Mirai (N.)-Miracle or Future
Since the inception, Saito hadn't dreamed. He slept little, not that that was any different from before, and the sleep he did get was empty. His reality was fine; the Fischer job was his first and only foray into shared dreaming, so the paranoia that came with the territory hadn't set in.
Since the inception, Saito hadn't dreamed and so when he awoke and found his daughter missing, blood on the ransom note, he knew she was gone.
He searched the entire compound, hoping it was just some cruel prank, even though the sick feeling in his stomach confirmed what he already dreaded: Mirai was nowhere to be found.
Completing his second complete loop, Saito began to panic. He called his head of security first, then the police and finally, her mother.
Aiko wasted no time dissolving into hysterics, a trait Saito hadn't missed at all. He tried to soothe her, to reassure her that Mirai was top priority for the police, but Aiko couldn't be calmed ("Or rather wouldn't", he thought bitterly).
Four hours had passed since he went to check on her; it was well past midnight and she should have been sleeping. When he saw the light on underneath her door, he'd been ready to ground her for a week and take her computer away.
He noticed as soon as he opened the door that something wasn't right. The books on her shelf were all lopsided, something his obsessive sixteen year old wouldn't have allowed. Her drapes fluttered against the open window, something else that was out of character; Mirai hated the humidity.
Saito knocked on the bathroom door, closed, and waited. That's when he saw the note, taped to the television screen, written in her small, tidy handwriting.
"Thirty million Yen. 4 PM. We will not negotiate."
There was blood smeared across the corner and he felt sick. There was nothing, no way of knowing who they were, where they were, if Mirai was hurt or scared.
His head of security, Mr. Kai, and police chief sat him down, told him that the first forty-eight hours were their best chance at finding her and asked if he knew anyone who would want to hurt his daughter.
"Mirai? No. Now myself, that is another story," he answered, running his hands over his face and through his hair.
"Saito," Chief Higa said gently, "is there anyone you can think of? A business competitor, a snubbed family member, anybody?"
"The men I deal with are crooks and philanderers, but they're not criminals."
Chief Higa and Mr. Kai exchanged looks, before excusing themselves to the other room, both patting Saito's shoulder on the way out. He watched them go, before pulling his phone and sending a simple e-mail.
"I need your help."
Six thousand miles, across the Pacific ocean, Dom Cobb's phone vibrated in a small circle on his kitchen table.