Disclaimer: Inception, its characters and the actors playing those characters are not owned by me.

Rumours, Bargains and Lies

"His name is Hibbs."

They were in an unused warehouse in the London Bridge area of the city. It was far enough from their previous base that they would be safe enough for a few days at least. And a few days were all they needed.

They were sitting around a table, on which had been placed Eames's laptop. The image on the screen showed a photo of a man talking on a mobile phone. Ariadne shuddered as she recognised the man who shot her. Arthur, sitting next to her, noticed this and gave her hand a quick reassuring squeeze.

Eames had put together all the information he had been able to find on the man, as well as some bits and pieces he had obtained from other sources. He pushed a button on the laptop and an Interpol profile appeared on the screen.

"It seems our man here has quite the record," Eames leaned forward in his chair as he spoke. "A professional hitman. He's been questioned by every major law enforcement agency in every major country. Every time he's been able to supply a cast iron alibi, which has been supported by a high ranking official."

"So he has powerful friends," Arthur mused aloud, his cool, calm exterior showing nothing of what he was feeling inside. Ariadne had been attacked. Arthur wanted nothing more than to find the person responsible and beat him to a pulp.

"Wait, wait," Ariadne spoke up, her voice controlled, although Arthur's keen senses detected a slight tremor. "If he always has an alibi, how did you find him?"

Eames smiled. "Not all of us have been sitting on our backsides. While you two were having your heart-to-stone-cold-lump-of-rock last night I made some calls. Turns out Saito knows some people who have had dealings with him."

"You don't mean Saito's ever employed him?" Ariadne asked, shocked at the idea. Eames shook his head.

"No, Saito's never encountered him personally, and even if he had he would certainly never use him. That sense of honour, remember? Anyway, the point is that this man works for money and only for money. He'll turn on his employers instantly if he's offered enough."

"And I take it he was offered enough?" Arthur said.

Eames nodded. "Saito managed to find him and persuaded him to talk. Something along the lines of five hundred million pounds, I believe. He didn't know the name of his employer, that's something he never concerns himself with. Instead he gave us the details of the account that was paying him."

"And?" Arthur prompted.

Eames shrugged. "It was a dummy account of course, registered to a non-existent company. Whoever set it up didn't do a very good job of covering his tracks though. I got in touch with some old friends and managed to follow the trail to it's source. And we found something else interesting along the way."

"Is that important?" Arthur asked, "I mean, if we know who did it we should just go after him."

"Aaahhh, but it's better than that. I'm just getting to the good part." Eames grinned. "We found another payment trail from the same source. It led to yet another dummy company. Does the name Worthing Associates mean anything to you?"

Arthur tried but couldn't contain the gasp that suddenly came out. "That's the company that hired us to do the extraction from Emerson!"

Ariadne looked confused as she addressed Eames. "But you're saying that the same people that hired us for that job paid this man to kill us! Who would do such a thing?"

Eames pressed one final button then sat back. Arthur and Ariadne leaned in to look.

Arthur had never felt such anger in his life as that which now boiled in him. One look at Ariadne told him she was feeling exactly the same way.

…

The room was small, cramped, and dark, with a single door leading in and out. The only light in the room came from the cracks around the door. All he knew was that he was tied to a chair with a gag in his mouth. He had no idea how long he had been there, or even how he had gotten there.

The door suddenly opened and the bright light that came in made his eyes hurt. Through the glare he was able to make out two men entering the room. One was heavily built and the other was slim with his hair slicked back. This man came up to him and forcefully pulled the gag out of his mouth.

"Do you know who we are?" The slim man asked.

He nodded. "Of course. Who doesn't know two of the best extractors in the business."

The bigger man leaned against the wall. "You've caused us a lot of trouble, you know. Attacking our friend like that."

The man in the chair smiled. "I don't know what you are talking about."

The slim man smiled tightly. "Oh I think you do. We have a trail of evidence directly connecting you to the shooter and to the corporation that hired us for the job. You know exactly what we're talking about, Mr Karl Emerson."

…

Arthur had the satisfaction of seeing Emerson's eyes widen then, to his surprise, Emerson laughed.

"So now you want revenge. Is that it? Don't you know who you're dealing with?"

Eames shook his head. "No Mr Emerson, we don't want revenge. At least, not immediately. We just want to know why."

Emerson carried on laughing. "You people are so narrow minded. I've spent years paying teams of extractors to pry inside my mind, trying to discover my secrets. None of them ever had. I just paid them - no bad feelings, no harm done - and went on to the next team. Then you came along. Oh it was very clever, a zombie apocalypse. No one had tried that before. It was certainly the most enjoyable attempt I've ever had. I congratulate you."

"So we're the first to beat you, so what?" Arthur felt his patience growing thin.

"You still don't get it do you?. I needed to find the best extraction team I could."

