Arthur was well aware of extraction, he'd performed inception, but what Saito, of all people, was asking of him now was unthinkable, the frontier of his field.
"Expulsion?" Arthur repeated aloud as the two sat in Saito's office in Tokyo.
"You are not familiar with this method, Arthur?" Saito asked in a disappointed tone.
"Cobb once said it was possible, but only barely. We tried it once and the subject caught on somehow."
"Don't worry, the subject can hardly afford an attorney, much less subconscious defense training."
"Sorry I'm late," A distinctive British voice said, "Arthur must just be boring you to death, Mr. Saito."
"It's nice to see you too, Eames," Arthur said sarcastically.
"So what exactly is the idea we're planting this time?" Eames asked as he sat down next to Arthur.
"That's the point, you're not planting anything this time," Saito said before pouring a glass of whiskey, "Do you remember the sinking of my company's oil tanker off of the coast of China?"
"The Gulf Pioneer," Eames said, "The explosion and spill cost your company more than $700 million."
"And 32 lives," Arthur added.
"An unstable employee has developed this idea that I conspired with the board of trustees to "write-off" the ship rather than sell it for scrap," Saito explained.
"And you want us to destroy this idea, to brainwash him?" Arthur half protested.
Saito swallowed quickly to continue his argument, "You know as well as I do, Arthur, that any idea no matter how small always has the potential to grow into something far bigger!"
"You're at risk of a lawsuit, Saito?" Eames asked, "Or something far worse?"
"Is the employee's idea true?" Arthur pressed.
"It makes no difference, it can damage my company whether it is true or false."
"But which is it?" Eames added.
"Complete the job, and I will tell you," he said as he got up to escort them out of the building.
As they walked out of the lobby to their cab, Saito handed Eames a folder with information about the subject.
"Hiro Miyata," Eames read aloud, "Lives in Yokohama, has a wife and daughter, aged 6."
"Leverage maybe?" Saito suggested.
Arthur had a look of disgust on his face, and he knew what Expulsion really meant.
"You're going to torture this man's subconscious with nightmares?" Arthur argued as he and Eames reached their hotel, "You're essentially bullying this man, this is witness intimidation!"
"Actually darling, we are going to torture his subconscious and bully him into keeping his mouth shut," Eames said as he pulled his luggage out of the trunk, "Make sure you pay the driver…"
Arthur handed the driver the fare money and grabbed his bags, "We're going to need an architect."
"Oh so your little girlfriend is too good to play in the mud with us this time?" Eames joked.
Arthur stopped him in the middle of the lobby with a stern look on his face. Eames looked surprised to see Arthur standing up for himself so abruptly.
"Ariadne doesn't need to be a part of this," Arthur said, abruptly poking Eames in the shoulder.
"What, you're afraid she'll find out what we normally do?" Eames laughed as they continued to the elevator, "To be honest, The Fischer Job was an ethical walk in the park."
"Just leave her out of this," Arthur said before his phone started ringing.
She was calling him, Eames noticed, "Apparently she wants in."
"Shut up!" Arthur said as they stepped into the elevator, "Hey, what's up?"
"Arthur?" Ariadne said, "I've been trying to reach you for the last hour!"
"I know, I'm sorry, I was in a meeting," Arthur said taking note of Eames' devilish smirk.
"You're still in Japan, right?" she asked.
"Yeah…"
"When are you coming home?"
"Soon, after I get this job out of the way. It's got a big payout so we'll have time to take a vacation somewhere, maybe Hawaii?"
"That would be nice, but there are some things we need to talk about, Arthur…"
"I don't have a lot of time for deep conversation right now. But listen to me, I promise, as soon as this is over, I'll be home, I just need you to trust me. You trust me?"
"Yeah, yeah I trust you."
"Okay."
"I love you…"
Eames motioned for Arthur to reply as the elevator door opened.
"I love you too, good night."
"And good day to you," she said before hanging up.
