this state. Arthur cracked an eye open and smirked just a little. The four men were standing close by and that was all the motivation Eames needed to kick one of them in the shin hard enough that he went down. Without wasting a moment he snatched the gun from one of the men and shot Joe in the leg. The other man went down just as he turned to witness Arthur breaking the last thug’s neck.

Joe’s gun was just out of reach as the two of them walked forward and his phone was close by; the call was still connected. Eames trained his gun on the whimpering man as Arthur picked up the phone. He clicked a few buttons, activating the speakerphone.

“Mr. Saito, I’m glad you decided to take this call,” Arthur said.

“Arthur, and Eames I’m assuming is there as well. It’s lovely to hear from both of you. How are things? Going well?” Saito asked.

“Fan-fucking-tastic how nice of you to ask,” Eames snapped but Arthur shook his head. Dealing with someone like Saito was better left in Arthur’s hands.

“I’m going to find evidence that you are hiring these men to kill us,” Arthur said evenly.

“There won’t be anything to find. I’ve done no such thing, of course,” Saito replied.

“No? What about the civilians that have died? I’m sure their families would love to start an investigation. How would your reputation fair against the murder of a teenager and her father?” Arthur sounded sure of himself but there was doubt in his tone that no one else would notice. The line was silent for a long time until Arthur nodded at Eames. He fired a shot into Joe’s head. “That was the sound of your assassin dying. I decided to skip the part where he pretends he’ll turn you in. I’m going to find something on you.”

“I’d watch your step, Mr. Cohen, and you as well, Mr. Eames, because this is a dangerous road you are walking down. Making me angry was not a good idea.” The line went dead and Arthur tossed the phone in the trash. No one was going to be able to trace the call anyway, Eames was sure of that, and they needed to get away from this alley. Eames clicked his gun’s safety on and wrapped an arm around Arthur as the other man did the same. They supported each other as they walked away from the dead and dying men.

They managed to make it to the safe house without anyone asking too many questions. They stumbled and acted drunk, even singing a few songs, until the house came into view. Only then did some of the tension leak from Arthur’s shoulders. Eames winced when he saw the wound on Arthur’s head; head wounds were such a bitch because they bled so much. Two quick knocks and Ariadne practically threw the door open. He was about to lecture her about caution and being armed when she gasped.

“What happened to being able to take care of yourselves?” she demanded, pulling them into the house.

“We’re alive?” Eames offered, flashing his most charming smile which did not faze Ariadne in the slightest.

“Fischer has been awake for the last ten minutes whining and bitching around ransoms and what not and we can’t get him to shut up.” Ariadne handed them both towels which Eames pressed to his nose.

“Let’s go meet him face to face then,” Arthur said pressing the towel to his head. Eames walked through the house with Ariadne and Arthur as they made their way through the small corridors. As they opened the door they found Yusuf sitting with a gun looking bored as Fischer sat in a chair looking annoyed. He blinked when he saw Arthur.

“You’re the one who saved me from that gunman,” Fischer said. “So, do you want a reward or something of that sort, because we can pay.”

“We don’t want a reward. We need your help,” Arthur said frankly. Fischer narrowed his eyes.

“I know you,” he said pointing at Eames. “Why do I remember you, in a cab or somewhere like that?” Eames could feel Arthur’s eyes on him, warning him to be careful about what he said next, but Eames decided that sugar coating or skirting around the issue was not going to work here. He decided to be blunt.

“Mr. Fischer, you know me because I invaded your dreams in the airplane going from Sydney to Los Angeles the week your father died. All of my co-workers here did, actually, and we were hired by Saito Hiroshi to implant an idea into your head. That idea was for you to break up your company and it worked. Any questions?” Arthur, Ariadne and Yusuf were all staring at him like he had gone completely mad. Fischer, on the other hand, stared at him not moving. Eames was a few steps away from Fischer which made it all the more surprising when the former CEO jumped to his feet and punched him square across the jaw. Arthur had a gun on him in seconds but Eames blinked as he rubbed his jaw; Fischer had a good right hook.

“Did you get that out of your system?” Arthur asked though there was a hint of what could only be amusement in his voice. “Now sit down, we’re not done talking.” Fischer did as he was told but continued to glare at all of them. “Now the problem that we need help with is something that should interest you as well. Saito has decided to tie up the loose ends from the inception we performed on you by putting bounties on all of us, including you. That man who tried to kill you today was one of many who will continue trying unless you help us. In exchange for protection we need your help to find some way of either getting rid of the bounties or getting rid of Saito.” Fischer stared at them, not saying a word, until Ariadne knelt down in front of him.

“Can you honestly remember why it felt like a good idea to break up your company? Why you suddenly thought your father wanted you to ‘be your own man?’ Why the pinwheel was so important?” Ariadne said softly and that seemed to get Fischer’s attention. Eames was fairly sure he was not going to hit a girl and that Ariadne was probably trying to win him over with her doe eyes. Fischer swallowed and looked at all of them.

“You saved my life; now I guess I can save yours,” he said. Eames could not hide the small smile that formed on his face. They were finally getting somewhere.

Only after they locked Fischer in a room for the night, because they were not entirely sure if the man would run, did Arthur finally have time to look over his injuries. It was going to be weeks before he was 100% again and there was no telling when Saito would try to kill them again. It would be harder to get out of the country with Fischer but he also had no idea where they should go next. And he had no idea how to deal with their current situation. Telling Saito that he would report his connection to the civilian deaths was a bluff because it would just expose them and there was no way they would last a day in jail. Saito would have someone on the inside in hours and Arthur would be bleeding out in his cell before he got a phone call.

He turned down Ariadne’s offer to help with tending to their wounds but pulled Eames along to their room. He pulled out a first aid kit and began to clean Eames’ knuckles, which were caked with dirt and split open. Eames watched him do this but did not flinch even after antiseptic was added.

“Ten silent minutes went by. “Arthur,” Eames said.

“I don’t want to talk about it, Eames,” Arthur replied as he looked over his friend’s nose. It was not broken, but it was going to be sore for a long time. He put a bandage over it and tried to ignore the blood.

“You’re freaking out on me.”

“I’m not. Are you going to take a look at my head or just let me sit here and bleed?” Arthur took the towel away hoping it would be enough to change the subject.

“You need some time to clear your head. Hell, I do too, this is just as stressful on me as well.” Eames looked over the cut clinically. “You don’t need stitches.”

“Good because that would be a bitch. And I’d love to know where we will get the time. If you haven’t noticed people are gunning for us as if we somehow personally offended them.” Arthur rubbed his eyes and tried to get his nerves to calm down but it didn’t work. Okay, maybe I’m freaking out a little, but Eames did not need him to say that. Instead Eames reached under their bed and pulled out their PASIV.

“Five minutes will give us an hour to get our thoughts straight. I think we can spare fifteen to try and figure out our next move,” Eames said. He put the machine at the foot of the bed, knowing that Arthur was going to agree, because that made sense. Eames eased Arthur back on the bed and carefully inserted the needle into his wrist, lying down next to him. He looked at Arthur for confirmation and he nodded once. The last thing he saw as the world bled away was Eames watching him.

The dream was a city that he had been working on for years and Arthur was growing quite proud of it. It had elements from all of his favorite places, tweaked so they were just a little off. Every now and then they would pass a building that was leaning too far to one side but somehow looked stable just the same. It was a comfortable dream and he was confident that his projections wouldn’t be a problem. Eames had been in his mind so much that he was fairly sure that even his subconscious knew the man was not a threat. Sometimes that thought made Arthur panic a little and he saw that same panic in Eames when his projections did not go after Arthur either. Knowing someone as comfortably as they did, to the point that their security would ignore the other, was worrisome yet it never came up in actual conversation.

“Why don’t we go sit in that cafe from Venice that you love so much?” Eames suggested as they walked down the city streets.

“I think that sounds good,” Arthur replied. His mind was a mess right now and the weather in the city looked like a storm was brewing. It meant he was stressed out and that he needed to find a way to get everything under control. If Eames noticed he did not say anything but Arthur found himself walking a little closer than he needed to as they came to the cafe. They did not order anything, since eating in dreams was pointless, and took seats outside. “There is something I’m missing and I can’t for the life of me figure out what it is.”

