Case Closed

Nathan Burman

Arthur swore under his breath the moment he saw the two men walk toward Burman's hotel room. Nathan Burman was being tailed by two lackeys from Cobol Engineering. No doubt they thought they could get to Cobb or himself through Burman and that was not something he wanted. The IDCA agent had not had anything to do with Cobol and he did not want an innocent man to get killed over them. Eames joined him so they were standing just out of sight as they carried Burman's body out of the hotel room.

"Well you were right about them going after that guy," Eames said bumping shoulders with Arthur. "I owe you $20."

"You can pay me later. Right now, I think we have bigger problems to deal with," Arthur replied as the car sped away.

"Yeah, I know, it's just a shame that we can't let Cobol deal with him. It would make our lives a lot easier, that's for sure." Eames shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. "I know we won't let that happen, but still."

"But still indeed." Arthur turned and began to walk back to the car, Eames by his side. "We have work to do."

The world was slowly easing back into focus and Nathan had no idea how long he had been out. He blinked and looked around, taking in his surroundings. He was in a room with no windows and one steel door. There was a single light swinging above him, making the corners of the room dark. His head was killing him and Nathan put a hand to the large bump on his forehead. He remembered getting hit by men he had seen but not acknowledged before. I'm such an idiot, he thought. Nathan checked his pockets and was not surprised to find nothing there, not even his wallet. The room was completely silent with nothing but his own breathing. Even the light was too bright and Nathan closed his eyes to block it out. Closing his eyes and lying down was a bad idea but exhaustion outweighed logic and Nathan slipped back into sleep.

Since there was no window Nathan had no idea how long he slept. The pounding in his head was not nearly as severe as before and he considered that a victory. Or he did until two armed men opened the door and looked down at him. Nathan was not going to face these people sitting down and he struggled to get to his feet. The room spun and the men chuckled as he swayed on his feet.

"Agent Burman. I want you to know that this can end well for you if you just give us the information we need," the bulkier of the two men said.

"It's not going to be that simple, and we all know that. How about we skip most of the foreplay and I just tell you that I'm not going to talk," Nathan replied, really not in the mood to deal with this.

"You might change your mind when you hear what we want to know," the smaller man said. "We don't want any information on IDCA or any of your fellow agents; I want to know about one of your cases."

"I'm sorry but that is classified," Nathan replied like he was supposed to but he was curious now.

"All we want is the location of Dominic Cobb. We know that you have been investigating him and we just want to have a nice chat with him." These two had something to do with he dreamshare community and Cobb must have done something to merit the kidnapping of a federal agent. He did not owe Cobb anything so there was really no reason he could not let Cobb deal with his own problems.

"'A nice chat?' I didn't know that people actually said that outside of the movies. You've gone through the trouble of taking me, you might as well be honest with me," Nathan replied. The smaller of the two men punched Nathan hard enough that he saw stars as he fell to the ground. He blinked and tried to clear his vision, tasting blood.

"What we have to say to doesn't really matter. What we need from you is his location or the location of Arthur Cohen. Tell us where they are and we are done here."

"Arthur won't tell you anything," Nathan said spitting some blood on the carpet. He was not sure how he knew that Arthur would not give them any information but he was sure of it.

"We have our ways. Now we know that you have been investigating them. This is the last time I'm going to ask nicely." The larger man was trying to threaten him but Nathan also knew that these people were not the type to ask questions. He thought about the two children in the Cobb house and how they had just gotten their dad back. He thought about how he was a danger to Arthur but had given him money for a hotel so he did not sleep on a bench. Nathan was sure that he would not sleep at night if he handed anyone into the hands of torturers. "I'm waiting, Agent Burman." This was his only out because there was no government that was going to come help him. The information was all he had and Nathan knew that he really did not have any other options. The only way he was going to make it out of this alive was to tell these men what he knew.

"I'm sorry, gentlemen, but I don't know what you're talking about."