"Well I think that went well," Eames said as they entered the suite, "Now where are we going to find a bloody architect by the end of the week?"
"We already have one," Arthur said as he scrolled through his phone contacts.
"No," Eames protested, "You're not…"
"I am," Arthur said as he pressed the dial button and waited.
"Yes, Arthur?"
"Mr. Saito," Arthur replied, "How big is our expense account for the job?"
"Just tell me what you need, and if I see it fit, then I'll handle it."
"Thanks, let me call you back in 30 minutes."
"Agreed," Saito said as he hung up.
He had a feeling that he knew what Arthur was up to and pulled his checkbook out of his drawer. Arthur dialed another number and waited as the dial tone repeated at least five times.
"Hello?" a man said.
"Cobb," said Arthur before pausing, "It's Arthur, I need your help…"
"What kind of help?" Cobb asked as he stepped away from Miles and his children and entered the kitchen.
"Eames and I are carrying out a job for Saito. It's an expulsion job. And we need an architect." Arthur said nervously, he knew what he was asking of Cobb.
"What happened to Ariadne?" Cobb asked, now suspicious of his old partner.
"Weren't you listening to me, Dom, it's not inception, it's expulsion!"
"And you don't want her to lose that dreamy innocence, right?"
"I'd rather not, plus you're in LA, and she's in Tampa. It's much easier for you to get here. Saito can get you tickets, hell he might even send his own plane but we need a good architect who can pull this off in 3 days. Cobb, you know I wouldn't ask this of you if I had another option."
"I'm done with that life, Arthur, I'm sorry…"
"Cobb, please…"
"We need you, Dom," Eames said intentionally hovering over Arthur's shoulder to make himself heard.
"Is that you, Eames?" Cobb asked.
"No, it's the Prince of Wales," Eames replied, "But in all seriousness, we need your help, mate."
"Fifty thousand a piece…" Arthur added.
"I don't need the money," Cobb said, "I'll design it for you, but I'm not going in."
"Mal's back," Arthur asked, trying to sound concerned.
"A little, but she can't interfere if I just go to the first level," Cobb explained.
"We're only going to need two levels just in case the subject revolts," Eames said.
"So what's the job exactly?" Cobb inquired as he went into his closet to find a suitcase.
"Saito has an employee who suspects that the sinking of the Gulf Pioneer supertanker was a deliberate write-off," Eames explained.
"As an alternative to selling it for scrap," Arthur added.
"And you need to make this idea disappear before it gets public," Cobb said, "So is it true?"
"Saito won't say," Arthur grumbled.
"It's a damaging accusation either way, and it will prompt investigations, lawsuits, and even criminal charges," Cobb said looking at Miles down the hall, "I'm in."
"How soon can you get here?" Arthur asked.
"I'll be at LAX within the hour so have Saito put me on the next flight to Narita," Cobb said as he put a few clothes into his suitcase.
"Done deal," Arthur said.
He hung up and then redialed Saito's number to tell him that Cobb was going to join them.
Cobb arrived the next morning and found Arthur and Eames waiting for him at baggage claim. They took a cab back to the hotel where Cobb read Miyata's file.
"So Miyata was an engineer on the ship who barely escaped with his life when it blew," Cobb said, "Did Saito say how he knew that Miyata had the idea?"
"Word of mouth most likely," Eames said as he pulled out a report document, "Loyal workers filed a complaint to Saito saying that Miyata was making 'erratic charges' about the company."
"Now this incident was six months ago back in April; what's been keeping him quiet so far?" Cobb wondered.
"His lack of evidence," Arthur says, "Miyata claims to have overheard this from a friend who was killed in the explosion. The friend said some higher-up officials were talking about the scheme in one of the ship's mess halls. He has no recordings and won't even name the people he suspects of planning. He just collectively mentions the board."
"So what's the plan for erasing the idea?" Eames asked.
"For once it's almost kind of straightforward," Cobb said, before turning to Arthur, "Like our audition with Saito."
"So we just break in and steal the idea?" Eames said.