“So you don’t think trying to connect Saito to those murders is a good idea.” Eames made it a statement, not a question, because of course he knew Arthur had been bluffing on the phone.

“I want him to squirm, just a little, because he might slip up somehow. If we can get something, anything, we can blackmail him for our freedom without any problems. Saito is a practical man, that’s why he’s doing this, and he values his business more than anything else.” Arthur sighed as he looked out at the city, his projections walking by and eying the sky warily; he really hoped it would not rain.

“No one is completely clean. You and I both know that, so there has to be something out there.” Eames frowned deeply and ran his hands through his hair. “If this was anyone else I would suggest just doing an extraction but we won’t get anywhere near him at this point.” Arthur was about to agree when he saw someone moving toward them out of the corner of his eye. He was about to pull a gun without looking at the projection when a warm hand touched his shoulder.

“Oh, you silly boys, you already have what you need,” a smooth voice laced with a French accent said, and Mal took a seat at their table. Arthur eyed Eames but Eames was too busy staring at the woman like she was a ghost. “Oh, stop staring, Daniel, of course one of you has a projection of me running around.”

“Forgive me for being a little on edge then. Since you’re my subconscious, I’m assuming you understand why,” Eames replied.

“Ah, but whose projection am I?” she asked with a smile. “Not that it matters, because I’m here to help you.”

“Help us,” Arthur repeated as Mal rested her chin on her hand and looked at him fondly. She looked happy and content in a way that Cobb’s projection had never been. She looked the way he remembered her.

“Yes, help you, because neither of you wants to die and I know that. Now, you said that getting inside Saito’s head would provide something you could use against him, yes?” Mal asked.

“Yes, we did just say that,” Arthur replied. She did not move to hurt either of them. The Mal that had haunted Dom had never been this subtle and it made him want to trust her a little. Even then he kept a hand close to his gun and knew Eames was doing the same.

“Oh you silly, silly boys, you seem to think getting into his head would be impossible,” she said smiling.

“Not impossible but bloody difficult and possibly suicidal,” Eames grumbled.

“My dears, why do you need to go into his head when you’ve already been there?” Mal asked. Arthur blinked as he stared at the table. He had not thought about the failed Cobol job, because that was the thing that had lad to this entire mess. They had been in Saito’s head that night but had left empty handed.

“I wasn’t the one who looked at the information, and Cobb has no doubt forgotten it by now,” Arthur said.

“Oh things are never really forgotten if you look hard enough.” Mal flagged down a waiter and ordered a cup of coffee.

“Are you suggesting we do an extraction on the best extractor in the business?” Eames asked and he laughed a little. “There is no way Cobb will let us dig around in his head. He told me that he seems to think that just plugging in will somehow make everything fall apart. He seems to think that the walls will come crumbling down and he’ll be trapped. In fact I’m not entirely sure he wouldn’t slam the door in our faces right now.”

“Who said anything about permission?” And this was the Mal that Arthur remembered. This was the woman who had been willing to go into the minds of war victims and psychotics because they fascinated her. “Daniel, Arthur, do either of you really have time to think this over? If anyone has what you need to bring Saito down it’s in my husband’s head. The fact that I’m here and suggesting it means that one of you is considering it.”

“This self aware projection thing is weird,” Arthur said and he took a deep breath, releasing it slowly. “What do you think, Eames?”

“I think he’d never forgive you,” Eames replied without hesitation. “However, he would be alive and safe, and we would be as well. We need to weigh the pros and cons of losing Cobb’s trust.”

“You already know the answer to that,” Mal said as she sipped the coffee the waiter had brought her. “And Daniel is right, he wouldn’t forgive you but I also know you adore my children and don’t want them hurt or alone in this world.” She set the coffee aside and leaned on the table to look at both of them. “I’ll leave you boys to your planning.” She stood and looked down at both of them for a moment before kissing both of their cheeks. “Please, keep my husband and children safe for me.” Without another word Mal turned and walked away from the café, coffee in hand. Arthur watched her vanish into the crowd and released the breath he had not known he was holding.

“Well, you were right about self aware projections being weird,” Eames deadpanned and Arthur scoffed. “She’s right though; somewhere in Cobb’s head, there’s something he saw in that safe that Saito didn’t feel it was necessary to hide. It also sounds like our best shot. I can’t speak for whether Ariadne or Yusuf would be willing to go against Cobb like this but I know that I’m in.” What Eames was really saying was that they were in this together no matter what it took. Arthur already knew that but it was still nice to hear that he would always have that support.

“Let’s get topside; we have an extraction on Dominic Cobb to plan.”

“I want in,” Fischer said as soon as he heard what they were doing. Eames wanted to punch the man. He was a millionaire with no experience and the last time they had had a tourist it was nothing short of disaster. Judging by the way Yusuf stared, Ariadne looking like she had something to say but stopping herself from speaking, and Arthur’s eyebrows knit together they were not thrilled with the idea. Eames did not want to babysit someone who had no idea what they were getting themselves into.

“I don’t think so,” Arthur said. “Cobb is highly militarized and won’t like having his mind being broken into. The last thing we need is someone tagging along.”

“You didn’t know I was militarized, so how do you know how much experience I have?” Fischer said looking a little too smug. “This man took something from me and now I want to take something from him.”

“The absolute last thing we need is someone dragging baggage into the dream. That never ends well for anyone and we won’t have another shot at this,” Eames explained trying to be rational but coming off a little too rough around the edges.

“I’m not getting left out of this, otherwise I’ll walk away right now. At the moment we have a deal because I owe you for saving my life, though I would argue that you owe me much more than that considering what you did to my head, but I’m still here cooperating. That can change and I will find a way to make this as hard as possible for all involved. I’m going.” Fischer was really on a roll now and someone that was not willing to back down. The man that yearned for his father’s attention, the man whose head they had planted an idea in, was not the person that was standing before them. Eames had his suspicions that the only reason why Fischer was not angry about the inception was because he actually seemed a little happier. That had not been something that they could plant and it was a side effect that made him smirk just a little. Arthur, however, looked like he was about to blow a gasket and if he didn’t stop clenching his jaw like that he was going to break his teeth.

“Let’s see what you can do and we’ll talk,” Eames said despite the fact that it was Arthur who was going to have to watch Fischer’s back in the dream. “For now let’s get out of the city alive.” That seemed enough to convince Fischer who held out a hand for his cell phone, no doubt to make arrangements. Arthur glared but reached into his pocket to retrieve the phone.

“I have this line tapped and will know everything you say, so don’t bother trying to call for help,” Arthur said dangerously as Fischer took the phone.

“I’m in plenty of danger but not from any of you.” Fischer walked a few steps away to dial a number. Once he was out of earshot Arthur looked at Eames; he was furious.

“What were you thinking, telling him that? I don’t even want him hooked up to a PASIV,” Arthur said as Yusuf and Ariadne moved closer.

“It’s bad enough we’re doing an extraction on Cobb; we really shouldn’t be taking strangers with us, especially strangers with a grudge,” Ariadne said softly.

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Arthur reminded her for the fourth time, but she smiled tightly.

“You’re going to do it with or without me so I might as well build you a level you can stay alive in,” she replied. Yusuf did not voice any problems with the plans but seemed a little uneasy as well, not that Eames could really blame him. There was no telling what kind of ghosts still lingered in Cobb’s mind and no one wanted to stare down those kind of angry projections.

“If he’s any good, we have backup, and if he’s useless, we have cannon fodder. Either way we need him and you know that,” Eames explained. Arthur stared at him, eyes narrowed, until he turned on his heels and left the room in a huff. They had had fights before just like any other partnership but this one was different. Speaking of people that might not be so forgiving, Eames thought as the door closed. Ariadne took his hand and squeezed it, like she had some sort of understanding of what they were, but he did not reject the sentiment. They were Arthur and Eames, Eames and Arthur, and despite the possibility that this could cause a rift between them Eames was not going anywhere.

“I got us a flight to LA that leaves in two hours,” Fischer said, turning around, oblivious to their conversation.

“Then we better get ready,” Ariadne said softly giving Eames’ hand one last squeeze. Yusuf clapped him on the shoulder as he walked out of the room and he was left staring down Robert Fischer.

“You won’t like me as an enemy, Fischer, so make sure you think very carefully about everything you do from here on out.” Eames was not trying to sound too threatening, and judging by the way Fischer raised both of his eyebrows he knew the point had gotten across, but the younger man was not intimidated.