Arthur wished he had the morals of a real criminal. He did not delude himself into thinking that saving one IDCA agent was going to get him into heaven. The problem was that Nathan Burman had had nothing to do with Cobol Engineering yet the latest group of mercenaries sent by Cobol. That single moral fiber he and Eames both seemed to have was the reason they were now planning the rescue of an agent that was actively trying arrest them. So far Arthur had been able to trace Burman's cell phone, so they knew where he was being held, but going in guns blazing was going to get someone shot.

"And an IDCA agent filled with bullets isn't something I want to deal with," Eames replied when Arthur brought that fact up.

"So we're going to have to come up with another way to get in there," Arthur mused. "He's probably not safe here either. All three of us need to make ourselves scarce as soon as possible."

"Great idea but now we just need to get in and out of a small hotel room where a federal agent is currently being tortured for information about us. And let's not forget how he'll come after us again once he has his badge back."

"Logic dictates that helping is a bad idea," Arthur said.

"And yet we're still going to help," Eames stated.

"Yes," Arthur replied. Eames nodded and they began to look into ways of getting out of the country with minimal risk.

During training they had prepared him for this sort of thing, but Nathan had decided that headquarters had downplayed how truly painful being tortured was. They had taught him to keep his mouth shut at all costs and that to say anything would be treason against his country. They might have even mentioned that he could be arrested if he talked. Right now Nathan was not entirely sure if he could talk because his jaw was throbbing. No one had ever hit him the way these two men had. They were making sure that whatever they did to him hurt as much as possible. It hurt to breathe now and idly he wondered if a broken rib was going to puncture his lung and that would be the end. They had tied him to a chair to keep him upright and slapped him across the face anytime he almost passed out.

"Agent Burman, we really don't need to be doing this," Jim, the larger of the two men, said, as he cracked his knuckles. He was trying to sound like Nathan was the one being unreasonable in this situation. "All you need to do is tell us where Cobb is. Arthur will come running later." In the midst of the beatings Jim had more or less revealed that he was hired not only to find Cobb but to kill the extractor. The other man, Wil, seemed to be looking forward to the killing part to a sadistic degree. He heard them talking as he slipped in and out of consciousness about how they were going to kill the Cobb children as well. That will make Arthur come running, he had thought to himself at the time. He was not sure how much time had passed or if anyone would notice that he was gone.

"He's not talking, Jim," Wil nearly whined. "We should stop wasting our time and try to find the fucker on our own."

"We've had shit luck for that and the boss is getting impatient," Jim replied. "It's not like we have any leads anyway." Nathan was not really paying attention and thus the punch across his cheekbone took him completely by surprise. When he grunted in pain that just seemed to egg Jim on and his torturer threw another punch. He was going to lose a tooth at this rate and his head swam.

"I'm going out for a smoke," Wil said and he left without waiting for a response from Jim. Jim seemed like he was done for the time being because he took a seat across the room and cleaned the blood off of his knuckles in a way that was supposed to be intimidating but just looked overly dramatic. Nathan closed his eyes and wondered how long it would take before they lost interest in him. Talking was simply not an option; there was no possible way he could live with himself if he knew he had gotten two kids killed.

The sound of stamping feet, far too soon for Wil to have smoked an entire cigarette, made their way toward the room. Jim was on his feet as Wil came in and threw someone onto the ground. The person stumbled and landed on their knees and Nathan felt his eyes widen when he realized the person was Arthur. He looked supremely irritated and there was a deep cut on his temple that was bleeding freely.

"Caught this fucker trying to sneak in," Wil said, a gun pointed at Arthur's head. "Looks like he was trying to take us by surprise. Empty your pockets." Arthur did as he was told and emptied his pockets of exactly two guns and one knife. He kept his hands in the air in surrender but did not say anything.

"Were you trying to rescue Burman?" Jim asked.

"He has nothing to do with this," Arthur replied reasonably.

"He was our link to Cobb, but now we have you, which is much better." Jim knelt in front of Arthur and grinned. "I'm sure he'll come out of hiding when he hears his right hand man has been taken."

"He won't," Arthur replied.

"He always travels with that forger," Wil pointed out. "Where is Eames?"

