Author's Note: I'll keep this brief. Thanks so much to anyone who reviewed my last chapter (you know who you are), it means so much to me. And from your feedback, it looks like there will be a few more ArthurxAriadne scenes! Hope you enjoy!
Diclaimer: Inception is not mine.
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Chapter Seven
They arrived at the Fisher-Morrow offices around noon, where they were met by Peter Browning and several other men, most of which were security personnel. They were escorted into a private room on the top floor from there. The door was locked behind them as they entered along with a dark-haired middle-aged woman in a pin-striped suit, four silent security guards and Browning. They found Fischer already there, asleep in a chair; sedated.
The room was quite luxurious, apparently a common room for the higher executives in the building. Various high backed, leather wing chairs adorned the room. Two sides of the room were made up by windows which overlooked the city, although there were deeply coloured, floor-length curtains pulled shut over those windows now. The other two walls were made up by a several bookcases, an electric fireplace, and a large trophy case that contained mainly framed photos, certificates, and the occasional award. A flat-screen television was hung in one of the corners and a full-sized pool table took up most of the side of the room farthest from the door.
Fischer was sitting, slumped in one of the leather winged chairs closest to the fireplace, a drink resting on a coffee table to his right. Cobb looked uneasily behind them at the closed, locked door. One of the guards had waited outside the room on the other side of the door, another staying by the door on the inside of the room.
"We're ready when you are," Browning said, looking at Cobb. "Robert doesn't suspect anything."
Cobb nodded, and he and Arthur headed over to Fischer. Arthur opened the PASIV on the coffee table by Fischer and began to prime it. Cobb dragged more chairs closer to the PASIV as Eames walked around the room casually, looking around. He picked up a cue from the rack on the wall beside the pool table and neatly broke with a well-aimed hit of the cue ball. Throughout this, Ariadne found herself painfully aware of Browning staring down at her from where she was standing beside him. Shifting uncomfortably, she walked over to Arthur, and sat on the edge of ones of the chairs Cobb had pulled over.
"He won't stop staring," she whispered quietly, so only he could hear.
Arthur glanced up briefly over at Browning, but didn't move his head or stop his work with the PASIV. "I know."
Eames walked over, interrupting them, "We ready, then?"
Arthur threw Eames a quick, sideways look. "Just about."
"Good," said Cobb, joining the rest of his team and beginning to roll up his sleeves. He turned to Browning who was still standing near the door. "Who will be managing the PASIV?"
The middle-aged woman stepped forward. "I will," she said.
Cobb nodded, looking her over. "Mr. Eames will brief you on what needs to be done while we're asleep," he said.
Eames stepped forward and escorted the woman to a quieter corner of the room, out of earshot of the rest of the team.
Cobb sat down on the chair beside Ariadne's and turned to face her, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. "Are you sure you'll be alright down there?" he asked softly.
She nodded, "Yeah. I'll be fine. Will you?"
Cobb was painfully aware of Arthur kneeling within earshot, unwinding the IV lines to the PASIV, his eyes on both of them, suspicious. Cobb nodded, "Yeah, don't worry about me."
"Alright, we're all set," Arthur said after a pause, raising his voice enough so that Eames heard him as well. Eames began to make his way back over slowly, still talking to the woman as Arthur shrugged off his jacket and began to roll up one of the sleeves of his shirt. Cobb gently inserted one of the lines into Fischer's wrist as Eames, too, took off his dinner jacket and shoved up his own sleeve.
Arthur handed out the IV lines to everyone, taking a seat on the other side of Ariadne. Everyone inserted the needles into their wrists in silence as the woman stood behind the PASIV, waiting for the signal.
Browning stepped forward. "Cobb," he said. "If you complete this job... I hope there won't be any hard feelings."
Cobb paused, before giving Browning a rather strained smile. "Of course not."
Browning seemed to miss the hard tone to Cobb's voice, as he returned the smile. "Good. I trust I don't need to remind you of the implications if you fail."
Cobb leaned back in his chair, and looked from Browning to the woman. "Don't forget the music," he said, gesturing at Ariadne, whose eyes weren't on his, but on the point man's. The woman nodded. Cobb glanced around at his team and at Fischer to double check everything, before saying to the woman, "Alright, we're ready."
"Oh, and Cobb?" Browning stepped forward again as the woman pressed down the injection button with a hiss. Cobb's eyes flicked back to Browning momentarily before the chemicals took effect. "Good luck."
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They were in two separate cars, driving along the streets of New York again. This time, however, it wasn't raining, but a dry rather gloomy day. Cobb picked Ariadne up from the curb and she hopped in the car quickly.
"Where are the others?" she asked, looking for Arthur and Eames.