“I don’t want any more enemies,” Fischer replied. Eames smirked to himself and left the room; he did not want any more enemies either.

It turned out that getting out of the country with Fischer and a private plane made things much easier. As far as Arthur could tell Browning knew that Fischer was all right but taking some time away because of the shooting. If that was some sort of code for something he was going to be very annoyed, but Fischer seemed interested in this job. Arthur wanted to come up with a way to keep the other man out of the dream but after what Eames had said it seemed like it was going to be impossible. Fischer was militarized but that did not mean he knew what being in a dream entailed, and they had no idea what his subconscious could bring in. There were too many variables and too many things that could go wrong.

He was angry at Eames because this was their only chance and he did not want a tourist ruin it. This did not feel like any of their other fights, this one felt different, and Arthur was not sure why. He wondered if it had something to do with the fact that it was more than just their lives on the line. If it was just the two of them it would not have been as big of a deal but Ariadne, Cobb and Yusuf were all mixed up in this mess as well. He had to make sure this worked or someone would suffer for it, and Arthur could live with a lot on his conscience but their lives were not one of them.

Eames was on the other side of the plane because he seemed to know that Arthur needed space to clear his head but Ariadne did not have that instinct when it came to him. An hour into their flight she sat down across from him. Arthur did not look up from the notes he was taking, did not acknowledge her, and hoped that she would go away because he did not want to talk about it.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Arthur replied.

“I’m not worried about it but I am worried about the two of you. I’ve never seen you actually fight before.” Ariadne folded her hands on the table.

“To be fair you haven’t known us that long either.” Arthur set his pen down and stared back at Ariadne. “Eames and I have been working together for a long time so of course we have disagreements. He knows why I’m angry and he also has the sense to leave me alone when I need it.”

“Don’t you get huffy at me because you two are fighting,” Ariadne snapped. “And did you say you’ve been ‘working’ with Eames for a long time?”

“Yes, that’s what I said. Why?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Ariadne waved him off and snatched the pen out of his hand, no doubt so he could not ignore her. “You’re worried about the job, I get it, but so is he.”

“I know why he did what he did, Ariadne, I’m not an idiot. But that doesn’t change the fact that we have another tourist and that it didn’t end well the last time.” Arthur took his pen back from her and turned back to his notebook. Ariadne did not stay much longer and when she got up he assumed that she would try to talk to Eames. There were many things Ariadne understood and even more that she could come to understand but his partnership with Eames was not one of them. He would talk to his partner when they got to Los Angeles but for now he focused on how they were going to do an extraction from someone whose life had changed because he could not tell the difference between reality and a dream.

The place that Arthur picked out for them was an apartment building that he had lived in before he went into the army. No one lived there now and the walls were covered in graffiti when they walked in the door. The person who owned the building was an acquaintance that trusted Arthur not to burn the place down so they would not be arrested for breaking and entering. Compared to places that they had worked in before it was all right but Fischer did not seem impressed.

“I was under the impression that this was a much more glamorous business, from the way you people act,” he said touching the paint on the walls.

“Then your impression was wrong,” Eames said as he pulled a few tables over to set up desks. “We’re still criminals and we’re still breaking the law. Did you think we could work out of five star hotels when people like Saito want us dead?”

“According to official documents your plane landed in Seattle an hour ago,” Arthur said looking through his phone. “There is no evidence that we touched down here and as long as no one uses a credit card with a name on it that Saito can trace, we should be able to plan here with no problems.” He helped Eames move the rest of the desks and Ariadne and Yusuf pulled various chairs to the desks and into a circle. Fischer watched them all but did nothing to help. Ariadne set a small table down where the PASIV would sit and put her hands on her hips.

“You want in on this, then you better help, too. And if you say we’re ‘working for you’ then you can sit this out locked in a closet,” she said. Yusuf snickered, Eames laughed and Arthur rolled his eyes. Fischer stared at her as if he could not believe that someone was talking to him this way but he helped her move a chair nevertheless.

The office was finally set up and it was time to start the actual planning process. The first thing he wanted to do was take Fischer into a dream but after the long plane ride and since he did not know exactly how much experience Fischer had it seemed like a bad idea. He also did not want to leave Fischer alone but they had things that needed to be bought.

“Ariadne, Yusuf, I need you to put together a list of things that you need so I can pick them up. I want to make sure someone is always here just in case,” Arthur said keeping his eyes locked on Fischer. The other man noticed but wisely did not comment on the matter. Ariadne had only a few things she needed, mostly materials to build models, and Yusuf needed supplies for his chemicals. He had to go out and get them himself at a later time and it was unspoken that they did not want to leave Ariadne with Fischer until they got her a weapon. Yusuf nodded subtly that he would be fine and Arthur glanced at Eames. Eames did not say anything, he merely grabbed the keys to one of the two cars, and they walked out of the apartment building together. The silence was deafening by the time they both got into the car.

“I’m not taking back what I said. I still think it’s the best plan,” Eames said.

“And I’m not apologizing for calling you a fucking idiot for saying it in the first place,” Arthur replied.

“You didn’t call me a fucking idiot,” Eames said incredulously.

“I didn’t? Must have slipped my mind.” Arthur turned and looked Eames square in the eye. “Eames, you’re a fucking idiot.” He could only stare at Eames for so long until the smile threatened to break through and Eames grinned. It did not matter who reached for whom, they probably reached for each other, because they were kissing hard enough to bruise. It took more self control than Arthur realized he had to pull away when Eames bit his bottom lip. “Now probably isn’t the best time.”

“I don’t know what I would do without your powers of observation, Arthur.” Eames sighed dramatically as Arthur started the car.

“You don’t know what you’d do without me period,” Arthur replied and he pulled away from the building. Eames did not reply but Arthur caught the other man smiling faintly.

Only after Yusuf had his supplies and Eames had a weapon within arm’s reach at all times did he finally feel some of the tension ease. Fischer was restless, once again showing that he really had no idea what he was doing, since he had obviously thought this would not take a long time. They did not let him have a phone or a computer but Arthur bought him some books after an entire day of Fischer’s pacing, when Yusuf snapped that if ‘he doesn’t stop doing that right the fuck now I’m going to sedate him.’ Fischer glared but sat down and stared at a wall. Eames smirked and looked at his teammates.

Yusuf was testing a compound against Fischer’s blood to make sure that it worked correctly. They did not want to drop the man into limbo (again) and Eames was not in any real rush to go there either. Arthur frowned deeply at his notebook because he did not need to research anything; he knew almost everything there was to know about Cobb, but he was going to have to watch their backs like never before. Eames was playing extractor and spent most of the time writing half formed ideas down and then scribbling them out. There was no one to forge so he did not need to study anyone. Ariadne, however, had put together far too complex a maze, considering who they were going up against, and that was when he decided to confront her. As he approached she looked up and beamed at him.

“How is it coming along?” he asked casually.

“Good, great even, I’m making it nice and complicated so we can run around without any problems,” Ariadne replied. She sounded far too sure of herself.

“Who would you say was your mentor?” Eames asked, pulling up a chair and sitting down next to her. Ariadne looked a little taken back but she looked down at her sketches.

“Well, Arthur taught me a few things, but I guess Cobb was,” she said slowly as if she was catching on.

“Hence the problem. We’re going into the mind of the man who taught you how to do this. If there is anyone who knows how to spot tricks it would be him because he was the one who taught you those tricks.” Eames looked down at the level and felt bad for her because it was a truly brilliant design. “This is great and you should hold onto it for another time. For Cobb though? You’re going to have to unlearn everything he taught you.”

“He’ll know what to look for so I have to design around the things he won’t look for, basically.” Eames nodded and Ariadne looked down at her sketch, groaning. “I was in a good mood until you came over here.” Eames smiled and turned his attention to Yusuf to see how the compound was coming along. He was about halfway to the desk when Yusuf held a hand up.

“I’ll require you to put on goggles if you insist on talking to me,” he said without looking up from what he was doing.

“Goggles? You need goggles to handle that stuff?” Fischer asked.

“I just want to know how the compound is coming along. I’m sure Arthur wants to test Fischer’s usefulness,” Eames said.

“Or lack thereof,” Arthur grumbled.