"No, this is expulsion," Cobb said, "Taking the idea will only give us our own copy. We need to alter the idea altogether, it's like we're replacing the idea that Saito has a part to play with the idea that this was all an accident and that the board had no previous knowledge of this. This means we're not just breaking into a safe."
"More like a memory bank," Arthur suggested, "Why not set him up where he leads us into the bank and then we can get him to gather the ideas together as one big file. Then we steal those ideas and replace them with our own."
"You know," Eames said as he walked to the window to look outside, "I think that just might work."
"Are you sure Mal's not going to be a problem?" Arthur asked Cobb, "Now that you're so into this…"
"I'll manage, I can control her now," Cobb said, though somewhat unsure either of himself or Arthur's trust.
"I'd hate to see her out of control, again," Arthur said, inaudible to Cobb.
"So the overall idea is the accident was just that, an accident," Cobb said, "Now how do we make that stick and keep Miyata from revolting?"
"Leave that to me…" Eames said, "Let's find the little bastard."
Saito suggested over the phone that they check a local bar in Shibuya where Miyata and other local workers used to go for sake on the weekend before the accident. Sure enough, Eames found Miyata taking shots alone one Friday night.
"Mind if I join you?" Eames said as he ordered a drink.
"Not at all," the subject said, "I am Hiro, Hiro Miyata."
"Eames," his newfound friend said, "Just Eames. The next round's on me."
Within 10 minutes, Eames was hauling an unconscious Miyata over to the Lexus SUV that Saito had loaned to Cobb.
"That was quick," Arthur said as he opened the passenger door and dragged Miyata inside.
Eames got into the front seat and saluted the bartender before Cobb pulled off, "Just a few pills when he wasn't looking. So where are we taking him?"
"Back to the hotel," Cobb said, "Where else?"
"Kind of reminds me of Spring Break," Arthur joked.
"Just how exactly?" Eames asked Arthur.
"Never mind," Arthur said.
They returned to the hotel around 1:00AM, so there were no guests in the lobby. Eames carried the 5 foot 5 Miyata over his shoulder to the elevator and Cobb and Arthur filed in behind him. The elevator soared towards the top floor, but stopped about halfway. A maid with a cart stood outside of the elevator, but noticing the wasted Miyata being carried by Eames, she offered to wait for the next elevator. Cobb closed the doors and looked out the window. When they finally reached the room, they put Miyata on the floor and Arthur retrieved the briefcase from under the bed. Eames reached over and hit the start button…
Hiro Miyata woke up one rainy morning. He was still hung-over from a wild night. He was in a cheap motel, and his one night lover was hurrying out of the room while still putting her dress back on. He reached for his glasses, and then heard a gun clicking. He put the glasses on and looked to his left to see two armed robbers with ski-masks pointing Uzis at him.
"Get up," Arthur said as he approached the bed with his gun still drawn.
"What is your name?" Cobb asked him.
"Miyata, Hiro Miyata," the startled little man said, "What do you want?"
"We're going to take a trip to Yoshi Omura's bank," Cobb said, "Put your clothes on."
"Shoot me here then!" Miyata said.
"Then I guess the same goes for your family…" Arthur said, holding up a phone.
Eames played a recording of the projections of Miyata's wife and son pleading with Hiro to help them. He abruptly shut it off and walked back into the room with Cobb and Arthur.
"Please let my family go!" Miyata pleaded, "I'll get you the money, I'll get the money!"
"We'll release your family as soon as we have what we need," Cobb said, "At the moment you have something far more valuable than your money in that bank."
The trio forced Miyata into a black Acura sedan and drove away. They removed their masks and put a bag over Miyata's head. They would have to go a few dozen blocks through the city to reach the bank tower. Cobb could tell that Miyata had a little mind defense training, there were still police officers and cars on patrol. But they weren't the only security measure. As they were riding down the street, Cobb heard a motorcycle engine revving.
