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A big, big thank you to neverlandspirit, Chinagirl18, and RadCherishIsEve! Thank you for your reviews/follows =] it's such a huge encouragement, especially since I'm really shaky about writing fanfiction after so long. THANK YOU!
Disclaimer: I don't own Inception. Or do I? I will if Chris Nolan is willing to give it to me for Christmas! Or my birthday.
Chapter 3 - Architect's Muse (Barcelona)
As with most cities Arthur had been to, sightseeing was not the top priority on his list. Such a shame- the city of Barcelona, right on the coast of Spain and the Mediterranean, was beautiful. It was full of color, vibrant colors, people, and more amazing architecture Arthur had seen in any other city. That was something, considering the fact that he had been all over Europe. It was no wonder Ariadne chose this place out of all the others she could have picked. Though the layout was a perfect grid, perfect block, there were many nooks and crannies for someone- especially a small Parisian- to hide in. Each building looked different, with straight, twisted, squares, rectangles, and even rounded shapes. They seemed to create themselves. It was the perfect muse for the best dream Architect in the business.
The Forger had never seen the Point Man so frustrated. Saito had them on a private jet within the hour, and yet, even after reaching the city, there was no way to track Ariadne down.
"She landed, that's for sure. A Madeline Rylan arrived in Barcelona yesterday and checked in at the Catalonia Plaza Hotel. The Black Card didn't show up; she must have used cash."
"Catalonia Plaza? Posh place for a hideout," Eames murmured. "That doesn't sound like her."
"Maybe that's what she was thinking too," Arthur replied, pulling up a map of the city. "She never checked out. It's about a ten-minute drive from here; let's go find her."
Closing his laptop, Arthur and Eames grabbed their bags and headed outside to grab a taxi. It was at this point that the Point Man found his heart beating rapidly as adrenaline flowed through his body, down to the very tips of his fingers. He was suddenly nervous. Why didn't she call him for help? Why did she run? Why was Regency after her, and how could they have known? How would she react to seeing him after their disastrous parting? Was she hurt?
Eames' cellphone sounded, altering him immediately from his thoughts.
"Saito," the Forger said into the mouthpiece. He listened for a moment, his expression darkening. "That's not possible. Unless the card was stolen. She's checked into a hotel here, we're on our way…right. Thank you. We'll look into it."
Arthur looked expectantly at him after a cautious glance towards the taxi driver.
"Saito said there was another charge on the card, a flight ticket from Barcelona to Los Angeles a few minutes ago," Eames said quietly. His companion frowned.
"We know for sure she's still checked in though. Maybe she just bought a ticket online? Planning to head there next?
Different possibilities warmed the Point's mind, along with one overarching question- why? Why would she head stateside knowing Regency was based in Chicago?
At that moment, the cab pulled up in front of the hotel. Eames drew a few bills from his wallet, surveying his surroundings as he stepped outside. Catalonia Plaza was a square block of windows, the name of the hotel in giant neon letters in front of a second square block above the first, pushed back to allow space for the sign (and more rooms, Eames supposed). A carved fountain stood at the center of the traffic circle right in front of the hotel; a bullring-turned-shopping mall next to it.
"If she wanted to hole up, this probably wasn't the best place," he said. He walked into the lobby, lagging behind Arthur by a minute. It was a grand entrance; the floors made of a white marble with an elegant sitting area in the middle; wooden steps led to a platform with a grand piano on top, and doorways to the side. The reception desk, an elongated, wooden structure, was on the left, and elevators and stairs to the right.
Stepping inside nonchalantly, Arthur walked to an armchair and sat down, pulling out his laptop.
That's it, Artie, walk in like you own the place and no one will look at you twice, the Forger approved. He casually strolled around, taking in everything in sight- all the cameras, doors, windows, people. He had to hand it to Ariadne. This place was nice. Everything appeared relatively normal. Tourists, the receptionists, businessmen. For a day or two, he supposed it could be safe. Eames looked up to see Arthur, who gestured slightly to the elevators. The Point got up and pressed the button, the Brit watching as he stepped inside, stopping on the third floor. He let another minute pass before calling a different elevator, finding Arthur waiting for him as the doors slid open.
