Title: Twofold
Part: 1 of ?
Fandoms: Inception and Sunshine
Pairings: Eames/Fischer, a little Arthur/Ariadne
Warnings: brief description of sexuality
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It was a pretty standard operation. Diedmus, a technology and military manufacturer, was keen on getting an idea from a certain bright young scientist. Problem was said scientist had no interest in working for them, and had already turned down several very generous job offers. So they sought the help of a man like Cobb.
Cobb was still working in extraction. A man needed to make a living, especially with a family, and, as Arthur so eloquently put it, there was nothing like it. His team primarily consisted of Arthur and Ariadne now, point-man and architect respectively. He was becoming more confident in his ability to design dreams himself again, but Ariadne was simply too good to let go. Plus Arthur liked her. A lot.
For this job, he decided he wanted a fourth team member. What Diedmus wanted was not simple; they wanted an equation. Normally when an extractor pulled out a secret, it was a single fact: Yes, he is making plans for the Asian market; No, he isn't taking your idea and opening his own franchise; Yes, he is having an affair. Things like that.
Now if a normal person were to go into another's dream and trying to remember something complex and specific like this, they wouldn't produce anything very accurate upon waking. His team was trained for this, but they would still need to only focus on a small section each. So having a fourth person would help. A forger might also be needed to get the mark to present the equation, because it might not inherently seem like a secret to them, and therefore not manifest in the typical safe locations.
This led to Cobb calling Eames, although he had some misgivings about doing so. Eames was extremely talented, but on their last job together, the inception, the man had become strangely attached to the mark. Eames had kept his job with Fischer's company – meant to be temporary and only for gathering information – and with the company's restructuring, had become Robert Fischer's personal assistant. The bickering between Eames and Arthur had worsened, as Arthur found Eames' behavior "completely unprofessional," "absurd," and "creepy," especially since Eames was now also living with Robert Fischer and having, as the forger put it, "fantastic, mind-altering fuckfests every night."
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Apprehending the mark for the extraction would be rather simple. Get security codes to his apartment building, enter his apartment before he arrived, drug him when he showed up, and perform the extraction right there.
Eames was the burliest of the group, so it was decided that he should be the one waiting to spring upon the mark with the drug. That way if he missed the first time, he could physically restrain the scientist while Cobb drugged him. The mark wouldn't remember any of it by the time he woke up, safe in his bed as if he'd put himself there.
It didn't take two tries; Eames got him as soon as he closed the door. He fell to the floor and blinked up at Eames, stunned and confused, before passing out.
"What the hell is this?" Eames demanded.
Cobb didn't know why he was suddenly upset, and he really didn't like something unexpected popping up in a plan that should be perfectly routine. "What are you talking about?"
"Who is this guy? What are you trying to pull?" The forger was gesturing down toward their mark as he spoke.
Cobb came forward and looked at the prone scientist. And at once he understood why Eames was upset. The mark, Robert Capa, looked identical to Robert Fischer.