"They've already headed off to set the explosives," Cobb replied. "We need to find Fischer."
They sped down the busy streets through the crowded traffic, Cobb heading for the spot that Fischer had been started in the inception job.
"There he is," Ariadne said, pointing through the windshield as she finally spotted the figure. "He's getting into a Mercedes."
"Good," Cobb said. "Let me know when to shoot."
Ariadne nodded, her eyes on the chauffeured car Fischer was in. Cobb pulled their car in behind the Mercedes at a traffic light, ignoring the honk of the car he cut off. He glanced at the mirror and saw the driver in the car behind them flipping him off.
They drove behind the car for a minute or so, before it finally turned right onto a new street.
"There's a subway station about three blocks down from here," Ariadne said.
"Alright," Cobb said, pulling his Beretta out and balancing it on his knee, his eyes still on Fischer's car a little ways ahead of them. There was another traffic light at the end of the block they were on, and as they pulled to a stop to wait for the light, he quickly leaned out the window and fired a well-aimed shot into the back, left-hand tyre of the Mercedes. Ariadne surveyed the other drivers around them, but although they all looked around in alarm at the sound of the shot, it seemed that none of them had been quick enough to spot the gun or suspect Cobb just yet.
The light turned green, and as the other cars took off again, the Mercedes followed them for a moment before braking on the other side of the intersection and pulling to the side of the road as the driver became aware of the tyre. Cobb stopped behind the car as he waited for a break in the traffic in the other lane so he could drive around the Mercedes. Ariadne carefully watched Fischer and the chauffeur as he did so.
The driver was getting out, swearing, and although she couldn't see Fischer's expression, she saw him run a hand through his hair in the backseat, aggravated.
"The driver should call for a cab for Fischer once he sees his tyre," Cobb said, his eyes also on the driver as he walked around his taxi to survey the damage. There was a gap in the cars in the lane beside them, and he quickly pulled into it and drove around the Mercedes. As they passed it, Ariadne caught sight of another man, sitting in the front passenger seat in front of Fischer. He was dressed smartly and his dark eyes were flicking around the street suspiciously.
"There's another man in the car with them," Ariadne breathed to Cobb, her eyes still on the man.
"He's most likely Fischer's security guard," Cobb said. "We'll handle him later."
Cobb turned right down another street, and then made another right the first time he could, before making a final right and pulling up on the side of the street that joined the original one, a couple of blocks in front of where they had blown out the Mercedes' tyre.
"Keep your eyes open for a taxi," he said.
They sat there and watched the cars driving by, one after another and the moments ticked by. Ariadne could feel an itch starting as the silence pressed down on them, the cars continuing to drive by without the one they were looking for. She caught sight of a car parked behind them. A man got out and walked into the building they were parked next to, but another man stayed in the car to wait for the other. She noticed his eyes on her in the rearview mirror, and she froze when she noticed him frowning slightly at her, looking confused.
"Cobb," she whispered.
Cobb's eyes flicked up also to the rearview mirror, and he muttered back, "It's okay, he's just a little confused by our presence. Fischer hasn't really begun to suspect yet."
Ariadne nodded in silence, her eyes not leaving the man's.
Suddenly Cobb sat up straight, his foot going to the pedal. "There it is," he said, as he shot their car forward into the street in front of them. It effectively blocked the lane the yellow taxi was in, heading to pick up Fischer. The taxi driver, leaning on the horn, slammed on the brakes soon enough so that they didn't crash, but the cab's bumper did none the less dent the side of their car.
Cobb jumped out of the car, slamming the door behind him, a furious expression taking over his features.
"What do you think you're doing?" Ariadne heard him yell as he walked up to the cab driver, who seemed even angrier than him. She watched the driver roll down her window, the woman's angry yells mixing with Cobb's. But then Cobb leaned into the window, revealing his Beretta to the driver, his voice quieter now so Ariadne couldn't hear him as he spoke now. Fear overtook the angry expression on the driver's face as Cobb talked. There was a pause, then the driver hurriedly slid across the seat and out the passenger door, hastily making her way down the street away from Cobb, breaking into a run as she did so, staring back over her shoulder at Cobb.
Cobb watched the driver go, then gestured to Ariadne and she quickly jumped out of their car and got into the driver's seat of the taxi.
"I've got your back," Cobb said, leaning into the taxi through the window once more to talk to her. "Just get him into that subway."
She nodded, and he straightened, walked back to their car and got into it. He then backed onto the side street once more, clearing the lane for her. She pulled forward, and he pulled in behind her, watching her back just as he had promised.
