Inception: Dream or Reality? Part 2
A/N: I'm back with the next chapter and thank you to princesslolitatheorca654 for your review. ;)
Read, review, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Inception I only own the character that I created.
CHAPTER TWO: INTERROGATION
Upstairs, Yusuf and Arthur carefully and, somewhat, gently laid Saito out on top of a long, wooden worktable near one of the large dirty windows.
"Someone got first-aid?" Arthur asked, moving aside as Emma and Ariadne, who'd grabbed a first-aid kit from the sedan, went to work on their injured teammate with help from Yusuf and Eames; while this happened, he confronted Cobb. "You knew about these risks and you didn't tell us?"
"There wasn't meant to be any risks," Cobb countered. "We weren't supposed to be dealing with a load of gunfire."
Arthur didn't believe him for a second. "You had no right," he growled. "Especially to both Emma and myself. You lied to us."
Cobb fixed him with a hard stare. "It's the only way you can go three layers deep, Arthur."
"Like hell it is!" Emma snapped, turning to face him, leaving Ariadne to finish bandaging up Saito's wound. "You're so thick-headed that you're risking us all just to do something impossible like inception!"
"Inception isn't impossible, and you know it," Cobb countered, mildly surprised since Emma tended to be the level headed one most of the time.
Arthur was too angry to believe that, and he faced Yusuf. "And you. You went along with this?"
"I trusted him," said Yusuf, pointing at Cobb.
"You trusted him?" Arthur echoed, looking between the two men. "When? When he promised you half his share?"
Yusuf shook his head, clearly offended. "No! His whole share," he countered. "Plus, he told me he'd done it before."
"Oh, yeah?" Arthur growled, facing Cobb. "With Mal? That worked out great, didn't it, Cobb?"
"You both went too deep that time, Cobb," Emma reminded him, "and look at what it cost you."
Scowling, Cobb grabbed the arms of the couple, and for a moment it looked like they were going to end up fighting. "You don't know anything about that," he hissed and then took a step back, releasing their arms. "This was the only way to do this job, Arthur, Emma. I did what I had to do to get back to my children."
"So you led us into a war zone with no way out," Eames said scathingly.
"We have a way out," Cobb countered. "The kick. We just have to push on, do the job as fast as possible and get out using the kick."
"Forget it," Eames protested, sitting down in a chair. "We go any deeper, we just raise the stakes. I'm sitting it out on this level."
Cobb shook his head. "You'll never make it, Eames," he pointed out. "Fischer's security is surrounding this place as we speak. The ten hours of the flight is a week at this level – you'll never make it without getting killed, and Emma can't carry the third dream on her own without it collapsing, even with the sedative. Downwards is the only way forwards. We have to carry on." He then winced when Saito groaned, still in pain despite all of the painkillers that Emma had given him. "And we have to do it fast," he added.
Arthur, Emma, and Eames shared uneasy looks, weighing their options; the risks with the sub security were going to get higher when they eventually went down to the other levels, which also increased their odds of being killed and ending up in limbo, and yet, Cobb was also right, the sooner that they got the job done, the sooner they could get out of there, and they just had to hope that Saito would be able to stay alive long enough for that to happen.
Seeing that he'd gotten through to them, Cobb picked up three cloth masks and zipped up the front of his jacket. "Eames, go get ready," he ordered, tossing two of the masks to the couple, and they weren't looking thrilled. "Arthur, Emma, let's get in there and soften him up." And he headed back downstairs.
"This is still a bad idea," Eames told them seriously. "Cobb might be right, but we all could still end up in limbo."
"We know," Arthur agreed, zipping up his own jacket and Emma did the same, "but we've got a job to do, and we might as well finish it."
Eames sighed. "I know," he grumbled, watching as the couple also headed back downstairs, "I know." 'If we end up in limbo, I am so going to kill Cobb.'
