Extraction
Chapter 9: Job Details
Note: I do not own Inception. Also, I don't really get into the aftermath of the kiss in this chapter, but I can promise you we'll get into Arthur and Ariadne's heads later.
It had been less than a week since Arthur had declared that the team would try to extract from Thomas Leeson any information concerning the whereabouts of Dominic Cobb. Finally, the team was meeting up to go over some final details.
"Our subject is Thomas Frederick Leeson," Arthur informed his team, though they already knew this. He handed a recent photograph of Leeson to Ariadne who, after studying the picture, handed it off to Yusuf.
"He's the son of a mechanic and grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia. Nothing much came back on Leeson's old man, had a few drug charges, but nothing too serious. Leeson has a brother, two years younger, but he seems to have a legitimate job as a real estate agent. Leeson, on the other hand, had a troubled childhood. He was in and out of various juvenile detention centres for a variety of reasons: battery, armed robbery, and so on," Arthur informed his team.
"Then, not surprisingly, he found himself in trouble with the law when he reached adulthood. Again, for armed robbery, then solicitation, sexual assault and so on."
"A rather pleasant sounding fellow, can't wait to get inside his head," Eames joked as he puffed on a cigarette near the open window of Arthur's hotel room.
"Despite all this, Leeson and his family seem pretty close: Father always ready to bail his kid out of prison, brother showing up to every court date, that sort of thing," Arthur continued as he handed out pictures of both Leeson's father and brother for the team to analyze.
"Until recently Leeson has never held down a job for more than a few months at a time, and he's done everything from packing groceries, to working in half-way houses. However, for the last few years, he's held a rather menial job with a waste disposal company. No complaints, no more run-ins with the law. He just appears to be walking the straight and narrow," Arthur explained, disbelief in his voice as he uttered the last part.
"Cobol recruited him in the last few years then?" Ariadne asked even though she was pretty sure she knew the answer.
"Obviously there's no real record of him working for Cobol, but we have our buddy Paul's testimony that he's seen Leeson around Cobol. Also, he's made some pretty interesting big ticket cash purchases in the last few years. For instance, two expensive foreign cars, a house in Hawaii, some designer clothes," Arthur explained in answer to Ariadne's question.
"Why would these expensive purchases only be recent if he's been working for Cobol for some time?" Yusuf asked as he set the photos of Leeson and his family on the table beside him.
"Could be a number of reasons for that," Arthur said as he retrieved the photos from beside Yusuf and tucked them in a file folder.
"Yes, for instance he may not have wanted to draw attention to himself during his early days with Cobol because he was known to police. Large cash purchases might have raised the suspicions of authorities," Eames explained.
"Exactly," Arthur agreed.
"How refreshing it is to have you agree with me on something Arthur," Eames joked. Arthur sent the forger a glare before continuing.
"It also could suggest that Cobol has recently promoted Leeson. A bigger payday usually comes with a promotion."
Yusuf nodded as he absorbed this information.
"Hence, Eames' logic for us to go into Leeson's mind to begin with, because the guy running the off the record deals is the one who can probably tell us what happened to Cobb. If Cobol had something to do with his disappearance," Ariadne mused, speaking her thoughts out loud.
"Exactly," Arthur agreed.
"So, when and how is the extraction going to take place?" Yusuf asked.
"The extraction will take place in three days time," Arthur informed the team as he tossed a worn calendar on the large bed for everyone to see. The date of the extraction was circled in red.
"Leeson has booked a flight from New York to Vancouver -" Eames began, but Ariadne cut him off.
"Another plane! Honestly, is that the only way for these jobs to go down - " Eames then cut Ariadne off.
" As I was saying," he sent a stern look Ariadne's way, who suddenly got very interested in the calendar Arthur had tossed on the bed. "Leeson has booked a flight from New York to Vancouver. Seems he's going to attend his little brother's wedding."
"Eames has already set us up with false identities. We'll be working as food servers for the company catering the wedding. After everyone's been fed, there'll be the usual speeches and alcohol, dancing etc. It's during these later festivities that we'll lure Leeson away and then perform the extraction," explained Arthur.
"The wedding reception is being held at a downtown hotel. The wedding party has booked a floor of the hotel for their out-of-town guests," said Eames. Arthur now tossed some photos of the hotel on the bed.