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Fischer got into her taxi, unconcerned, albeit annoyed as he glanced at her. He frowned at her in confusion for a split-second before dismissing whatever faded recognition he had of her. They had decided on her being the cab driver as they had hoped that she would be one he would be least likely to consciously recognize from the inception. Memories tended to be the strongest the higher the level of the dream, so as he had been in contact with her the least on the first level of the inception dream, she should be the least familiar to him. This was crucial so they could keep his projections off them for longer; the longer they were able to go without his subconscious realizing his mind was being breached. Fischer's security man got into the front seat beside her, and her heart stopped for a moment as he glanced her over carefully as she pressed on the gas. Like Fischer, though, he seemed to dismiss her quickly enough, his eyes going back to the road.
Ariadne pulled up to a stop light and glanced at Fischer in the backseat of the taxi. "There's an accident further on down the street with a couple of tractor trailers, so you can expect a bit of a delay."
Fischer looked up, his annoyance mounting higher than it was already. "What? How long?"
"An hour, maybe two-"
"Two hours?I have a meeting in forty-five minutes and I was right on time until the last driver blew a tyre."
"I'm sorry, there isn't anything I can do."
"Can you not take a different route?" Fischer demanded.
"Everything's blocked off for construction or probably equally jammed," she said, sounding apologetic. "How important is it that you get to this meeting?"
Fischer ran a hand stressfully through his hair again, his attention going back to his cell phone temporarily. "Pretty damn important."
"We're right by a subway station," she said. "That could probably get you to where you're going in about twenty minutes."
He glanced up again from his phone. "Twenty minutes?"
She shrugged. "Thirty, tops. Whatever you want, I'm happy driving you if you don't mind being late."
He sighed, his vivid blue eyes on the street outside, on the entrance to the subway station about fifty feet down the sidewalk from where they were sitting now, crammed between cars in every direction. He didn't move for several long moments, before letting his hands fall again, banging them against the seat as he let out his breath. "Alright!" he said. "Alright, fine." His eyes flicked to his security guard's, and it seemed to somewhat comfort him as he leaned forward and handed Ariadne a few bills. "Keep the change, we'll get out here."
The security man nodded, stepping out of the taxi and opening Fischer's door for him. Fischer got out, his cell phone already to his ear and his briefcase in his hand. Ariadne watched them walk down the busy sidewalk towards the entrance to the subway station. Once they were out of sight down the staircase to the subway, she jumped out of the taxi as well.
Cobb was already waiting for her on the sidewalk, his car left idling in the traffic jam. She left the taxi similarly as she hurried over to join him.
"He take it okay?" Cobb asked.
"Yeah, he was in a hurry."
Cobb nodded, "Good. Come on."
She followed him after Fischer down the sidewalk to the subway station.
A few minutes later, they were standing in the crowded underground waiting platform. Ariadne spotted Fischer standing on the other side of the platform by his security man, frowning, the phone still to his ear. She felt Cobb move beside her, and she saw Arthur and Eames making their way over to the two of them.
"How did it go?" Cobb asked.
"Well," Arthur said.
"A few little slip ups here and there, but I had them well-managed," Eames said. "Fischer's still not onto us then?"
"No," Cobb said.
Ariadne looked over at Arthur, but he was still focussed on Cobb and didn't meet her eyes. Her eyes flicked over to Eames' face and saw that he hadn't missed her staring at the Arthur. She looked away before he could say anything. She could hear a subway car entering the tunnel as everyone began to move closer to the track.
It pulled up and a dozen people or so piled out of the car and Ariadne watched as Fischer got into the car near the front of the subway. They all hurried onto the car at the back of the subway.
Cobb was last to get on, his eyes still on the platform to ensure Fischer didn't get off the subway before it pulled away. "He's on, Dom," he heard a voice say quietly behind him, and turned to find his wife standing behind him. She was dressed in a knee-length beige button-up coat with a small yellow-patterned silk scarf around her neck. She pushed him forward onto the car gently as the doors started to close. "Come on."
He found the others' eyes on him and Mal as the subway began to move.
"Everything went according to plan?" Mal asked, her voice slightly more authoritative now as she addressed the rest of the team.
"Yeah, everything's in order," Eames said.
Mal nodded her approval. Arthur looked down at Ariadne beside him and saw her eyes locked on Mal's. Remembering his various experiences with Cobb's projection of his wife in the past, he gently took her hand to remind her he was there.
"Everyone knows what to do," Cobb said. "Ariadne, you're with me."
They nodded, each of them pulling black balaclavas from a bag Arthur pulled out from under one of the subway seats. None of them put them on just yet, though. Instead, they made their way up the subway, through the other cars until they were behind the one Fischer was in.