“I don’t know why I’m helping you people,” Fischer said exasperated.

“Because you’d be dead without us,” Ariadne said as he looked over at her. “Arthur 100% saved your life back in Sydney. Saito might have eventually gotten to us but he definitely would have gotten you if it weren’t for us.” Ariadne seemed to really know exactly what to say to make Fischer shut up and do what he was told. It was a useful thing to have around.

“Compound is done by the way,” Yusuf interjected.

“Good let’s see what he can do,” Arthur said. Arthur set his pen aside and walked toward the chairs where the PASIV was sitting. At any other time Fischer would have grumbled about them talking through him like he was not there but Ariadne’s words seemed to have had an impact. Eames sat down on the other side of Fischer and Yusuf worked to set everything up. He pulled out three lines, handed one to Arthur and another to Eames, but knelt down next to Fischer. Eames cleaned his arm with an alcohol wipe but watched as Yusuf injected the needle into Fischer’s arm. He gave the man a little credit for not flinching.

“How long?” Yusuf asked as he set up the timer.

“Fifteen minutes should do it,” Arthur replied. Yusuf looked to Fischer who nodded slowly, Arthur did as well and Eames smiled.

“We’ll go into Arthur’s head,” he said. Something must have shown in one of their faces because Fischer looked a little nervous now.

“Good luck,” Yusuf said. Yusuf pushed the button and he felt the chemicals rush through his veins as the world faded away.

Eames opened his eyes and was unsurprised to find himself standing in Arthur’s city. This was a section that they used when they needed to test something. They both knew the layout by heart but the dream itself was much more vast. There were entire sections that only the two of them had ever seen. Right now Eames was not too worried because Arthur’s projections knew him very well and were not too prone to attacking right away. That did not stop him from making sure he was armed as he made his way toward one of the safe houses. Arthur opened the door before he even had a chance to knock.

“How are we looking?” he asked as he let Eames in.

“They seem okay, for now, but we both know how twitchy you can get,” Eames replied and he saw Fischer sitting in the main room. There was a gun in front of him but he made no move to touch it. It was as if he was waiting to see what the two of them were going to do. “Twitchy is exactly what we need though.”

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Fischer asked.

“We’ll see how you do against them later. For now let’s see if you can even fire a gun,” Arthur replied as he walked toward the back of the house where there was a firing range. Fischer creased his eyebrows and looked down at the gun in front of him. Instead of following after Arthur right away he knelt down and began to look over the gun. He made sure there were no bullets in the chamber and that the safety was on, and when he picked it up Fischer kept his finger off of the trigger. It surprised Eames because most people outside the military and gun enthusiasts didn’t even know what trigger discipline was let alone practiced it. He was mildly impressed but knowledge and applying that knowledge were two different things.

Arthur was standing at the firing range with an expression that gave away nothing. There were several boxes of ammo on a table with several targets of various size and distance. While they were not normally used or needed there were ear plugs as well. Fischer set the gun and magazine on the table and watched Arthur.

“I’m going to ask you one more time; how much time have you spent dreaming? You don’t remember the inception, not like we remember the dreams, but you are militarized. I’d also like to remind you that as far as you going into the dream is concerned I’m the final authority. Eames might have promised you the moon and the stars but I won’t let you anywhere near the PASIV if you don’t prove to me that you’re not going to be a burden,” Arthur said with a tone that screamed ‘this is not up for debate.’

“Let me show you what I can do and then I’ll tell you,” Fischer replied. Arthur raised an eyebrow but stepped back to where Eames was standing.

“He checked the chamber before he picked it up,” Eames said softly enough that Fischer could not hear them.

“You can learn the basics from the Internet in five minutes. It means nothing,” Arthur replied. Eames shrugged and watched Fischer load the pistol in front of him. He worked efficiently but not as fast as either of them would. If he had to guess he was about as fast as Ariadne was. Eames also gave Fischer a brownie point for holding the gun properly as he lined up the shot. He was expecting one shot and maybe another if he got excited, but what Eames was not expecting was for Fischer to unload the entire round without flinching.

“Fascinating,” Eames said, ignoring Arthur when he got an elbow to the gut. Arthur pushed a button to move the targets forward as Fischer popped out the empty magazine. Fischer had hit six of the ten targets.

“Not bad, but not great either,” Arthur said as he turned to Fischer, eyes narrowed. “With that aim you could probably take out some projections if they haven’t taken cover, but it could be better.”

“I estimate I’ve spent roughly a day in the dreamworld but I used to hunt with my uncle when I was a kid,” Fischer explained. “My aim is good so what’s the problem?”

“Shooting a target and shooting something that looks like a person are two completely different things,” Arthur said. “Projections, militarized ones particularly, are violent, and in someone like Cobb they are deadly. They have no sense of self preservation and will stop at nothing to kill you. They look like people you would see walking down the street. You can hit a target, you can kill a deer, but can you kill a teenager? A kid? A grandmother? Your life, and subsequently ours as well, depends on you killing projections without remorse.” Fischer looked a little ill from where Eames was standing but he was not very surprised. There were plenty of ways of explaining the killing of projections and he knew he could trust Arthur not to sugarcoat it. Fischer looked like he was about to say something when the ground shook a little.

“What was that?” he asked.

“We’ve been discovered,” Eames replied as he opened up a closet filled with firearms. “How so you typically leave dreams, Fischer?”

“Tipped over my chair or just let the time run out, why?”

Without warning Eames turned and pointed a gun at Fischer’s head.

“You die in a dream and you wake up. That’s what the projections are trying to do, wake you and the dreamer up, because your death gets you out of their head. That’s why they are surrounding this house to kill us, to get rid of us because we’re not supposed to be here.” Fischer looked a little pale and even jumped when someone slammed into the door.

“We’ll fight them off on the roof; let’s go.” Arthur took a bag full of ammo and three different guns in hand as he made his way through the house. They heard a window break and that seemed to be the motivation Fischer needed to follow. Eames gathered his own weapons and they made their way up five flights of stairs. The front door was kicked down with such violent intent that the sound of the wood splintering echoed throughout the house. Fischer hesitated but kept moving. By the time they reached the open roof there was a stampede racing up the stairs. Arthur closed and locked the door, taking several steps away from it.

“Load your weapon and don’t hesitate,” Eames said. Fischer nodded and loaded his pistol with quick efficiency, his hands shaking a little. When the projections hit the door the wood cracked. Eames was not in the mood to die slowly but this was a point that needed to be made. They slammed into the door again and Eames raised his gun.

The projections spilled through the door and he and Arthur began firing so they were bottlenecked at the door. Eames was not surprised when he saw Fischer hesitate but when a projection pulled a gun to shoot at him he fired. While he was not entirely accurate and he didn’t make anything that could be defined as ‘clean’ kills, Fischer did manage to at least slow a good amount of them down. By then Arthur’s entire mind was coming after them and the first of the projections got past their fire. There was an odd moment where they seemed like they were not sure who to attack. Arthur’s mind knew Eames but Eames was also the dreamer. In the end they swarmed both of them but Fischer was not trained in hand to hand combat at all. They quickly overwhelmed him and began to beat the man brutally. He screamed and begged, but Eames was too busy trying to stop a five year old from gutting him to do anything.

Eames heard a single gunshot and turned just in time to see Arthur lowering his gun after shooting a now dead, and awake, Fischer. Without hesitation Arthur snatched Eames’ hand and threw them both off of the building.

Eames was not surprised to find that Fischer was shaken by the entire incident but apparently he was still adamant about going with them. All eyes turned to Arthur who let the man squirm for twenty minutes before agreeing that he could be useful as a moving target if nothing else. Fischer glared but did not comment further on the matter. Instead he set aside his book and went over to Ariadne’s desk. She was surprised but also seemed to enjoy answering any questions he asked her. He seemed to know that the rest of them would not answer his questions about the basics and Yusuf’s relief at finally being left alone was palpable.

Four weeks later and they had a plan. Unfortunately, it involved Ariadne going into the dream because Eames did not trust her to watch them with Fischer involved. The man could shoot himself out of the dream at any time and overwhelm her. Ariadne was almost offended until she realized that being trusted to stay and keep Cobb alive in the dream was a compliment. Eames was also fairly sure that Yusuf was thanking various deities that he did not have to under again. Eames would be the dreamer to keep attention as far away from Cobb and Ariadne as possible. They planned to go in the next day. Eames was alone in the apartment with Arthur. They were both stretched out on the lawn chairs with no intention of using the PASIV despite how tempting it was.