Robert was handcuffed to a radiator in a bathroom and his head was still covered by the sack; he figured it was a bathroom based on the cold concrete he was sitting on and the smell, and he also figured that this was a kidnapping based on what'd happen earlier in the cab.
'If I ever get out of here alive, I'm taking the limo for now on,' he decided, wondering what the shouting he heard earlier was all about; he suspected that the people who had fired at the cab had either been a rival group of kidnappers, or a hit squad sent by one of his late father's rivals that wanted to take the family business down.
Robert was considering removing the sack himself when he heard footsteps and the door to the room open; he blinked several times when the sack was removed, and when his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, he found himself staring up at three figures wearing red jackets and guessed that one of them was the cab driver from earlier, and he noted that one of the kidnappers was a female.
"I'm insured against kidnapping up to ten million," he told them, assuming that this was about money. "So this'll be simple-"
`"No, it won't,"` said one of the kidnappers, his voice muffed by the mask, through which only his eyes were peering out, and the young man looked at him uneasily.
`"In your father's office, below the bookshelves, is his personal safe,"` said the second kidnapper.
`"We need the combination,"` said the female kidnapper. `"Tell us what it is."`
Robert looked up at them, confused; he'd practically grown up in his father's home office, and he had no memory of ever seeing a safe in there, not even a sign of a hidden one. "I never noticed a safe," he admitted.
The first kidnapper crouched down, his eyes cold. `"Doesn't mean you don't know the combination."`
Robert scoffed. "Well, I don't."
Clearly the kidnappers didn't believe him since the one in front of him, straightened up and then left the room.
`"We have it on good authority that you do,"` said the second kidnapper.
"Whose?" Robert asked.
`"Someone who knows you quite well,"` said the female kidnapper slyly.
Robert frowned, but said nothing; something about how they were talking meant that he probably did know whom they were talking about, and he was hoping and praying that he was wrong.
Having left Ariadne to look after Saito, Yusuf was now looking through Robert's wallet, impressed by the smell of the leather, and Eames, now wearing a rumpled business suit that was identical to the one worn by Peter Browning, was opening a hinged, three-wing mirror.
"Five hundred dollars, this cost?" Yusuf asked, fingering the soft leather.
"What's inside?" Eames asked, now organizing things on the tabletop, which included a pair of Browning's glasses.
Yusuf looked through the contents. "Cash, cards, ID... and this-" he pulled out a small photo, and handed it to Eames, who looked it over and saw that it was a smaller version of the photo he'd seen in the makeshift hospital room, the one of young Robert and his father playing with a homemade pinwheel that had numbers on it.
Cobb joined them, having removed the mask, and Eames handed him the photo. "Useful?"
Cobb examined the photo while Eames seated himself in front of the mirrors, picking up the glasses as the myriad reflections of himself began transforming into that of a battered Peter Browning. "Maybe," he said thoughtfully, pocketing the photo for later. "You're on. You've got an hour."
Eames paused in his preparations and shot the younger man a scandalized look. "An hour?" he repeated. "I was supposed to have all night to crack him."
"And Saito wasn't supposed to be shot in the chest," Cobb countered. "You've got an hour," he repeated, "get something we can use."
Eames sighed, pocketing the glasses the way he'd seen Browning do it, turned away from the mirrors, now Browning with a very beaten face, and began screaming loudly for mercy, making both Cobb and Yusuf wince.
In the bathroom, Robert could hear 'Browning's' cries of pain, and he looked in the direction of the door, concerned. "What's that?" he asked, fearing the answer.
`"Good authority,"` said the second kidnapper, watching him closely.
Robert winced as another cry of pain rang out, and he knew that it was Browning. "Uncle Peter," he whispered, rubbing his free hand over his face. "Make them stop."
`"The combination,"` the female kidnapper requested.
"I don't know it," Robert repeated, wincing as another cry of pain rang out.
`"Why would Browning tell us you did?"` the second kidnapper asked.
