10.
~ It was a long trip from France to Australia. One in which she embarrassingly fell asleep during. Her eyes and mind betraying her as they cried out for rest. Arthur kept still and quite as she slept for hours in the comfy leather chairs. His body seeming to protect her and provide a buffer from the others on the Team. The white noise of the plane soothing her to sleep.
It wasn't until the plane was preparing to land that he gently rubbed her arm. His invasion into her dreams unwelcome.
"Were about to land." he whispered to her. She opened her eyes to find she had dozed off sometime in the air.
She sat up and tried to smooth out her clothing. Her hair must look a fright. She felt she had been sleeping deeply and the thought that Arthur might have drugged her again and went into her dreams, briefly came to her mind.
'No, I didn't eat or drink anything.' Ariadne thought at the Point Man gently reminded her to fasten her seat belt. Still, she could never be sure about her dreams now.
She could never trust him again.
~ The airport was busy and it was easy to "lose" the Team as she had been instructed to do. To arrive at different times, so it would seem that none of them knew each other. Ariadne was already in her seat when she felt Arthur arrive. Her cheeks pinking as she wished for the hundredth time she had dressed more refined. She really didn't have anything as nice as what these gentleman wore and she looked so different from them just now. Still, perhaps that was for the best. She would not be counted as one of them if they were caught.
She tried to read her book as Cobb subversively placed the sleeping drug in Fischer's water. Soon enough, the young heir was unconscious.
Arthur was on his feet. His movements so fast and silent, she almost didn't see him. He didn't look at her as he readied the device. Handing out a line to each of the Team members before pulling one for her and for himself free. She rolled up her sleeve as she readied herself for the band and needle.
It never hurt but she had to learn though trial and error how to do it. Arthur made to put her bracelet on himself, but she sheepishly took the line from him. She mouthed a 'thank you' before quickly snapping on her bracelet. Feeling the Point Man hurriedly going back to his seat.
Too quickly, the attendant was before them. Checking their faces, making sure they were ready.
Everyone nodded and Ariadne soon felt the sense of her mind fogging over and falling head first into the dream.
~ 'Is it raining?' She thought and she wondered if she was in the right place. She looked around the city that seemed so different from the one she had built. She hated the rain. Almost every time something bad happened to her, it was raining.
She ducked into a shop and waited for the red car Cobb would pick her up in.
~ Arthur was annoyed. The rain was the first glitch in the plan. A plan that was fraught with all kinds of complications already. He had tried to talk Cobb out of bringing Ariadne on the mission with them. She wasn't experienced in the dreams about would prove a liability like the tourist.
The Point Man spotted Robert Fisher on the curb. The young heir waving him down. Arthur slowed the cab and let him into the trap. Saito anxiously awaited Eames to sprint to the cab and jump in. The Tourist seemed to be enjoying the mission.
~ Gun fire. Arthur knew they were in trouble before the guns even came out. The sight of the trucks cutting him off caused the hair on the back of his neck to rise like the hackles on a dog.
Suddenly, his world became a blur of hot gun fire and Eames shouting. Acting on instinct, and trusting he would wake up if he was shot, Arthur fired back and tried to maneuvered the cab away.
'Where the hell is Cobb?' Arthur thought. 'Where is he?'
The Extractor should have been providing back up. Keeping the projections away from the Mark. They were hopelessly pinned down as the cab became target practice for the projections.
For the first time on the mission, he was glad Eames was there. The Forger was many things but he was never incompetent on a job. Eames seemed to read Arthur's mind and was ready with return fire as the Point Man backed the cab out. Heartlessly running over a projection with a grim satisfaction.
Even Saito was useful. Never hesitating to return fire through all the bullets firing. Arthur used the fear the dream gave him to act. Slamming the cab and bucking free the cars before him and behind. He drove the cab into an impressive spin away from the trap and fled.
"I'm okay.' Arthur thought looking over his body for blood. Knowing the adrenaline he was feeling would not tell him if he felt pain.
"You alright?" he barked at Eames.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm okay." Eames came back. His voice sounding slightly stunned over what they had just survived. "Fischer's okay. Unless he get's car sick." The Forger joked patting the young man trembling in the corner of the back seat. The cloth bag still on his head.
"Saito?" Arthur turned at the tourist next to him. The Point Man was feeling calmer now.
'Maybe were going to be alright.' He thought.
The older man was slouched down in his seat. Something Saito never did. His suit getting wrinkled and the fine Japanese business man looking almost slovenly. Arthur watched in horror as Saito pulled free the hand at his chest, covered in blood.