"Room 327," he said, and the two men walked briskly down the hall. On the left side were the windows and the walls, made of plaster and in a calming neutral color with certain areas painted pale pink to complement the right side, where the doors were. The walls were made of a pale wood, frames nonexistent, so the doors fit right with the structure.
There it was. The silver numbers 327 seemed to leap out at Arthur (as was his heart- was it trying to escape?) as he lifted his hand to knock, heartbeat drowning out every other sound, every other sense. Was it out of relief? Anticipation? Anxiety?
Ever so slowly, the door opened, and his heart seemed to stop for a moment before his world came crashing down.
The woman who stood on the other side of the door was definitely not Ariadne.
As soon as she landed in LAX, Ariadne knew she had to hurry. She tried desperately to remember the address Miles gave her weeks ago if she was ever stateside and wanted to visit the Cobbs as she flagged down a cab. After glancing around carefully, she purposefully told the cabbie to get her to Sunset Boulevard as a precaution. Pretending to be another tourist, she walked around a little before calling another taxi and giving him the street name with no house number. He dropped her off at the head of the street after she insisted that she could find the house on her own.
The Architect took a deep breath watching him drive away. There was no time now to worry about her jet lag; she had a job to do. Hiking her backpack up her shoulders, she set off down the street, scrutinizing each house and trying to match it up with the house she had only seen in Cobb's dreams. It was a quiet night; having arrived around sunset, everyone would be inside by now. One house seemed to look about right. Ariadne squared her shoulders, marched up the driveway to the door, and rang the doorbell.
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"Yes? Can I help you?" the woman asked in broken Spanish. When neither of the strange men outside answered, she tried again in equally-broken English. She had the exact same brown hair and equally-brown eyes as their Architect, throwing the duo off.
Eames snapped out of his stupor first. "I'm sorry. Are you Madeline Rylan, ma'am?"
She looked back at him, confused. "No! Je m'appelle Francesca. Qui es-tu?"
"Are you from Paris?" Arthur asked curiously. Francesca's eyes narrowed.
"Who are you, monsieur? Why are you asking me so many questions?"
Before the Point opened his mouth to answer, the Forger held out an arm as he reached into his jacket, pulling out a thin leather case and flashing an FBI badge. Arthur immediately shut up.
"Désolé, mademoiselle," Eames said smoothly. "We're doing a confidential investigation here. You say your name is Francesca?"
The woman nodded in response.
"I'll need to see some form of ID, please. A passport, perhaps?"
Glaring, Francesca retreated into her room, opening the door a moment later with her passport in hand. She gave it over to Eames warily, and he pulled it back to where both he and Arthur could see it before opening to the ID page.
"Mademoiselle, if you say your name is Francesca, why does this say 'Madeline'?" The Forger asked. A look of horror dawned over her face as she grabbed the document from him, holding it close to her face.
"Officiers! I swear, je m'appelle Francesca. Someone must have stolen my passport. Se il vous plait, what do I do now? How will I get home?"
"Go to the French Embassy," Arthur spoke up. "And tell them you lost your passport. What is your full name?"
"Francesca Marie Franco."
"Tell them your passport is missing and to immediately void the one valid right now."
Francesca looked at them. "Est que toutes? Is that all?"
"Yes, mademoiselle. We'll try to catch the thief for you," Eames nodded. "May I keep this passport? You won't need this if you're a French citizen going to the Embassy."
"This room was checked in under this name. How did you not notice that it wasn't yours?" Arthur asked.
"When I pulled it out and gave it to the receptionist, there did not seem to be anything wrong," Francesca said, looking up as if trying to dredge up the memory. "The receptionist did not call me by name. He handed me my passport with my room key and a smile."
"Did you pay with cash?"
She nodded. "My card did not work outside of France. I forgot to call my bank, so I had to wait to get to a phone. I put it down as a deposit, they said I can reclaim it later when I pay with my card."
Arthur nodded politely. "Just one more thing before we leave, mademoiselle," he said, "Would you be able to point out the receptionist to us?"