“I’m performing an extraction on Cobb in less than twelve hours,” Arthur said. “I’m going to break into the safe house I arranged for him, drug him and break into his mind.”

“I should remind you that you’ve been in his mind plenty of times,” Eames pointed out but he also knew that was not the problem.

“He doesn’t know I’m going to be there though. He thinks he’s completely safe right now and he’s not. Because I’m going in there to extract from him.” Arthur laughed and it sounded bitter. “I’m not very good at this friendship thing, am I.”

“No worse off than I am; it’s why we work so well together.” Eames sat up and looked down at Arthur. “You are not a good person--”

“You’re really terrible at this ‘making people feel better’ thing--”

“--but neither am I. Good people wouldn’t do what we do but do you know who else isn’t a good person? Dominic Cobb. He altered a man’s thoughts for a client who wanted the competition out of the way. He stamped all of our passports with a one way trip to limbo. You’re not going into the mind of a good man because a good man wouldn’t touch what we do with a ten foot pole.”

Arthur stared at Eames and he could practically hear the wheels in Arthur’s head turning as he processed this information. Arthur sat up, took Eames by the tie and yanked him into a rough kiss. Their teeth knocked together and the angle was all wrong but it did give Eames the opportunity to push Arthur back into the chair. Arthur ran his hands through Eames’ hair and fisted the strands, pulling them tight. They fought, like they always did, and Eames countered by digging his fingernails into Arthur’s hips hard enough to bruise.

Time never seemed to matter when they were together like this. Eames was fairly sure the apartment building could fall apart and neither of them would notice, so he was not sure how long they made out this way, but he noticed that they both pulled away at the same time. Arthur was breathing hard, his lips swollen, and they both stared at each other. Normal people, right now, would say something to each other but they were hardly normal people.

“We should get some sleep,” Arthur said. “And then we’ll go be bad men.” Eames grinned and pulled Arthur into another kiss.

Arthur knew the safe house better than anyone. So it was easy for him to walk right in while Cobb, Miles and the kids were sleeping. He stood in the doorway and looked at the sleeping forms of James and Phillipa. This would probably be the last time he was ever going to see them yet it did nothing to dampen his confidence. He closed their door and locked it from the outside. Miles was asleep in the next room with Marie and Arthur gave them exactly the right amount of sedative to keep them asleep.

By the time he got to Cobb’s room all worry had faded away. Eames was right, I’m not a good man, and I’m doing what I need to live, he thought. The way Cobb did not stir as Arthur approached spoke volumes about how being a stay at home dad had made him soft. His eyes never opened and his breathing never changed as Arthur slid the needle into his arm. Like most dreamers, it did not even phase him. Eames, Yusuf, Ariadne and Fischer walked into the room and locked the door from the inside.

“I’m giving you seven hours in there but I can bet he’ll realize something is wrong by then,” Yusuf explained as he set up Ariadne and Fischer’s needles. Arthur did his own, as did Eames, though neither of them said a word. “Someone should kick themselves out as soon as possible and we’ll wake up the rest that way.”

“Sounds good,” Arthur replied. “Are you ready?” Ariadne smiled a little and Fischer was fidgety but he nodded. Arthur looked at Eames lying next to him; they would be taking care of the projections and searching for the information. Eames grinned, they bumped fists (Ariadne scoffed and Arthur could practically hear Yusuf’s eye roll) and Arthur nodded. “Good luck.” Yusuf pushed the button, the PASIV hissed to life, and Arthur closed his eyes as the world faded away.

Arthur blinked and the dream began to focus. He was standing on the sidewalk of the small town where he had sent Cobb and the kids. It was supposed to be a place far enough away that people would overlook it if they were searching for Cobb. It was far to the north and if credit card statements were to be believed Cobb and company had last been seen heading south. Arthur knew it would only keep people distracted for so long but he also knew that if it bought them any time he was okay with it. Cobb had been instructed not to leave the house so the actual city was just one giant maze. If all went according to plan Cobb would not leave the house at all and he should not suspect anything until he woke up. He would know the needle mark right away, Arthur thought, as he walked down the street to a small building. He knocked twice and the door opened.

Ariadne smiled and stepped aside to let him in. Eames and Fischer were both already there. Fischer looked a little anxious but if he had any reservations he was keeping them to himself. There was too much going on for him to worry about what Fischer was going to screw up.

“Ariadne, Fischer, you are both going to stay near the house but out of sight. Don’t do anything to tip off Cobb’s security. Eames and I will go see Cobb and Eames will plant the idea that he needs to think about what happened that night we tried to extract from Saito. Ariadne, we’ll pick you up and you stay with Cobb in the house. Fischer will come with Eames and I and we’ll go look for the memory,” Arthur explained.

“What if security catches on while I’m there?” Ariadne asked.

“Try to convince him for as long as possible that it’s someone gunning for you,” Eames replied. “But make sure you call and let us know. If he dies the entire thing will fall apart.”

“Are we ready?” Arthur asked and they all nodded. There was a car waiting for them outside since stealing one might tip Cobb off. There was no telling what could set the man off but as Arthur made his way down the main street it looked like his mind was fairly calm. He was also on the lookout for Mal but if she was around she was not making herself known. Ariadne mentioned that Cobb had let her go in limbo but that did not mean she was not still here. It was hard to remove someone completely from your subconscious. Arthur parked the car a block away and climbed out. Ariadne and Fischer stayed behind as he walked with Eames down the street.

“Just go along with anything I say,” Eames said.

“It would be stupid not to,” Arthur replied because that was the way things were. They knocked on the door and Arthur listened to the movement inside. He hoped Cobb had common sense and would check the window instead of the peephole so no one would put a bullet between his eyes. A curtain to the right moved just a little and then the door opened. Cobb looked the same, if a little tired, and even a little relieved to see them.

“Arthur, Eames, I didn’t think I’d ever hear from you guys again.”

“Oh you should know it’s not that easy to kill us,” Eames said, walking through the open door. Arthur followed and Cobb looked like he was about to hug one or both of them but stopped at the last second.

“I know. I was just getting worried. The kids are also starting to get a little stir crazy since we’re inside so much. Not that I’m not thankful for what you guys have done for us.” Cobb smiled and led them through the house. “So what do you know?”

“It’s Saito,” Arthur said; Cobb’s face slowly drained of color.

“He’s getting rid of the ‘evidence,’,” Eames grumbled. “Which is why we’re here, actually. Ariadne is out of Paris but we need a place where she can hole up until we figure out what to do. Can she stay?”

“Of course, of course.” Cobb waved them off but seemed to be processing the information. “What are you going to do?”

“We need to find something to hold over his head to make him call off the assassins.” Eames slid his hands in his pockets and managed to look very casual. “Arthur has already looked over his information but we were wondering if you remembered anything from the extraction you tried to pull on him. Right now, we aren’t safe and we need something to go on.”

“Anything you remember would be of help. Even if it seems insignificant, tell me anyway because we’re running out of time. We can only stay a step ahead of these people for so long.” Arthur crossed his arms and stared at Cobb intently because Cobb was not the only one who could make people uncomfortable by staring, or in Cobb’s case, squinting at them. Arthur had wondered whether Cobb would ask to have an extraction performed on him but it did not seem likely. An aware mind was always much more twitchy. Cobb frowned as he thought it over but sighed heavily after a few moments.

“The only thing we have on him is his mistress and I don’t think he’s going to call off a hit to save his marriage. Even more so since he obviously didn’t care about it to begin with,” Cobb said with righteous indignation that made Arthur want to roll his eyes straight out of his head. Instead he glanced at his watch and elbowed Eames.

“We need to pick up Ariadne from the bus stop,” Eames said. “Keep thinking about that job and call us if you remember anything.”

“I will, don’t worry,” Cobb said as they walked out the door. Arthur was on edge as he watched the projections walk by. They had not seemed to notice them yet, but there was no telling when Cobb’s mind would turn on them. Ariadne looked more than a little relieved to see them when they walked around the corner.

“How did it go?” she asked.