"How will we lure him away with all those people around?" Ariadne asked. "Like we did with Paul at the Eiffel tower?"
"No, a certain young catering girl is going to lead a rather intoxicated Leeson up to his room because that certainly won't raise the suspicions of any of the wedding or hotel guests," Eames explained as he raised his eyebrows suggestively at Ariadne.
"Plus, with the rest of the wedding guests partying downstairs into the wee hours, we'll more than likely have until noon the next day before anyone will bother looking for Leeson," Arthur said before continuing. "Not that we'll need that much time. I estimate we'll only need a few hours to complete the extraction at most."
"Wait, what is this about a young catering girl leading Leeson up to his rooms?" Ariadne asked brow furrowing in confusion and alarm.
Eames grinned. "Well darling that is where you come in. After Leeson's had a few all you gotta do is stumble in his path and make a few flirtatious suggestions and he'll whisk you off to his rooms above. Then you'll convince him to take a sedative. Tell him it's some kind of new sex drug or whatever," Eames explained simply.
"Why can't we just ambush him on the plane ride, like we did on the Fischer job?" Ariadne asked, though it sounded more like a plea.
"Because darling, that was a very expensive endeavour," Eames replied as he flicked his cigarette butt in the trashcan. Both Ariadne and Arthur glanced at the trashcan vaguely concerned about it starting on fire.
"As you'll recall Saito bought the airline to avoid any unforeseen complications," Arthur continued to further Eames' point.
"Ok, whatever," Ariadne relented. "But this conversation is not over!" She said firmly. "So, anyway, then we put Leeson under, and we end up on the first dream level, which is the maze you had me design on top of those hotel specs you gave me," the architect continued. Arthur nodded.
"And I'll be the dreamer on the first layer correct?" Yusuf asked.
"Yes, you'll be the dreamer, and Leeson will be our subject whose projections will fill your dream world," Arthur clarified for the team.
"Anyway, the dream will take place in Leeson's hotel bedroom," Arthur continued. "We'll have you there, Ariadne, pretending as though the two of you have just finished having-" Ariadne cut Arthur off.
"Oh no! There is no way I'm doing that! I already doubt I'll be able to flirt my way upstairs with Leeson, never mind continue my awkward flirting attempts in the unstable environment of a dream!" Ariadne cried shaking her head emphatically. She couldn't believe what she was hearing, was Arthur really all right with this plan?
"Come on, it won't be that difficult! The guy is going to be looking for any excuse to get a girl up to his room, trust me," Eames remarked trying to calm the young woman's fears.
"I don't flirt, ok! I'm not one of those girly girls. I can guarantee you this extraction attempt will fail if we send me in there!"
"Ok, ok calm down," Arthur soothed while motioning for Ariadne to sit back down in her chair. The architect couldn't remember having jumped out of her seat, but apparently she had and so sheepishly sat back down.
"Eames, what if we have you pose as Ariadne in the dream?" Arthur asked.
"I think the girl can do it, if she just puts her mind to it," Eames began, and held up a hand when he saw Ariadne was going to begin protesting again. "However, I am comfortable enough with my sexuality to say I have no problem posing as Ariadne and flirting it up with Leeson in the first dream level," he finished.
"Ok then. So, we'll have Eames flirt with Leeson. Eventually steering the conversation towards dream extraction. This will automatically trigger Leeson's thoughts towards Cobb and our extraction job for Cobol," explained Arthur.
"This will undoubtedly put Leeson on edge. So, at this point myself, Yusuf, and I guess now Ariadne, will barge into the room and force Leeson to go under a second time," Arthur finished.
"At which point we will actually be entering the second layer of the dream," Yusuf clarified.
Eames nodded. "Yes, this time Ariadne will be the dreamer with Leeson still as our subject, obviously."
"This dream will be the corporate building maze, you had me design," Ariadne said.
"Exactly. Leeson will be on edge, thinking we are trying to get information regarding Cobol from him. Hence, the corporate environment," Arthur confirmed.
"So, the safe in the building will already begin to fill with Cobol secrets, especially those concerning any involvement Cobol has had with extractors," said Ariadne.