Francesca nodded again. "I remember. He had blond hair. Short hair."
"Is there anything else you remember that might help us?"
When she shook her head, Arthur and Eames nodded their thanks, walking back to the elevators.
"We know Ariadne took the woman's passport and swapped it with hers," the Point said in a low voice. "But how would she know this particular woman had a French passport she could use?"
"She's got both American and French copies of the fake IDs," Eames replied. "I made them right before we left for Sydney just in case. Figured it would be safer for her, especially if she planned on more dreamshare work." He paused. "That means she either got really lucky, or she was smart enough to swap it somewhere after she knew Francesca had a French passport."
"The airport. She must have found the arrivals from Paris and tailed her through immigrations," Arthur shook his head. "She's been using her French passports so far. Maybe she wanted to throw Regency off her tail if they're tracking her and figured it out."
"Well, whatever her reason, we know she's traveling under Francesca Marie Franco to Los Angeles. I think our best bet right now is to head to LA and see what exactly our Architect is up to there." There was a beat before Eames continued to speak. "I just hope she knows what she's doing."
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Ariadne held her breath as she heard footsteps coming down the hall, the wooden door opening a little the next moment just enough for her to see Cobb's face, first cautious, then relaxed.
"Ariadne?" he asked, a smile growing. She smiled back at him uneasily. Being the top extractor, even one out of dreamshare, he picked up on it immediately. Cobb carefully lowered his voice. "Are you being tailed?"
She shook her head and he stepped aside, opening the door wider to let her in. As Ariadne walked in, she caught sight of the Beretta he held behind the thick wood.
"Did you just fly in from Paris?" Cobb asked gently. She shook her head, and he blew out a breath. "Come on, then. You look like you need a cup of tea."
It was true- as soon as Ariadne neared the couch, she registered how her legs were shaking; partly from exhaustion, partly from the adrenaline leaving her body, and partly from relief. She sat down, and just around the corner, caught sight of a curious pair of eyes looking at her.
"James. Philippa," she heard Cobb say sternly. Two children, the two that Ariadne had gotten to know through his dreams, jumped into the doorway. James ran up to her, looking up at her with a toothy smile- his two front teeth were missing.
"I'm James," he said, pointing to himself. Despite her tiredness, the Architect had to smile. She loved children.
"Hello, James. I'm Ariadne," she introduced herself, sticking out her hand for the little boy to shake. The smile on his face grew bigger. His sister slowly walked up shyly.
"Hi," Philippa said quietly. Ariadne gave her a smile too.
"Hello, Philippa."
"All right, kids," Cobb's fatherly tone came in as he handed the Parisian a steaming mug. "You've met your auntie Ariadne. Now it's bedtime."
"Auntie…A…airy…airyadd..." James looked down at his fingers, his eyebrows scrunching as he tried to pronounce her name right. He finally looked up in defeat. "Can I call you auntie Ari?"
A pang shot through Ariadne as an image of Arthur came into her mind. Her subconscious kicked his face away. No time to think about that right now.
"Of course," she said. The two kids greeted her as such before their father shooed them to bed, tucking them in and giving Ariadne a couple of minutes to herself. Next to a roaring fire and tea in hand, she was beginning to relax. He came back in and sat down on the other couch.
"Miles has been telling me about your accomplishments," Cobb began. Ariadne took another sip of tea. "He says you've decided to go into dreamshare full time. That you worked a job with Arthur not long after Fischer."
She nodded, clearing her throat. "Yeah. After graduating, I guess…I realized it was what I really wanted to do. Turned down a few firms that offered me positions."
Cobb's eyes were kind, waiting for her to continue. She could see more life in her mentor, and could feel a more relaxed aura around him than when they first met. She licked her lips, choosing her words carefully.
"I worked a job with Arthur in Chicago, an extraction on the CEO of Regency Co. It was an easy job, but we still needed a chemist to alter the somnacin because of all the things the mark was allergic to."
"Wait. How did you get in contact with Arthur?"
"We kept to the month of no contact. I called him afterward."
"Arthur gave you a number after the job? The number wasn't changed a month later?"