“He’s thinking about it which is what we need. Now we just need to figure out where he’s hiding his information and go from there. Are you armed?” Eames asked. Ariadne pulled aside her jacket and revealed a hidden shoulder holster. “Good. Now go to his house and don’t go anywhere. Keep him thinking about Saito if you can.”

“Be careful,” Fischer blurted out of nowhere. Ariadne stared at him and nodded slowly as she walked toward the house. Arthur waited until she rounded the corner to turn to Fischer and Eames.

“Let’s go.” The three of them started down toward the city street. It was crowded with projections but none of them seemed agitated.

“Memories aren’t like information,” Eames said as they walked. “We’re asking him to remember something he probably was not even consciously thinking about. The information he got from the safe was not what he was looking for so he disregarded it.”

“So the bank is out because why guard a memory?” Arthur said as he looked from building to building.

“What about the library?” Fischer offered and they both turned to look at him at the same time. “What? Memories are like archives and that’s basically what a library is. That or a computer.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Arthur replied. Fischer looked apprehensive when Eames snickered at the private joke but did not press the matter. Instead they walked until the city library came into view. The moment they set foot on the stairs the entire feeling of the dream changed. “Don’t stop and don’t turn around,” he said harshly when Fischer hesitated on the stairs. He could feel the eyes of every single person on the street burning a hole through his back. When Eames touched the door to the library a mob raced towards them.

“Get in!” he screamed shoving Fischer through the door. Arthur pulled out his Glock and shot three projections dead as he went in the door with Eames. Fischer was pushing a large desk against the door as Arthur helped him. It was an old building, fortunately, so there was not much in the way of windows.

“Flank out and secure the area,” Arthur said. “You cover my back, Fischer. If I get shot I’m shooting you when we wake up, got it?” Fischer pulled out his gun but did not respond. Arthur made his way further into the small library. There were several patrons inside that he shot on sight as he locked the windows. “Clear!”

“Clear!” Eames called back and they made their way back to the main room. Arthur picked up a random book as he was walking along and opened it. It was a memory, one from the first time Cobb met Mal, written in detail within the pages. He was in the middle of flipping through the book when Eames joined them in the room.

“Fischer was right; these are all memories,” Arthur said. He handed the book to Eames who looked through the pages.

“I guess this gives credit to the ‘my life is an open book’ statement,” he deadpanned.

“That was awful,” Arthur replied as he snatched the book back and set it aside. “There is some order here so look in the obvious places and go from there. If you see any movement say something but don’t hesitate to shoot. They’re going to get in here sooner or later.”

“I’ll take E for extraction and C for Cobol,” Eames said. “Fischer, you go with Arthur to look through I for inception and S for Saito. We’ll meet back here if we don’t find anything and look through J.” Arthur nodded and made his way through the library to the S section. The books had labels but most of them did not seem to make much sense. The entire building shook once but Arthur did not notice. There were volumes with Saito written on them and he had no idea what to possibly look for. He rounded a corner and only vaguely registered that Mal was standing in front of him before she shot him in the leg (Again? Seriously?).

“Arthur, I have to say that I’m surprised to see you here,” she said calmly. Arthur’s entire leg felt like it was on fire and his knee was a bloody mess of skin and bone.

“Keep looking!” he called out because he knew Eames was coming. He just hoped Fischer was not going to be an idiot and try to take on the projection of Mal Cobb.

“Yes, tell them to keep looking, but why don’t you just tell me what you’re looking for?” she asked pointing the gun at his forehead. Arthur had weathered through this type of pain before, but he was still annoyed that he had to do it again.

“I thought he got rid of you,” he said through his teeth.

“Rid of me? No, not really, I’m here as personal security now. I know I’m a projection but that also means I know you’re not supposed to be here.” Mal smiled warmly but it faded as she looked around. “Eames is here, Eames is always where you are, but there’s someone else.”

“It’s just the two of us,” Arthur lied. Mal glared at him and pointed her gun at his other knee. If she shot him again Arthur was fairly sure he would not be able to walk in the real world for a week. Mal’s finger hovered over the trigger for a moment until she moved it and fired right in front of her just as another bullet missed her. Fischer fell to the ground, blood pooling around his stomach.

“Robert Fischer. How surprising. I must say I’m surprised that I have not seen you here considering what he did to you. My husband does love his guilt complexes.” Mal looked thoughtful for a moment. “Ah, however, he would have to feel guilty for brain washing you. And now you’re here helping them? I’m shocked.”

“I’m a businessman,” Fischer said through his teeth. “And I know that it was just business for Arthur and everyone else. Saito is the one that deserves my rage.”

“How enlightened,” Mal mused. “Now, would you like to slowly bleed out or would you like me to end this quickly? Maybe you can watch the show as I make dear Arthur explain to me what you’re doing. I’d extract the information you, but you’d be too easy. My husband does love a challenge.” Arthur let his head fall back as he tried to think clearly again. Mal was going to torture him, which was not a first but they needed to get out of here before the rest of the projections broke in. Out of the corner of his eye Arthur spotted a small book hidden on the bottom shelf. It was smaller, easy to conceal, like something someone would forget about. It had Saito’s name on it and nothing else.

“Eames!” Arthur called out and he really hoped that he really hoped Eames understood what he was trying to say. Mal glared and pointed her gun at Arthur.

“Yes, come here, Eames, I’d love to see you again!” she called out. Her eyes were searching for Eames, her focus not on him, and Arthur slowly shifted his hand to the bookshelf, his fingers closing in on the spine. There was movement and Mal turned to fire. Arthur knew he would only be able to do this once before the pain was too much to handle. As soon as she raised her gun Arthur kicked her legs out from underneath her.

“Now!” Arthur shouted. The gun went off as she fell and Arthur threw the book down the hall. Eames was there in a second, book in hand, pointing his gun at Mal.

“You can be a right bitch, you know that?” he said as she smirked from her position on the floor.

“Oh my dear, you shouldn’t speak ill of the dead,” Mal replied as a window shattered. “I truly hope that you found what you’re looking for because they’re coming.” Eames did not hesitate to put a bullet through Mal’s head and another through Fischer’s.

“Don’t kick me out yet,” Arthur said through his teeth. “Drag me to a back floor and hole us up. We need to get every detail of that book.”

“I really fucking hate you sometimes,” Eames muttered as he pulled Arthur’s arm over his shoulder. The pain in his leg was bad enough that for a second Arthur thought he was going to black out. He was fairly sure he did since the next time he looked up, they were inside a storage closet. “That won’t hold them for long.”

“Then let’s get to work.” Eames sat down next to him but hesitated. “Let’s just hope there’s something in here.” Eames opened the book and slowly grinned.

“Darling, it looks like our good karma is finally paying off,” Eames said.

“We don’t have any good karma. Just read,” Arthur snapped ignoring the pet name. Arthur read as fast as he could, committing every detail to memory. He pointedly ignored the fact that Cobb had taken Mal back to his room instead of shooting her in the dream which could have prevented a lot of their problems. Instead he read every detail of the information in the folder. The building shook and began to collapse around them; Cobb was dead then. The roof was going to cave in on them any second but they could not waste time kicking themselves out early. Arthur glanced at Eames and read until the roof fell in.

Eames snapped awake with a gasp, his last memory of the wind being crushed out of him by a falling roof. As the world around him came back into focus he realized that Cobb was being held back by Yusuf as Ariadne was trying to calm him down. Fischer was still lying on the floor coughing as if he could not catch his breath. Arthur was awake as well and was already reaching for the notebook next to the bed. Eames did the same as he wrote every detail from the papers onto the pages. Yusuf seemed to have a screaming Cobb handled for now and only when he was done did Eames stand and shove the man into a chair.

“Calm yourself down, bloody hell,” he grumbled.

“‘Calm down?’ You want me to ‘calm down?’ You come into this safe house, more than likely compromising it, then perform an extraction on me with Robert fucking Fischer? Are you working for him now?” Cobb sounded unhinged, the way he had the night he pointed a gun at Eames’ head after a bad extraction.

“Actually we’re working for each other,” Arthur explained calmly. “Saito wanted him dead, too, and we needed someone with the resources to help us get around without being noticed.”

“You let him into my head. Hell, you invited yourself into my head. What makes you think you ever had free reign of my brain?” Cobb snapped.

“Cobb, please, we were trying to find--” Ariadne began.