"Trouble," he thought as he looked in the mirror. Two men were catching up fast, and one of them had a shotgun.
"Just keep driving," Cobb said to Arthur as he pulled a MAC10 out of the glove compartment, "Eames, keep Miyata down!"
The riders pulled up on the right side of the car and started shooting. The bullets lodged in the plexi-glass windows, but they couldn't hold forever. The rider on the back lifted his visor and winked at Cobb.
He knew those eyes.
"She's back," Cobb said remorsefully, "I shouldn't have come…"
"Bloody Hell," Eames said as he shoved Miyata to the floor, "Stay the fuck down!"
Mal kept shooting the side of the car until she had nearly blown the back right door off. Cobb rolled down his window and shot at her several times but the driver slowed down and went around to the other side. Arthur rolled his window down and fired blind, but didn't hit either of them. Mal shot up the tires and attempted to break the back window with her gun. Arthur slammed on the brakes and the bike rear-ended his Acura. Mal and the driver flipped over the car and landed in the street. Arthur stomped on the gas while Cobb started shooting, he managed to hit the driver in the head. Mal started shooting erratically, spraying the windshield with bullets. Cobb leaned out and fired once. The bullet seemed to slice right through her helmet and fell out behind her. Mal collapsed in the middle of the street..
Miyata was confused, "But if you're taking me, then who's trying to take you?"
"Shut up!" Eames said, "Stay down!"
Eames pulled out some duct tape and put it on Miyata's mouth as they continued driving. The reached a tall skyscraper in the middle of the city. Police were riding about, but not actively seeking anyone. Arthur stopped the car in a parking garage. Eames pulled Miyata out of the car and pulled the tape off of his mouth.
"Now listen here," Arthur said to Miyata, "You're going to be calm and cool about all of this. You're going to get us into the bank and into the vault where your safety deposit box is. What is your security code?"
"I…I don't know," Miyata said, "I don't remember for this specific bank."
"Think hard," Eames said, reaching for the gun in his pocket.
"Five…Two…Eight…Three…Seven…Six…" Miyata guessed.
"Close enough," Cobb said, "Let's go."
The four men marched into the bank lobby and were greeted by a man who they assumed was the bank manager. He knew Hiro by name and offered his condolences concerning Omura's death. Hiro replied that she was under the weather. They took the elevator to the 50th floor where the vault was.
"An above ground vault," Eames said, glancing at Cobb, "How innovative."
The manager approached the vault and stopped everyone except Miyata.
"I am sorry," he said with a smile that quickly turned into an unfriendly gaze, "but only members of this bank are allowed beyond here."
Cobb pulled out his gun and pointed it at the manager, "We have good reason to be here, now get in the vault…"
"And don't make a scene," Arthur said.
They went in after the manager and Miyata.
"These deposit boxes," Miyata noticed, "They all have my name on them, the rest are blank…"
"We're looking for number 528376," Cobb said.
"But why?" Miyata said, "What's in there, even I don't know."
"A report," Arthur said, "Someone left it for you."
They continued through the vault until they reached box #528376.
"Give him his key," Eames said to the manager.
The manager took out his key and gave it to Miyata, who quickly unlocked the box after pulling it out of its slot in the wall. He placed it on the table and opened it. Inside there were newspaper articles and pictures of the explosion as well as a red cell phone. Miyata sifted through the photos and clippings until a phone began ringing. It wasn't a call, but a voicemail notification. He picked it up, recognizing the number as his friend's.
"Yoshi?" Miyata asked.
The voicemail recording began, "Hey, Hiro! It's your friend Yoshi. I just wanted to tell you something, you know how I told you that I thought the bosses were up to something, like they were going to write-off the boat? It's bullshit, man, I was just screwing with you, don't trouble yourself with such ludicrous ideas. I look forward to seeing you on the ship tomorrow…"
Miyata sank to the floor with tears in his eyes, the bank manager was even moved. Eames kept an eye on the manager. Arthur and Cobb looked on nervously, wondering if the idea would stick.