"Yeah, he gave it to me right before we left Sydney."
There was a look in Cobb's eyes that she hadn't seen before, a thoughtful, contemplative, understanding, and surprised look.
"Arthur isn't careless. Everything he does is for and with reason," he started slowly. "If he-"
"Something happened on that job," Ariadne said, cutting him off. To his credit, Cobb immediately stopped talking. She took a deep breath. "We had to go to Greece for some recon- development of Regency's product was taking place there; we needed information. Just the two of us, being together constantly, we-" She stopped, gesturing with her hand. "I'm sure everyone noticed during the inception job. I was…attracted to him," she finally decided on the word.
Cobb nodded. "It wasn't exactly one-way, you know."
Ariadne dipped her head. "I know. That job…we spent so much time together. It was difficult to deny anything or keep it away anymore. Everything was going well. When the job finished…"
"He made you go back to Paris," Cobb finished for her. "Miles told me you returned by yourself."
"That's right. After that…he changed his number. I couldn't get in contact with him, I couldn't call him, nothing. He said he would drop off the grid, so he did."
At this, the extractor frowned. Arthur had called him not two weeks ago to check in- that means he lied to her. Oh, Arthur…
"Some time after the job, the chemist- Grane- contacted me."
Cobb remembered hearing about Grane. He had just started in dreamshare not long before Mal died and quickly made a name for himself.
"For another job?"
At this point, Ariadne put the cup down on the coffee table in front of her.
"No. Grane…he was caught after the job was finished. He didn't get out fast enough, and Regency took him. At the time, we all thought we covered our tracks and got out. He called me a week ago, apologizing. Said they caught him and dug up his information. He didn't have a good Point Man until Arthur came along, so his stuff was never hidden very well. They found his wife and kids. Threatened them to get information out of him."
Cobb's face immediately hardened. Ariadne pressed on.
"He told them about me. He couldn't touch Arthur; he's too good at his job. Our extractor, Becket, dropped off the map."
Becket was a great extractor. In the current hierarchy of all known extractors, he was close to the top.
"I was the new girl. Because it's only my second job, all my information is still accessible through different avenues, no matter how good Arthur is. Grane told them about me, but then he tried to warn me, tell me they were coming for me. They caught him and shot him right as we were hanging up. I don't know what happened to his family, so I- I ran."
"And your first thought was to come back to the States?"
"No, I got in contact with Saito. Without a Point Man, I covered my tracks the best I could."
"Why didn't you call Arthur?"
The young Architect stopped and gave him a look, one he understood well. Brokenness. Determination. "If I tried, they could trace it to him. At least if I had Saito, he would back me up; he's got a ton of resources. I've got people on my tail from the same job I worked with Arthur. I'm not going to lead them to him. This is me protecting him."
Cobb nodded. "And you couldn't reach him, so either way, there wouldn't be a point." He understood all too well. Oh, Mal. He was definitely going to have a talk with Arthur after this.
Picking up her cup of tea again, Ariadne took a sip. "I went to Japan first, but then I saw some people- shifty-looking, weird- on the same plane as me from Paris to Tokyo. Saito called and said people from Regency Co.- he didn't know who I was running from, I didn't tell him, but I think he figured it out later on- called for an urgent business meeting the day after. So I bought a ticket to Barcelona and stayed there for a few hours. When I was at the airport, I looked at the flights coming in from France and swiped a woman's. Put the one Eames made for me in her purse. Immediately got a ticket out here, hoping they'll lose my trail in Spain."
"Miles has always been right about you," her mentor nodded in approval. "Best and brightest." He then frowned. "Ariadne, if these people are on your tail, and Regency Co. is an up and coming big name…they're not going to just stop there. You can't run all your life."
Ariadne put her tea down, no trace of a smile on her face. She looked right into Cobb's eyes, decadent brown to ocean blue, and that was when Cobb knew something still wasn't right. Something else was coming.
"I didn't come to Los Angeles on a whim to hide, Cobb. I…I came to warn you."
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A/N: OH SNAP! What is Ari trying to warn everyone's favorite extractor about? And does this mean Arthur and Eames finally have a lead on where she is?