Arthur nodded, "We'll then need to begin the filtering process. Eames and myself will begin to question Leeson, asking him about Nash and then eventually Cobb. Thus, the secrets in the safe will begin to diminish until only those concerning Cobb are there."
"Also, he'll undoubtedly bring his own projection of Ariadne into our interrogation situation as well, as his own subconscious will suspect her of being the one who set him up for extraction during the first layer of our dream, but what Leeson will think was reality," Eames continued further.
"So, his own subconscious will begin to interrogate itself?" Ariadne asked.
"Yes, Cobb and I have used this technique in the past. His own projection will begin questioning him and start asking the 'right' questions and ultimately tell us the information we want to hear," Arthur confirmed.
"Why would it do that though? I mean how can you be sure his projection will begin to spoon-feed us what we want to hear?" asked Ariadne.
"Well we suspect this technique will work in this particular case because: first, Cobol is an incredibly dangerous company, as Leeson will well know, so you don't want to screw them over. Second, if Leeson's more recent large purchases are any indication he's only recently moved up the ladder at Cobol-" Eames quickly butt in cutting Arthur off.
"So, he'll recall what sort of punishment befell the man who held his position before him."
"So, he'll be even more on edge than usual and then ultimately tell us what we want to know," Yusuf finished.
"Wait, so what if he's on edge? I still don't understand how his own projection is going to ask him the 'right' questions," Ariadne said as she made little quote signs with her fingers around the word 'right.'
"He'll be so worried about us extracting information from him that his projection will begin to tell us exactly what he doesn't want us to hear," Eames tried again to explain their logic to the architect.
"Ok," Ariadne said slowly trying to wrap her head around the idea. "I guess it sounds like a pretty solid plan, if everything goes as you say it will," Ariadne finally mused.
"Well these things rarely go exactly as planned. I mean you can only plan for so much and then you just have to wing it," Eames said.
"So, if his subconscious is going to tell us everything we want to hear then why did we need a safe?" Ariadne asked.
"The safe is our back up. If it turns out Leeson's own subconscious doesn't tell us what we want to know, then we can still just break into the safe and steal the information we want," Arthur explained. Ariadne nodded slowly.
"But we want to avoid breaking into the safe then?" she asked
"Yes, once you break into the safe you still have to read the contents and the subject almost always can sense the minute you are tampering with the safe. So, their projections will begin to converge on you," clarified Arthur.
"So, let's say we do find out Cobb is still alive, and that Leeson can give us information regarding his whereabouts. We'll still have to get to Cobb and free him from Cobol's clutches. Who's to say Leeson won't wake up and not believe it was all just a dream? Say he decides to send word to Cobol to move Cobb before we can get to him?" Yusuf asked.
"Well, that's why we'll have to move fast trying to complete the extraction as quickly as possible. It is also quite frankly why I wanted you on this job Yusuf. I want to make sure Leeson is sedated well into the next day, giving us time to act on whatever information we steal from his subconscious. Also, like I already mentioned, with everyone being drunk from the wedding reception the night before I doubt anyone will check in on Leeson until noon the following the morning anyway. So, the quicker we execute the extraction, the more time we have to get to Cobb before Leeson tips anyone off about the possibility of any foul play," Arthur stated.
"That's of course if Leeson actually has any information regarding Cobb," Ariadne finally said. "What if it turns out he doesn't know anything? We'll have completely blown any chance we have of finding Cobb."
"I am positive Leeson is going to know something," Eames said with such conviction that Ariadne truly wanted to believe him.
"I agree," Arthur said.
"Twice in one day, Arthur I think our time together these past several days has really brought us closer," Eames joked. Arthur gave Eames an unimpressed sort of glare.
"So, you're sure this time that the subject has had no extractor teach his subconscious how to defend itself from invaders?" Yusuf asked Arthur, breaking up the moment between the point man and forger.
"God! I screw up once and you people just can't let me live it down can you!" Arthur shouted kicking at a nearby chair. Yusuf leaned back in his own chair to put more distance between himself and the point man.
"I've been giving him a pretty hard time about that over the last few days," Eames whispered in Yusuf's direction. "It's nothing personal against you," the forger reassured the chemist.
Note: Well there you have it people. That is how the extraction is going to go down. Please Review.