"What does all of this mean?" Miyata shouted in agony and confusion.
"Now you've done it," Eames said.
Outside of the vault, projections began to take notice. Miyata looked at all of them, while Cobb quietly took the phone and put it back in the box. Arthur took the folder full of articles and pictures and put them in his jacket pocket. Cobb locked the box and put it back in the slot.
"This is the tricky part," Cobb said, "Unless you want to spend forty years with this motherfucker."
"To the elevator," Eames said.
He shot the bank manager in the head and Arthur and Cobb followed him, leaving Miyata in the vault. The projection office employees and the police began chasing the extractors through the building.
"Split up and find your own kick!" Cobb said.
He managed to get into an elevator, but not before projections got hold of him. Cobb fought them off frantically and climbed through a hatch in the top of the elevator. He placed some C4 charges on the elevator rails and lift cables and then got back into the elevator. He shot the rest of the projections around him and shut the doors as Eames sprinted by. The elevator cables exploded and the lift dropped like a rock, kicking him back to the motel.
Cobb awoke to hear shouting in the distance, he wasn't in his hotel room, and the others were still asleep on the floor. He pulled out his gun and shot himself in the head to wake up. He recognized the furniture as the type in the hotel and not the motel. He spun his top on the coffee table to make sure and then went into Eames' suitcase to find the syringe with the sedative in it. He injected it into Miyata's arm and then pulled out headphones. He put them on Arthur's head and started the kick song.
"Time to go," Arthur said, "But whose mind are we in?"
He noticed Eames down the hall get shot by the police. He collapsed without a word. Arthur felt someone hit him from behind. The documents flew about all over the room. Miyata was standing over him, holding a computer keyboard. Arthur dodged the keyboard and then snatched it away. He hit Miyata several times, but didn't kill him, for fear that he could still wake up. Arthur noticed the building was starting to shake, windows were beginning to crack. They were in Eames' head! Arthur grabbed Miyata and started pushing his way through the frantic crowd. He had to protect him as long as possible. The projections were now turning their attention to the collapsing building.
Eames woke up and unhooked himself from the briefcase. He saw that Cobb was dead and noticed that Arthur and Miyata were still asleep. He assumed Cobb had already sedated Miyata and only needed to wake up Arthur.
Eames dragged Arthur and Miyata and the briefcase to the bathroom. He laid Miyata on the floor by the toilet and sat Arthur up on the side of the bathtub.
Arthur could feel gravity shifting and soon found himself floating across the office and Miyata in the other. The two floated back towards each other and began fighting again.
"I see what this is now!" Miyata said as he kicked Arthur against a window, "And I know why you're here! You're trying to brainwash me!"
Arthur countered the next kick and slammed Miyata's face into a computer monitor. He said nothing to him but simply tried to float away. Gravity settled once Miyata was placed on the floor and Arthur was sitting on the edge of the bathtub. Eames quickly filled it with water.
"Maybe I should just shoot you!" Miyata said as he got hold of a dead policeman's gun, and fired at Arthur, who took cover behind a cubicle, "Or better yet, since this is a dream, I can just shoot myself to wake up!"
"Try it." Arthur said.
"You first," Miyata said as he shot him in the head.
Arthur was slowly coming to in the motel, but Eames decided to push him into the tub anyway. Arthur woke up underwater and quickly clawed his way out of the tub carefully stepping over Miyata and shoving Eames aside before reaching for a towel to dry his face.
"I was waking up on my own, thank you!" he yelled .
Eames walked into the living room to see Arthur pointing a gun at his head.
"You know, Arthur, I have a feeling you get a kick out of doing this, but I'd like to get out of this sorry motel before the people outside get in here. Make it quick please."
"First we need to secure Miyata in case the projections decide to attack him too," Arthur said. The two of them pushed a heavy drawer in front of the bathroom door and Eames broke the door handle. Arthur quickly shot him in the back of the neck and shot himself in the mouth.