"I don't know," Robert admitted. "Please, let me talk to him," he requested as his godfather continued crying out in pain. "I'll find out."
Nodding, the female kidnapper walked to the door and called through it. `"Bring him in."` And she stepped aside as the first kidnapper kicked the door in, shoving 'Browning', bloody and bruised, into the room and forced him down next to Robert; he then handcuffed 'Browning's' wrist to a metal bracket on the side of the sink.
`"You've got one hour,"` he told them. `"Get talking."` and all three kidnappers left the room.
Robert looked at his godfather concerned and shocked at his current condition; the last time he'd seen Browning had been at the home office before he'd left for a business meeting in America two weeks before his father's death. "Uncle Peter, are you all right?" he asked, gently touching the older man's shoulder.
'Browning' groaned again before answering. "They've been at me for two days," he complained. "They've got someone with access to your father's office and they're trying to open his safe – they thought I'd know the combination, but I don't."
Robert sighed. "Neither do I, Uncle Peter," he admitted.
'Browning' stared at him, confused. "Maurice told me that after he passed only you would be able to open it."
Robert shook his head. "He never gave me the combination."
'Browning' frowned and thought for a moment. 'That pinwheel in that photo has numbers on it, maybe…' "He did," he insisted, "he just didn't tell you that it was a combination."
Robert frowned, wondering how that could be possible. "What then?"
"Something only you would know," 'Browning' suggested. "Some meaningful combination of numbers from your experiences with Maurice-"
"We didn't have a lot of meaningful experiences together," Robert countered as his thoughts indirectly wandered to the memory of him as a boy playing with the homemade pinwheel with his father.
'Browning' shrugged, wincing at the pain. "Perhaps after your mother died…"
Robert shook his head, thinking of the day his mom passed away. "After my mother died, I went to him in my grief," he recalled. "You know what he told me? "There's really nothing to be said, Robert"."
"He always had a hard time with emotional-" 'Browning' began helpfully.
"I was eleven, Uncle Peter!" Robert snapped, his emotions starting to get the better of him.
'Good God, what did his father do to him?' 'Browning' wondered while nodding in a caring manner.
Upstairs, Cobb joined Ariadne, who was watching over Saito, and checked on the Japanese businessman, who was wheezing against the pain.
"How's he doing?" Cobb asked, having left his mask with Arthur and Emma downstairs.
"He's in a lot of pain," Ariadne answered, "even with the bullet out and all the painkillers that Emma gave him earlier."
Cobb nodded, silently glad that his friend kept her first-aid certification updated, and it also helped that her parents had raised her to take care of farm animals, too; he took Saito's hand and looked the businessman in the eye. "When we get you down to the next level, the pain will be less intense," he promised and Saito nodded, breathing hard.
"And if he dies?" Ariadne asked, worried.
Cobb shrugged. "His conscious mind will drop out of the dream," he answered reluctantly. "He'll be trapped in Limbo for a lifetime…"
"What will that do to him?" Ariadne inquired.
Cobb looked at her gravely. "When he wakes," he explained, "his mind could be completely gone."
Just then, Saito spoke up, gasping. "When…when we wake I will still honor our arrangement," he vowed, fighting against the pain.
Cobb smiled sadly. "Saito-san, when you wake you might not even remember that we had an arrangement," he informed him. "You'll have forgotten this world. Limbo will be your reality. Lost there so long, you'll have become an old man-"
"Filled with regret?" Saito suggested, remembering when he first offered the job to him.
"Waiting to die alone," Cobb concluded. "Yes."
"Then I'll take the chance and come back," Saito stated, breathing hard. "And we'll be young men together again." He weakly smiled and then began coughing again.
"Breath," Cobb instructed. "Breath."
Back downstairs, Arthur and Emma were waiting with the cars and a long white van, hoping that Eames would be successful while wondering just how much time they would have before the projections managed to track them down.
