Notes: Part Three out of Four of the 'No Definition' series. The order is 'Against Us', 'Sweet Vendetta', 'Case Closed', and 'I Took A Ride To Meet An Enemy.' I tried to make them stand alone but reading in order is best.

Case Closed

Preface

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

"I told you lot everything I know," Nash replied.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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