“I don’t want to hear it. I want all of you out right now. I won’t have you bringing this shit to my kids’ door anymore.” Cobb sounded like he was talking to all of them but he was glaring daggers at Arthur. “I don’t need you anymore so just leave, now, before you bring an assassin to my door.” It was a low blow and if he had not been looking for it Eames would have missed the twitch in the corner of Arthur’s mouth. Without another word Arthur packed up the PASIV and walked out of the room.

“You owe us your life but you owe more than that to him,” Eames said as he walked out the door.

“Fuck off, Eames, I don’t owe either of you anything,” Cobb snapped. Eames did not wait to hear what he would say to Ariadne. Yusuf was right behind him, but she emerged a few minutes after looking completely flabbergasted.

“He actually said he would shoot me if he ever saw me again,” she whispered. With anyone else Eames would have thought that was an empty threat.

“Don’t take that lightly,” Arthur warned as they packed up the car. The drive back to the city was awkwardly quiet but Eames was not in any hurry to talk. Fischer seemed much more subdued than he had been an hour ago. They walked into the apartment building as Arthur sat down to look at his notes.

“If it’s like that every time you die in a dream,” Fischer said, “I’m impressed.”

“Do we have anything useful?” Yusuf asked as Eames sat down as well. He was not sure if Arthur had anything he didn’t so they put their notebooks side by side and began to look over the information. There was plenty to see but Eames was not sure what half of it meant let alone if any of it was useful. When Fischer joined them he was tempted to tell Fischer to go away but if there was anyone who could look at this information and make sense of it, it was probably Fischer.

“What were you trying to steal?” Fischer asked as they looked over the papers.

“Expansion plans,” Arthur replied without looking up. “He knew we were coming and hid them from us so it didn’t matter.”

“This part here though.” Fischer leaned over Arthur’s shoulder to point at a paragraph and Eames had to ignore the line of red he was suddenly seeing with someone so close to Arthur. The jealousy, he was not so petty that he was not willing to admit that’s what it was, was quickly pushed aside to listen again. “Right here are the numbers listed for a number of accounts that are off shore that he uses to move money around.”

“We do that all the time,” Eames replied. “When you have money that is not strictly legal you like to keep it moving so no one can freeze it all at once. Saito being involved with something illegal is not surprising, though, considering who he was hiring and what he hired them to do.”

“There is a pattern though,” Arthur said softly. “He moves different amounts but always in the same order.”

“Exactly. You can stop a major movement and hold the money ransom until he calls off the hits on us. We tell him we only know about those accounts so if he tries anything we can just go back and do it all over again.” Fischer looked a little too pleased with himself.

“I’ll contact Saito and arrange a drop in public.” Arthur closed his notebook and opened his phone. “We’re just going to have to hope he goes for it.”

“He will because I’m going to present it to him,” Fisher announced, effectively freezing Arthur mid motion.

“I don’t think so,” Eames said scoffing.

“Either I do it or we don’t do it at all. You need me to get to the drop point because he probably has your identities completely frozen by now. Without me you’re stuck here waiting for him to shoot you,” Fischer insisted.

“He’ll just shoot you too,” Arthur said reasonably.

“Either you let me do the drop or you’ll have to find some other way of getting out of the city without any assassins killing you.” Fischer turned on his heel and walked out of the room. Eames was half tempted to knock the kid out and go from there but Arthur was already opening his computer and typing furiously.

“He’s right,” Arthur grumbled, rubbing his temples. “We’re locked in the city. If we tried to go anywhere that isn’t private we’d be shot on the spot. Half of the underground community is here combing the area and looking for us. I don’t think we could go get a cup of coffee right now let alone get to another city away from Cobb.”

“So Fischer has us backed into a corner now along with Saito,” Yusuf said slowly. “I’m starting to think getting shot is less complicated.”

“So Fischer has to do the drop,” Eames stated and Arthur nodded.

“Looks like Fischer is making the drop.”

There were a few small rooms in the apartment building that they had been living in for the past few weeks. By now almost all of their wounds from the various run ins had healed but Eames still felt his muscles scream at him if he moved a certain way. They had contacted Saito and agreed to meet him the next day in downtown Los Angeles. Fischer was going to try and negotiate despite the fact that it was the last thing Eames wanted to happen. The vein on Arthur’s forehead looked like it was going to burst, and it took a lot of coercing to keep Arthur from locking Fischer in a closet. Now it was the middle of the night and they were in their room, lying side by side on the bed, listening to the sounds of the city.

“Tomorrow we’re going to stand in a wide, open area, where anyone could take a shot at us, with a daddy’s boy who’s going to try and bargain for our lives. Is that what our plan generally comes down to?” Arthur asked.

“Pretty much. I think at this point we can both agree that nothing has been going the way we wanted it to since this job started. Without Fischer we’re locked in the city and we have no contacts that could get us out,” Eames replied.

“So, basically, there is a good chance we could be dead within the next few hours.”

“I think that’s pretty much what it comes down to, yes.” This was one of the moments in his life where Eames was not sure what he was supposed to do now. He was good with people, great with them even, but Arthur was not like most people. This was the person that he depended on, that he trusted more than anyone else, his best friend, and there was a good chance that he could die tomorrow and never see him again. The thought hurt much more than any punch or kick he had received in the last few months. “Do you remember the end of the Shatner job?”

“Yeah, I remember. We got split up and they broke into your mind to extract my location from you. We barely got out alive,” Arthur replied.

“Yes, and I had to stitch you up in that run down motel in Jersey. Then we decided that we had to break up because we were worried that someone was going to use one of us against the other,” Eames said and smiled to himself.

“Right, for all the good that ended up doing us. We had to break up and possibly never see each other again and even if we did we had to be total strangers.” Arthur shifted on the bed so that their shoulders touched. Their arms were at their sides and Eames could feel Arthur’s pinky barely touching his own. Eames could remember standing in the doorway of that motel and watching Arthur walk out of the door. He remembered how it had felt like someone he knew had died and he was watching the car drive away. Eames turned to look at Arthur just as Arthur turned to look at him.

“I don’t regret meeting you,” they both said at the same time, repeating Arthur’s words to him that day all of those years ago when they thought they might never see each other again. Now they were here again, looking at each other, knowing that this could be the end. Arthur smiled and Eames grinned back, knocking their shoulders together. Their fingers brushed as Arthur rolled over and climbed on Eames’ lap, sitting over him.

“So, last night on Earth, what should we do?” Arthur asked.

“Well, we could fuck,” Eames suggested resting his hands on Arthur’s hips; Arthur raised an eyebrow. “But that seems a little too cliche.”

“We can’t have that.”

“I’d suggest we could spar but that usually leads to fucking anyway. We could get shit faced but again with the cliche. I would hope that I’ve helped you evolve past the boring after so many years.” Arthur glared and rolled his eyes dramatically. “So why don’t I give you one last ass kicking in poker and call it good?”

Arthur grinned and leaned over so they were nose to nose. “You’re on.”

The annoying beeping of his alarm woke Arthur up. The last thing he wanted right now was to get up and deal with the fact that he had to find a way to keep them safe while essentially walking out into the open with targets on their heads. Eames was asleep next to him and they were closer than usual but that was just because of the bed’s smaller size. Arthur rolled onto his back and sighed heavily, staring at the ceiling.

“Only you could think loud enough to wake me up,” Eames said, his eyes still closed.

“I’ll try to fix that for next time,” Arthur replied. He intended to come off as sarcastic but the clench in his stomach would not go away. Eames opened his eyes and they stared at each other for what felt like the five hundredth time in the last few hours. Normally Eames was a constant source of inspiration but now it was almost like he was a distraction. Arthur could not focus on protecting everyone because he was too focused on losing what he was trying to protect in the first place. There was no way of escaping the stakes and no way of looking at it objectively. This is what it must feel like to be emotionally compromised, Arthur thought grimly as he climbed out of bed.

“So what’s the plan?” Eames asked, throwing the covers off.

“Yusuf will be on standby to mask our escape,” Arthur replied as he pulled on his pants and buttoned up his shirt.

“And what else?”

“There isn’t anything else.” Arthur turned and looked at Eames. “Saito won’t show if one of us is missing. Those were the terms of the agreement. There isn’t anything I can do.” Eames stared and Arthur waited for some sort of argument, for something along the lines of how it was his job to keep them safe, but Eames merely shrugged.