"Aim a little higher next time, darling," Eames said as he picked himself off of the floor.
"Don't push me in the tub when I'm awake in the future, Eames," Arthur countered, "Cobb, what time is it?"
"One fifteen if you can believe it," Cobb said as he walked into the room, "We can unplug Miyata now because he's the only one dreaming."
"That's going to fuck him up sooo bad," Arthur said, "But he did kill me."
Cobb unplugged Miyata and closed the briefcase. Eames then picked him up and carried him out of the room behind Arthur and Cobb.
Miyata could see the building crumbling all around him. He had nowhere to run. Without warning, the entire building imploded and collapsed into a smoldering heap. He woke up, not in the motel, but on the deck of the burning Gulf Pioneer. All around him people were burning and leaping into the water, which soon became a lake of fire thanks to the burning crude spilling out into the sea. He saw his friend Omura lying under a broken steel beam which had crushed his legs.
"Hey, Hiro, old buddy," Omura gasped.
"Yoshi!" Miyata pleaded, "Hang in there, I'm going to get you out of here!"
"You already know you can't do that, you can only save yourself," Omura said as he pointed to the last life raft, "Save yourself…"
"I'll remember what you told me!" Miyata said, "I'll find a away to prove that Saito knew about this!"
"Didn't you get my message?" Omura said with his final breaths, "I made that story up, I didn't think you would pick it up and run with it. Go home my friend, and be at peace. It is finished…"
Omura died pointing to the lifeboat, his dead eyes were still fixed on it. Hiro left his friend as a crane collapsed and fell onto him. Miyata lowered the boat and rowed away from the tanker as it continued to burn and sink until it was beneath the fiery waves. He felt like he had been rowing for days before he reached a deserted island. Nothing but trees and plants. No people, no animals, no sign of anyone. Miyata roamed about the beach like a madman for what felt like decades until he had become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone…
By the time he woke up, he was sitting in an alley outside of the bar. It was eleven AM on a Saturday morning, at least he didn't have to go to work, but he smelled bad and was still hung-over, He slowly got to his feet and began walking down the street to the nearest subway. He rode to the station closest to his house and then went home. His daughter leaped up from the couch and embraced him before telling him that he smelled funny. His wife at first looked disappointed, but then relieved.
"Where have you been, dear husband?" she asked in Japanese.
"I drank too much and got robbed, I think," he said, "I honestly don't know what happened."
With that, he shut the door and went upstairs to take a shower. When he got out he found a little package sitting on the bed. He quickly opened it and pulled out the little red cell phone with one voicemail message…
"So he was misinformed all along," Arthur confirmed while meeting with Saito in a Starbucks across the street from the bar, "But why didn't you tell us from the beginning?"
"We could have adjusted our entire approach and it could have gone much more smoothly," Cobb said.
"Was it to teach us something?" Eames asked.
"Bravo, Mr. Eames!" Saito said clapping his hands, "And what did you learn?"
"An idea is not judged by how true or false it is, but how quickly it spreads," Eames said.
"Even a lie can take root and grow strong enough to be perceived as truth," Cobb added.
"I have one question," Saito said, "What happened to Miyata after you expelled the idea in his memory bank?"
"We were attacked by his subconscious but escaped," Eames said, "then Cobb sedated him to create a specific limbo setting."
Cobb butted in, "We figured the best way for him to let the idea stick would be for a projection of his friend Omura to speak to him and send him adrift for 40 years."
"Brilliant," Saito said as he handed Arthur a suitcase full of money, "I'm sure the two of you will give Mr. Cobb his share as well..."
"So your company is safe now?" Arthur asked as he handed the suitcase to Cobb.
"That's assuming that Mr. Miyata is the only person who held such an idea," Mr. Saito said, "We'll keep in touch, good day, gentlemen."
With that, Saito left the Starbucks and hopped into the car waiting for him outside. Just then, Ariadne called again.
"Hey, sweetheart," Arthur said, "I'm coming home..."