"We just split up." If Arthur was lying he was perfect at it.

"Maybe we can convince him to tell us where Cobb is," Jim said and Arthur smirked.

"You'd have to find him and you won't. Cobb has moved since Burman last saw him so you let the agent go and we'll keep this on the illegal side of dreaming. No need to get the feds involved in this." Arthur was trying to be reasonable but Jim smiled as he stood up. He went through a bag and suddenly Nathan was staring down the barrel of a gun.

"How about this? I won't shoot this guy in the head if you give up Cobb." In that moment Nathan knew he was going to die. There was no possible way Arthur was going to give up Cobb for him and he was going to die in this hotel room. Arthur met his gaze head on and did not look sad, worried, or even distressed; if anything, he appeared to be smirking. Jim cocked the barrel back, for dramatic effect again, but Arthur did not look away nor did he say a word. He did not flinch when Wil punched him across the cheekbone and he did not look away. "Last chance to save this guy or his blood is on your hands," Jim warned. The sudden crack of a window breaking drew both of their attention. The room quickly filled with a foul smelling smoke and Nathan saw Arthur twist and knock Wil off his feet. The door opened and Eames strolled in, shooting Jimwithout hesitation. The smoke must have been drugged because the world was beginning to darken around the edges as Arthur fired a shot into Wil. Eames walked over and knelt in front of him .

"Sorry about this, Agent Burman," Nathan thought he heard Eames say when everything faded away.

The first thing Nathan noticed when he woke up was that he was not in as much pain as before. There were sounds around him, someone was talking, but it did not sound like they were talking to him. He was also lying on something soft, like a bed, and when he finally managed to open his eyes he was looking at a ceiling. There was something cold and metal around his wrist which Nathan discovered was a pair of handcuffs with a long chain attached to the bed.

"I wish you hadn't done that," a familiar voice said and Nathan shifted, despite the pain that shot through his entire body, to see Eames and Arthur sitting across the room. "You got beat up the last time too."

"Someone had to go in," Arthur replied as Eames cleaned the wound on his head. "Besides, you know that I wasn't actually in any danger. We took the antidote for the smoke so I wasn't going to pass out."

"Nearly cracked your bloody skull open," Eames said as he applied butterfly stitches to the cut on Arthur's temple. Surprisingly, Eames leaned forward so their foreheads were pressed together. "My turn to take the beating next time."

"Whatever you say." Arthur smiled and looked over, their eyes meeting. "Ah, Agent Burman is awake."

"About time." Eames sat back and began to look through a bag. When he pulled out a needle Nathan felt his pulse jump. He was about to struggle when two hands held him down firmly. He had not even seen Arthur move but now the other man was so close Nathan could see the cut had a large goose egg underneath it and he had the makings of a black eye. A prick in his arm and he saw Eames pulling out a needle. "That should help with the pain. Get some more sleep." Nathan wanted to argue but the painkillers were already making the world hazy. The last thing he remembered was the pressure being relieved from his sore shoulders.

The world seemed much clearer the next time Nathan opened his eyes. He was still lying in the bed in a small bedroom. The door was closed and he did not see any indication that Arthur or Eames were about. Nathan sat up slowly and found that the handcuffs were gone and he could feel bandages on his face. His body protested as he stood and he was surprised to find that his injuries felt a lot worse than they looked. His lip was split, he had an impressive black eye, there was a bandage on his cheek and another wrapped around his torso because he guessed a few of his ribs were bruised or cracked. Nathan was not surprised to find that he was unarmed and that made him nervous. There were voices outside and he pressed his ear to the door to listen; he could not make out what they were saying.

As carefully as he could Nathan opened the door and looked outside. Arthur and Eames were sitting on opposite ends of a table, both working on something. Arthur was typing on a laptop and would stop every now and then to write something down on a piece of nearby paper. Eames had an Exacto knife in hand and was cutting away at something, setting it aside to pick up glue and scissors.

"How are we looking?" Eames asked without looking up.