"Why?" Eames had beaten Arthur to losing his patience.

"So I could eliminate you of course! With you out of the way my secrets, my little collection of dirty laundry on my competitors, would stay hidden forever." Emerson laughed again. "For the price of a few deaths I could rule the energy market! I'll bring Saito and that upstart Fischer to their knees!"

"And you're just telling us this? Just like that?" Arthur couldn't believe what he was hearing. All of this so he could get rid of them?

"Of course," Emerson smiled. "We're dreaming after all. The last thing I remember was going home in my limousine. The next thing I knew I was here. You kidnapped me and hooked me up to that blasted machine of yours. And we all know you can't record anything in dreams. Anything I say in here is your word against mine. And your word won't be around for much longer when I get out of here."

Now it was Eames's turn smile. "Mr Emerson, you're absolutely right. Nothing that is said in a dream can be recorded. Whatever happens in the dream stays in the dream." Eames's smile turned into a shark-like grin. "There's just one thing though."

"And what's that?" Emerson asked, laughing again.

"We're not dreaming." Arthur knew he would remember the expression on Emerson's face for the rest of his life. Emerson immediately stopped laughing and the blood drained from his face as the import of what he had just said sank in. Arthur looked up at the ceiling. "Did you get all that, Ariadne?"

Ariadne's voice came from a hidden loudspeaker in the room. "Every single word." Arthur thought she sounded very calm, despite the rage she must surely be feeling.

"You see, Mr Emerson," Eames moved right up to Emerson's face. "In the real world, when you kill people they die. For real. And in the real world..."

"You're finished." Ariadne's voice came over the loudspeaker and ended Eames's sentence with an obvious level of satisfaction.

"Let me be very clear about this." Arthur dropped his smile and his face became emotionless. "You do not do this to us. Ever. This we do not allow." With that he turned and left the room. Eames pulled a syringe out of his jacket and jabbed it into Emerson's arm. Emerson was still protesting as his eyes drooped and he went to sleep.

...

Eames joined Arthur outside. Ariadne soon arrived as well, holding a tape and a folder. Arthur turned to address Eames.

"Exactly like we planned. You know the drill, Eames. Take him back to his place. Tell him something comforting. This didn't take place. I repeat, nothing happened. Please remain calm. The usual spiel."

Eames bit back a retort and went to get the car ready. Ariadne turned to Arthur. "And what about us?"

Arthur smiled, the smile of a tiger approaching it's victim. "We have a delivery to make."

…

A few hours later Arthur and Ariadne were back in Arthur's hotel room, sitting side by side on the bed. Arthur breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"It's over. It's finally over."

He noticed Ariadne looking pensive and nudged her. "Hey, what's wrong. We won. It's over."

Ariadne didn't look at him. After a long moment she spoke.

"When I was... in... hospital, in a coma, I saw Mal. She... she asked me why she should help me come back."

Arthur was about to ask what she meant by that but he kept quiet, allowing her to carry on talking.

"I told her I wanted to know what it felt like to be a lover." She looked up at Arthur.

"To be a half of a whole," Arthur finished for her. He looked down. "Ariadne I..."

Ariadne put a finger on his lips in the same way she had before.

"Let's just take things slowly shall we?" she said quietly.

Arthur smiled, a warm genuine smile. "I happen to know a nice italian restaurant just up the street from here."

"Sounds good to me." Ariadne smiled back at him.

Arthur stood up and offered her his hand. She took it and held it tightly, intertwining her fingers in his. They left the room together, locking the door behind them.

…

"And our main headlines again. Police today found the body of Karl Emerson, head of Emerson Industries, at his home in Kensington. The cause of death is believed to be a gunshot wound to the head. There is no conclusive evidence at present but the police are treating the death as self-inflicted.

"Emerson's death comes after allegations of blackmail involving CEOs of other large corporations and even senior government officials. The evidence is believed to have been delivered anonymously to Scotland Yard in the early hours of yesterday morning. The investigation continues. We will of course bring you the latest updates when we can.

"Financial news now, and the value of shares in Fischer Energy continue to rise at an astronomical rate. The shares of Saito Industries also rose significantly today, but it seems that Robert Fischer's new philosophy of progress through a competitive market is paying him, as well as his peers in the energy industry, enormous dividends.

"And that is all from the Ten O'Clock News for this evening. We wish you all a very good evening."

A/N Sooo... did anybody see that coming? I looked back over the earlier chapters and I found a couple of things that may have indicated who was behind it. For example, Eames said that absolutely nothing could be found out about Emerson, yet the team just happens to stumble onto his love of zombies movies - if that was indeed genuine.

And yesterday's chapter referenced Lewis - a UK detective series. One of the characters in one of the episodes had a car crash much like the one Ariadne's father had.

Anyway, one more chapter to go. Thanks for sticking with me up to now.