Chapter one.
"I thought Arthur's totem was a dice," Ariadne said, frowning as she watched the point man.
"It is," Eames replied absently as he rocked back on his chair.
"Then why is he playing with that? It doesn't seem like the sort of thing Arthur would normally do."
Eames, always interested in Arthur, turned to look and almost fell off his chair. Arthur had a glass ball somewhere between the size of a golf ball and a baseball. He was twirling his fingers in such a way that the ball danced across the back of his knuckles. Then he twisted his wrist and held the ball in the tips of his fingers and stared into the glass as though it held the answers to the universe.
"Hm." Eames leaned forward so his chair was firmly on the ground again, and watched Arthur watch the glass ball. It was strange. Arthur was looking into the thing with the same sort of concentration he gave to jobs and it wasn't like him to give that sort of attention to something so simple and trivial. Eames stood and made his way over.
"Alright, love?" Arthur startled almost imperceptibly. Eames probably wouldn't have noticed, except that he noticed everything about everyone (especially Arthur). And Arthur definitely startled. That worried Eames even more. Arthur was always aware of his surroundings. He was scary like that.
"Mr Eames." He didn't break eye contact with the ball.
"Are you alright?"
It was the lack of endearment that clued Arthur into the fact that it was an honest question. He blinked rapidly a couple of times, and then looked up to meet Eames' eyes, dropping the hand with the ball in down into his lap.
"I'm fine. Why?"
"You just seem distracted, is all."
"I really am fine." Arthur gave a half smile that managed to be irritated and reassuring at once. Then he tossed his head and slipped the ball into his pocket before getting up.
His shoulder brushed against Eames' as he passed.
Yusuf and Dom arrived shortly afterwards and they started planning. A teenage girl had been babysitting her little brother and he'd disappeared. She claimed to know nothing about what happened to him, but their parents weren't entirely convinced. They'd hired the team to go into her head and find out if she'd had anything to do with his disappearance.
"We're going to use two levels," Dom said. "We'll take her down two levels and make her feel at home there. We make a safe or something similar and try an extraction."
"Given the extremely sensitive nature of the information, she may protect it more vigorously than most marks. This could make her sub-security more dangerous than a militarised mind," Arthur picked up.
"That's why I said two levels," Dom said, patiently. "If she freaks out or wakes up, or even realises she's dreaming, we take her up a level to a police station type thing and interrogate her."
"The lower level," Eames said, "Should be fantasy themed. A castle maybe. And we should make her a princess and go in as knights."
He and Arthur had both been tailing the girl for only a couple of days but it was obvious that fantasy was her bread and butter. She lived with her head in the clouds.
"I can do that," Ariadne smiled. "I was thinking something Arthurian maybe."
"You hear that, Darling? She's going to make you a king!"Eames laughed and Arthur rolled his eyes.
"The standard compound should work fine for two levels." Yusuf sounded almost annoyed that there wasn't more for him to do on this job. They'd been working together as a team ever since the Inception Job. They'd gotten an excellent reputation in the dreamshare community since then, but the downside of it was that everyone wanted to hire them as a unit. They'd been able to get the odd job individually, but most of the time they had to work in twos and threes or all as a group. None of them were sure whether to be pleased or annoyed.
The only one who hadn't been negatively affected by the new team mentality was Dom. He'd only taken a few other jobs since Inception, and he'd only tried to work with the team. He'd been revelling in spending time with his children, but he'd been back with them for two years now and both of them were in full time education. He missed them, but he needed something to do sometimes. He only took jobs that seemed fairly easy, and only jobs that he considered to be morally right. He was never sure how much to tell the children about his job, and they were getting older, and Philippa had been asking questions. She was made of curiosity it seemed. He was careful, and he always came home.
"Remember, time is an issue here. There's a child at stake. I want to take her under in three days time."
"Cobb! There's no way I can have a layout ready in that time!" Ariadne was not happy.
"I know I'm rushing it, but the longer we leave it, the less likely it is we find the child alive."
"Dom, be reasonable man. We usually take a week, sometimes two on a job like this! Arthur, say something, he'll listen to you."
"Sorry, Eames. I agree with Cobb. Sometimes, time is of the essence. Think of it as a challenge." He smirked at Eames, and the forger found himself smirking back.
Arthur scrubbed a hand through his hair and sighed. He had a folder put together on the girl, but he felt like he was missing something, something obvious. He re-read it for the fourth time and Eames nudged him.
"It's 3 in the morning, and we have to be up to follow the mark at crack of dawn. Come on. Bed." Eames turned to the others who were gathered around a desk where Ariadne had been sketching various layouts. He raised his voice to call across the warehouse to them. "Oy, you three! It's nearly three. I suggest we turn in and look at it fresh tomorrow. Less haste, more speed as they say."
"Good idea." Dom sighed. Ariadne was wilting obviously. He'd thought she'd be used to pulling all nighters from her time as a student. Yusuf didn't look tired, but Dom was pretty sure he'd been sampling some of his own chemicals to keep him so bright eyed and bushy tailed. "You and Arthur have to be up early. Yusuf, Ariadne, meet me here at ten tomorrow. We'll have another go at it then."
They all packed up and headed back to the hotel. Usually, they acted like they didn't know each other during a job. Arriving separately and ignoring each other so they wouldn't be associated with each other by any witnesses. But this time Eames followed Arthur directly into the lobby and as they crossed reception towards the stairs, he reached out and took hold of Arthur's arm. Arthur did not look happy. He spun around and glared at Eames before snatching his arm back.
"Easy, love. I just thought you could use a drink. You've been odd since we got this job."
"Mr Eames, it's gone three in the morning. I am exhausted and I have to get up in three and a half hours to tail our girl to swim practice and then to school. The last thing I need is to be hungover."
"Alright. It was just a suggestion. No need to be pissy." Eames held up his hands. Arthur snorted and then turned and continued across to the stairs. Eames continued; "Although, I could take the morning shift, if that's what's bothering you. Let you have a lie in for once in your life."
Arthur stopped and turned back, clearly surprised. He always took the morning shift when they were stalking someone. He always got up at six anyway; a habit left over from his days in the army, and it just made sense. He was an early bird, Eames was a night owl. He could stay up for half the night without getting tired, but if you woke him before nine (at the absolute earliest) he'd bite your hand off.
"Are you sure?"
"Least I could do. Whatever's bothering you, sort it out."
"Who says something's bothering me?"
"Arthur, you were playing with your balls in the middle of the warehouse."
Eames was being deliberately crude to get a smile out of Arthur, but instead of telling him off or dimpling, Arthur frowned. His hand went to his pocket and he pressed two fingers to the bulge of the glass.
"Right. I'll meet you in front of the school at twelve," Arthur said, ignoring Eames's implication.
"Fine. See you then."
Arthur didn't wait to acknowledge the remark, he just turned and stalked away from the forger. He was glad though. He went to his room and fell asleep as soon as he got out of his suit.