"You know, if we do end up in limbo," said Emma sourly, "I'm so gonna kill Cobb."
"Eames might beat you to it," Arthur pointed out and his wife grimly smiled at the thought of her ex-boyfriend straggling their friend with his bare hands. "Why did Cobb lie to us? You and me – why?"
Emma shrugged. "I don't know, but when that freight train came out of nowhere, Cobb was staring at it like he'd seen it before."
Arthur frowned. "You sure?" and sighed when she nodded. "God, it must be something that happen when he and Mal were in limbo."
"Maybe," Emma agreed. "I mean, we don't really know what happen down there with them, or even how long they were down there in dream time."
"I know," Arthur agreed, sitting down next to his wife on the hood of the taxi; they had been friends with Cobb and Mal for years, and when their friends suddenly broke off contact for several weeks, they had headed over to the house; what they found had spooked them, both Cobb and Mal were lying on the floor, holding hands, and they were deeply asleep with the machine between them.
Arthur had been alarmed when he saw that the timers on the machine had been set for a whole month, and there was nothing that they could do about it, except wait; when their friends finally woke up, Cobb had been surprised, but glad, to see them, and Mal was distant, and they had assumed it had to do with the dream they had been in. But that guess had gone out the window when Mal became more withdrawn and cold, acting like they weren't real, and when they had asked Cobb what had happen down there, he'd said that nothing bad had happen while they had been in limbo, and that he didn't really know what was wrong with his wife.
After Mal died and Cobb was blamed for her death, being force to go on the run, the couple had decided to help however they could, going on jobs in different countries for big companies wanting to steal from each other, and this had gone on for five years; it was only in the last year that Mal started showing up more and more, and now they were starting to think that Cobb might've done something to Mal that involved with inception.
"Arthur," said Emma, making a decision. "When we're done with this job, and Cobb is finally able to go home without being arrested, I don't want to do this anymore."
"Do what exactly?" Arthur asked, surprised.
"This whole business of breaking into other people's minds and stealing from them," Emma responded. "I don't want to do it anymore. Honey, when I was in college, it was to be an interior designer, not this, and I miss being able to use my talents in real buildings."
Arthur smiled sadly, understanding what she was talking about; when he had been in college, it had been to get a degree in psychology, and it was because of his friendship with Cobb and Mal that he ended up in the program. "Yeah, you're right, sweetie," he agreed. "This will be our last job."
Meanwhile in the bathroom, 'Browning' was still trying to convince Robert of how much trouble they were in.
"These people are going to kill us if we don't give them the combination," he stated.
Robert shook his head. "They won't, they'll try to ransom us-"
"I heard them," 'Browning' snapped. "They're going to lock us in that van and drive it into the river."
Robert decided to take that possible threat seriously. "What's in the safe?" he asked.
"Something for you," 'Browning' answered. "Maurice always said it was his most precious gift…a will."
"Maurice's will is with Port and Dunn," Robert reminded him. 'Why would my father have a second will?'
"It's an alternate," 'Browning' explained. "It supersedes the other only if you want it to."
Robert frowned. "What does it say?"
'Browning' sighed. "It splits all the component businesses of Fischer Morrow into individual companies, transferring ownership to the boards of those companies…"
This alarmed Robert. "Leaving me nothing?" he asked.
"A basic living," 'Browning' confirmed. "Nothing more. The entire empire would cease to exist."
"Destroy my own inheritance?" Robert asked, shocked. "Why would he suggest such a thing?"
'Browning' shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted. "He loved you, Robert. In his own way."
"In his own way"," Robert repeated and sighed. "At the end he called me to his deathbed," he explained. "He could barely speak, but he took the trouble to say one last thing to me. He pulled me close…I could make out only one word. "Disappointed"."
'Browning' stared, surprised and then looked away, sighing. 'Jesus, this is going to be tougher then I thought.'
A/N: And that's it for this chapter. R&R everyone!