"Almost have everything," Arthur replied also without looking up. "We should be ready to move out within the hour."

"Good do we have-" Eames began.

"-yes, it's all ready and-" Arthur interrupted.

"-don't worry, it's already done so-"

"-I'm not worried, just need to make sure clean-"

"-taken care of," Eames finished. Neither of them looked up from what they were doing as they reached across the table and high fived one another. It was one of the single most bizarre things Nathan had ever seen; never before had he seen two people who truly looked like they were so in sync that they could read each other's mind. There are partners that have been together for over a decade in the FBI who aren't nearly on that level, Nathan thought as he watched the two men carefully. Near the door was an endtable and there sat his gun and wallet. If he could get his wallet he could get away without any problems. Nathan pushed the door open and walked as quietly as he could toward the table and his gun was just within reach when Arthur and Eames both picked up a gun and pointed it at him without looking away from their work.

"You can have that later, Agent Burman. Why don't you come over here?" Arthur suggested. Nathan was hurt, unarmed, and really did not have much of a choice. He walked over to the table as the guns followed him and sat down on a nearby chair. They both set the guns down at the same time. A long silence passed as the two men worked diligently on something much more important than him.

"Why did you do it?" Nathan asked.

"Why did we do what?" Arthur asked writing something down on a paper and putting it in a folder.

"Don't be dense; you're both way too smart for that," Nathan replied.

"You aren't involved," Eames said as he began to pack up his supplies, apparently finished with whatever he was working on. The man leaned forward and watched Nathan carefully; he was being studied by a forger and it made him nervous. "They never would have come after you were it not for Arthur and Cobb's botched job."

Arthur closed a folder and his laptop, leaning back in his chair. "There is no reason for you to die for me, for Cobb, for any of us," Arthur said. "So we got you out."

"You didn't have to. In fact, it would have been in your best interests for me to die," Nathan said quietly as Arthur raised an eyebrow.

"Are you trying to convince me to kill you, Agent?" Arthur asked.

"Thank you." Nathan looked between the two men and relaxed a little. They were not going to kill him, not now at least, but he was not sure what was going on. They both just watched him very carefully.

"Why didn't you give them Cobb's information? Even if they had gone to an empty house they would have let you go. You don't owe him anything and you were willing to arrest him a few weeks ago," Arthur asked.

"It's one thing to take in a criminal. It's another to send them to the gallows and those guys were going to kill Cobb and his kids. I couldn't live with that," Nathan replied. He was surprised when Eames laughed.

"You didn't want to 'send him to the gallows?' Oh that's rich coming from an IDCA agent. Those assassins would have killed him faster than you lot. Hell, an assassin would have been a mercy killing compared to what he would go through at your hands." Eames was smiling and shaking his head sadly.

"What are you talking about? IDCA takes in dream share criminals and locks them up, just like any other form of police," Nathan argued.

"You really have no idea," Arthur mused as he dug through some folders. "The dreamshare community is scared of IDCA but only because we know what happens when you need information. Ah, here it is." Arthur pulled out a large folder and held it out to Nathan. The agent reached for it but Arthur pulled it just out of reach again. "You are not going to like what you see in here, Agent Burman, and if you like, we can pretend this conversation never happened."

"Give me the folder, Arthur," Nathan insisted though there was a lump in his throat. Arthur nodded and Nathan began to look through the stacks of papers. There were pictures, testimonies, paperwork, of the dreamshare criminals that IDCA had taken in. There were pictures of tiny rooms with nowhere to lie down, of torture, of killing, the names of everyone that they had taken. There were even some names that he recognized, people he had helped bring in, as they screamed in security pictures with familiar faces and guards laughing mockingly. Bile was threatening to rise in his throat and he shut the folder. He knew that being at the bottom of the ladder meant that there were things that he did not know but he never expected this.

"Somewhere between 80-85% of people taken in by IDCA and before IDCA was formed are killed after being tortured for information," Eames explained. "The 'lucky' 15% are the ones used to help improve the technology or ones that strike a deal to save themselves. They get to spend the rest of their lives in a tiny cell."

