"Well you can't just leave it at that. Who did you plant?" asked Pembrose.
"It's best you not know that. Your overlarge head might explode," said Eames, trying to cut the line of conversation that had popped up.
"It's just that some of it is secrets left for others to tell. Besides, some of that information is best not shared with anyone, much less someone in your position," said Arthur.
"What the hell do you mean, 'someone in my position'! I've told you everything! Why won't you tell me that?"
"But you haven't. You told us how you and Cobb knew each other, and we told you that our last job was a supposedly impossible one. Quid pro quo. Now, if you tell us how you're able to do what you do, then maybe we'll give you some more info," tempted Ariadne. "Or maybe what you're actually working on."
Jack Pembrose is not a person to bargain with on the best of circumstances, and semantic trickery was even worse. He tried to hold his temper in check as he contemplated his next move. "Congratulations, you have succeeded in playing me like a good little violin. No longer. This time, why don't you start providing some information? Then I'll answer."
Ariadne huffed. "Okay, what if I tell you what we planted and how, and you tell us what you were working on? Will that work for now?"
"Ariā¦" warned Arthur.
"We won't get anywhere by keeping secrets. We need what he knows, this gets it. I'll sacrifice a new trick for him not knowing about that particular target," whispered Ariadne.
Jack thought for a moment. He then turned and said, "I'm listening."
"Okay. We had ten hours. We used a special compound with a sedative. There were seven of us- Cobb, Arthur-his point man, myself, the chemist, Eames-as you know, a forger, a tourist, and the Mark."
"Wait- the mark was a team member?"
"Wait for me to finish. There were three intended levels. In the first, we planted some numbers and started eroding a personal relationship. We then brought the mark down a level, where we ran a gambit involving turning the Mark against his own militarized subconscious. He joined our team and tried to 'extract' from a projection, when in reality we dove into Eames, where we planted a room in which he would give himself the idea. There were some complications, but that's how we did it. The idea was to make him break apart his company. He since has. We completed a successful inception."
Pembrose was silent for a moment. "Okay, that was a good bit of information. Now, for what you want. But, you've been asking the wrong question. It's not what I'm working on. It's what I was working on."
"You've finished it?" asked Eames. "Why are you being hunted for it then?"
"Because I haven't finalized it yet. It's still just a formula in my head. I deleted all the data after the first extraction attempt. They want it."
"So, what is it? What's this big secret that they want? What did you create?" asked Arthur.
"I created Tabula Rasa."