“We’ll do what we have to,” he replied. Something in Arthur’s stomach dropped at the thought that someone did not expect him to work miracles. “I know what you’re thinking. You’re not perfect, Arthur, and this entire situation not ideal. There isn’t anything any of us can do about it though so let’s just make the drop and hope for the best, okay?” Arthur knew what he wanted to say but words would not come. Instead he took three large steps forward and pulled Eames into a kiss. Normally they would push and pull like they always did but this time they just kissed. There was nothing more that needed to be said as they pulled away and continued to get dressed. Fischer was awake and drinking a cup of coffee when they entered. Arthur sat next to the former CEO and stared him down.

“If anyone dies today, anyone, I’m not going to hesitate to put a bullet between your eyes, do you hear me?” Arthur said carefully.

“You and Eames really need to get over your little protective streaks,” Fischer replied rolling his eyes.

“You should take us seriously,” Eames said sitting down on the other side of the man. Fischer did not seem impressed but the three of them drank their coffee in silence. Ariadne and Yusuf joined them not long after.

“Eames and I will escort Fischer to the drop. Yusuf, I need you to stay as close as you can to us but also out of sight. We don’t know what kind of security Saito has but I want you to use a smoke bomb to help us get out of there if we need to. Ariadne, I want you to stay close to Yusuf and keep your head down. You’re the one he’s least likely to take a shot at since you’re actually an upstanding citizen.” Arthur paused. “If anyone fires a shot, anyone, get out of the area right away. Go into hiding, stay as low key as possible; we’ll figure out what to do from there.” He wanted to tell them that they were going to be okay, but lying was not his forte. “Let’s go.”

Ariadne did not try to hide her fear and she hugged everyone except Fischer a little harder than necessary. Yusuf exchanged tight handshakes and did not let any fear sink into his eyes. They split up into the two cars with Ariadne and Yusuf hanging far back as Arthur went with Eames and took Fischer to the meeting place. It was in public but there were plenty of vantage points for snipers.

“I forgive you,” Fischer said suddenly.

“‘Forgive?’ Forgive us for what?” Eames asked.

“For the inception. I forgive you for breaking into my mind like you did. I know you were just doing what you were hired to do and it wasn’t personal. Aside from our current situation, I’m better off for it so I forgive you.” Fischer sounded like he was making some sort of monumental leap or coming to terms with something but all Arthur could do was stare at him through the rear view mirror.

“You’re right. It was just business, which is why we don’t need your forgiveness either,” Arthur replied coolly. Fischer glared but did not say anything else. Arthur parked the car a block from the drop off location and climbed out slowly. He had a pistol underneath his jacket tucked safely in a holster and another around his ankle but there was no way of making any of that known or easy to get to without risk. Arthur braced himself for gun fire the second he opened the door but none came. He nodded to Eames and the two of them scanned the area. The table in the middle of the fountain area was empty but they were also early. He could see Yusuf hiding in a safe spot but did not acknowledge him.

“Let’s go,” Eames said. Arthur nodded and the three of them walked out into the open. It was a lovely spring day, not too warm, and there were people walking and talking all around them. It was almost a little eerie for Arthur, like a dream, but he could not risk touching his totem. He looked up and saw Saito walking toward them from the opposite direction with two guards flanking him on either side. The businessman looked a little taken back when he saw them but it faded quickly. Still no one shot at them and they were the first to reach the table. It felt like an eternity before Saito joined them; no one sat down.

“Robert Fischer. I’m surprised that Arthur let you out in the open at all let alone allowed you to do this,” Saito said. Arthur clenched his fists but did not rise to the bait; neither did Fischer. “Now, you seem to think you have some sort of bargaining chip? Let’s see it so we can continue this little game.”

“Mr. Saito, I’m aware of the extraction job that Arthur tried to perform on you for Cobol Engineering. While I might not be an expert about the dreamshare program I do know that while they did not find what they were looking for, they were inside your head.” Fischer held up a folder containing all of the account information. “I have all of the account numbers for all of your ‘less than legal’ funds right here. In exchange for dropping the bounties you’ve placed on our heads I will give them to you.” Fischer did not wait for a response before opening the folder and pointing at the account numbers. Saito’s expression was smug but as soon as he saw the numbers his smile faded.

“And what’s to stop me from shooting all of you right now?” Saito asked darkly.

“The second I go longer than two hours without replying to Peter Browning in a very specific way, all of this information including plenty of evidence linking you to my death plus the deaths of a family and a graduate student will be released to the press.” Fischer crossed his arms. “Take the deal, Saito, because I’ll only offer it once.” Arthur blinked and glanced at Eames. Even if it was a bluff, he had to give the man credit for staring down the person who wanted him dead.

“How do I know you won’t release the information anyway?” Saito asked.

“You don’t. But you’re going to take the deal anyway, and do you know why?” Fischer smiled. “Because it would be bad business not to, and in the end, you’re a businessman, just like me and just like my father.” Arthur’s fingers twitched at his sides as he watched Saito’s guards. Saito looked at the three of them, smiling a little to himself, as he pulled out his phone and quickly dialed a number.

“Call off the bounties,” he said calmly. “And make sure that confirmation of the cancellations is sent to Arthur’s phone.” Saito hung up and studied Fischer. “You would have made a formidable opponent were we still enemies.”

“What you should take from this is that you don’t want me, or any of these other people, as enemies at all,” Fisher replied as Arthur’s phone beeped. Arthur picked it up and looked over the information that had been sent to him; from everyone that he trusted passing on that the bounty had been called off.

“We’re in the clear,” he said.

“A simple business transaction is all it takes, Saito?” Eames asked.

“Mr. Fischer is right; I’m a businessman who cannot turn down the best deal,” Saito replied as Fischer handed him the folder. “And as far as I’m concerned my business with all of you is finished.”

Arthur closed his eyes and let the warm wind wash over him. The meeting with Saito was over, the bounties were gone, and yet as he stared out at the beautiful ocean he did not feel relaxed. He had a blended drink, extremely alcoholic, in one hand and the beach chair he sat in was almost sinfully soft yet he still could not relax.

“Really, Eames? A tropical paradise is the dream you wanted to drop into for an hour so you could ‘clear your head?’ How much more cliche can you get?” Arthur asked. Eames was in the chair next to him, button down shirt open and revealing all of his tattoos and scars.

“Just because you’re not fond of the beach doesn’t mean I’m not,” Eames replied. “Now drink your fruity drink because we’re going back to London to sleep for a week and I won’t see the ocean for awhile.”

Arthur rolled his eyes and took a long drink of whatever it was that Eames had dreamed up for them. All of the projections were far enough away that he was able to hear someone walking up behind them. Arthur glanced at Eames who was also setting his drink aside to reach for a gun. The familiar weight was almost in his palm when Arthur heard a familiar chuckle.

“I feel like I’m being objectified somehow,” Mal said as she emerged from behind them in a purple bikini and Arthur would have been lying if his eyebrows did not shoot up from the sight of that. “Now if only you knew whose projection I am?”

“I don’t know and I don’t have a problem with that,” Eames said.

“Me neither,” Arthur replied and they clinked glasses. Mal threw her head back and laughed as she pulled the cover around her hips tighter. She sat down between their chairs and smiled.

“You’re here relaxing so I’m assuming all is well and good topside then?” Mal asked.

“Saito has backed off for now, but we might have neglected to give him all of the information we have on him if something should occur,” Arthur replied.

“Not to mention what we have on Fischer as well, so we’re not expecting any problems,” Eames added.

“And my idiot husband overreacted I’m sure.” She sighed and did not wait for confirmation. “Ah, well, maybe someday he will come to his senses.”

“I would hope so. He’d be an idiot to lose a contact like Arthur; he is the best there is,” Eames said smiling but Arthur rolled his eyes.

“He would be an idiot not to take into account that you’re practically one of a kind, Eames,” Arthur replied.

“Practically? I’m insulted.” Eames sounded like he was hurt but he was grinning from ear to ear. Mal watched them, a faint smile on her lips, shaking her head slightly.

“I don’t know why you two don’t just say it,” she said. Arthur looked at Eames and their eyes met at the same time; they smiled, clinked their glasses together and said nothing.