"This is what your organization was going to do to Cobb, to Yusuf, to Ariadne, if you had found enough information to justify an arrest," Arthur said. Nathan looked between the two of them and the folder in his hands. He thought about how he wanted justice for those violated by the PASIV, he thought of the haunted looked on Gregory Turners face, of how he wanted these people off the street. This was not what he wanted, he did not want this blood on his hands, yet as he opened the folder and saw the morgue report from the extractor he had helped bring in a year ago the sheer amount of injuries was sickening.

"We need to get moving or we're going to be late," Eames said and the two of them began to gather their things. Nathan did not move from where he was sitting, staring at the folder in his hands, unable to shake this sick feeling in his stomach. Eames was right; those assassins would have been a mercy killing compared to this. And I've helped put these people in the ground, Nathan thought. He looked up when Arthur handed him his jacket and he pulled it on silently. When he walked outside Eames was holding open the door of an old, remodeled police car. Nathan climbed in without a word and sat back, unable to look away from the folder in his hands. The door closed and Nathan knew he would not be able to open it from the inside

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Arthur and Eames standing close and talking to each other. Eames pressed something into Arthur's hands and did something that got Nathan's full attention: he kissed him. It was not a long kiss but it was heated, passionate, unlike any kiss Nathan had ever experienced in his life. The movement between these two men seemed to make more sense as they pulled away from each other. They spoke for a moment more until Arthur walked toward the driver's side door. Eames did not follow and he nodded to Nathan. Arthur started the car and drove off without looking back.

"Judging by your reaction I'm guessing that wasn't something that you knew about us," Arthur said but he was smiling when he said it. "What do you know about us, Agent Burman?"

"Not that much; you're very thorough but no that wasn't something we knew about and we try to know about the couples in business," Nathan said and he felt like he was going to be sick because he understood why now. Arthur looked at him in the rearview mirror but did not say anything. "I didn't know."

"I know you didn't because you're a good man and a good man wouldn't have anything to do with this business." And that was all they said on the matter. The car ride was silent and Nathan frowned deeply when he realized that they were heading to the airport. He was going to mention that he had no money when they pulled up to what appeared to be a private jet. "I have something else for you." Arthur opened the door for him and handed Nathan another folder. "In here you have everything you need to prove that Cobol Engineering hired an extraction team. When the team did not produce results Cobol sent armed men out to 'take care' of the problem. They decided the best way to get this information was to kidnap an IDCA agent but persons of unknown origins got the IDCA agent out of the line of fire." Arthur also produced what appeared to be a new passport with a fake name; it smelled new. "This is a private jet of someone with money to take you to Paris where you can fly under your real name. The fake passport is flawless and you will have no trouble getting into the country. The chemical used to knock out your assailants was professionally made and does not have any side effects. When you get to Paris you'll find that, if needed, there is somewhere safe to stay as long as you go as yourself and not an agent. Do you understand everything that I'm telling you?" Nathan was stunned to silence as he took his wallet and gun from Arthur's hand as well.

"I understand," Nathan said. "I just don't know why."

"You gave me a run for my money, Agent Burman, and you're very good at your job. If you were tracking any other team you would have walked away with at least one suspect. You're also a good man, you want justice, and IDCA does not provide justice. You can do whatever you want with that information but rest assured that your assets will be returned to you. Also, for some reason, the people who logged the complaints that got you fired are going to withdraw them."

"I'm never going to catch you, am I," Nathan said smiling to himself.

"No, you won't, but I admire the effort. The plane needs to take off so you had best be on your way." Arthur put his hands in his pockets and waited patiently. Nathan looked at the papers in his hands, at the wallet, at the passport, at the ticket that was getting him out of the country and the two folders. One that could make his career and another that could end it. Nathan nodded, not needing to say 'thank you' again, and climbed onto the jet. He looked out the window as he got settled and Arthur watched. Arthur gave a two finger salute and climbed into the car. Nathan watched it drive away and did not open the Cobol folder until they had reached 10,000 feet.