"Everyone ready?" Cobb asked quietly. They all nodded and pulled on their balaclavas, effectively grabbing the alarmed attention of all of the projections in the car. "Good luck," Cobb said, before barging into Fischer's subway car with his gun up, closely followed by the rest of them.
"Everyone put their hands up!" Ariadne heard Mal yell as the car erupted into chaos as people began screaming. She hurried behind Cobb towards the front car as Arthur, Mal, and Eames began yanking people up out of their seats and directing them to the back cars of the subway, their guns up and ready the whole time. She caught a glimpse of Fischer briefly before her attention was diverted elsewhere.
Cobb burst into the front car, Ariadne right behind him. "Everybody stand up!" he shouted, his gun pointing at various people in turn. Like in the previous car, people began to scream as they hurried to do what he said. He directed them into the car behind them where the rest of their team was, shoving at a few of them.
In under thirty seconds, the front car was empty as all of its passengers were also being handled by Mal, Arthur, and Eames. The front part of this car was blocked off for the conductor and Cobb was preparing to force his way into the cubicle when it opened of its own accord and the conductor hurried out.
"What the hell is going on?" the conductor, an elderly man with a wrinkled face and pepper and salt flecked hair demanded. In his hands, he had a gun which he had up and pointing at them.
"Drop your weapon," Cobb said.
It struck Ariadne as odd that the conductor would have a gun, but she reminded herself that this was Fischer's subconscious and many of his projections would be armed. That was the main reason they had opted to hijack Fischer on a subway this time round; they had decided it was one of the safest options for them. A moving subway train that his militarized projections wouldn't be able to follow him onto once they realized his mind was being infiltrated.
Cobb swung his gun up and fired a round at the conductor, narrowly missing his head and shoulder. "Now!" Cobb yelled. "I said drop it right now!"
The conductor jumped as the bullet shot over his shoulder and dropped the gun, though whether he had done it accidentally or intentionally, Ariadne wasn't sure. "Take it easy!"
Cobb grabbed him roughly by the upper arm and shoved him towards the other cars. "Did you send a distress signal?"
"Yes."
"Will this train stop if no one's there to man it?"
"No."
"Good. Get with the other passengers and don't try anything," Cobb said, shoving the conductor forward with the butt end of his Beretta pressed into the small of the man's back. "Take him to the back car with the others," Cobb told Ariadne. "I'm going to double-check the train's controls."
She nodded, and walked the conductor back down the cars, her gun trained on him the whole time. She was glad her face was mostly covered by the balaclava, mainly so that Fischer wouldn't recognize them, but also so that her facial expressions wouldn't betray how inexperienced she was to his projections.
They found nobody in the first few cars they walked through, but near the back they came across everyone else. Arthur, Eames, and Mal were still pushing people further and further back down the subway, crowding them together. Ariadne looked to Arthur for direction as she walked into the chaos with the conductor, but it was Mal that saw her first. She grabbed the conductor and pushed him roughly into the crowd of people. Ariadne stood back slightly, her gun held loosely at her side as she watched the others do their job. She searched for Fischer, but couldn't find him. This wasn't too surprising though, considering the number of people in the cramped space.
Finally, everyone was collected in the final back car of the subway. Looking around, Ariadne guessed there to be around seventy-five people crammed into that one car. It was utter chaos as people yelled, hurrying around, looking for friends or family. She finally spotted Fischer, sitting on a chair by himself along one side of the subway. He was holding his briefcase tightly, staring straight at her intensely with his blue eyes. Arthur moved over to stand by her, diverting her eyes from Fischer's temporarily.
"Are you okay?" he asked softly so that the other passengers wouldn't be able to hear.
"Yeah," she breathed. "Just a little unnerved, that's all."
"I know," he said. "Try to remember though, they're just projections."
She nodded.
Eames stood up on the closest chair, firing a shot into the ceiling of the subway. Some people screamed in fright before the car fell silent.
"Right, all of you listen up!" Eames yelled as Arthur began moving quietly down the isle of the car, towards Fischer."We're not going to hurt any of you unless you don't cooperate. If any of you move from this car, if any of you try to get out, if any of you do anything, we won't hesitate to shoot you or anyone who gets in the way. But if you all sit here quietly while we do what we need to do, then we'll let you all home to your families and no one will be any the worse for wear. That's the arrangement."
Arthur pulled Fischer to his feet and guided him back towards the front of the car with the barrel of his gun pressed firmly into Fischer's back. Fischer panicked slightly, fighting Arthur at first until he became aware of the gun at his back and he stilled, following Arthur's direction. Ariadne became aware of Fischer's eyes, still on her. Eames got down from the chair and stayed to the side, watching the passengers carefully, his gun still trailing on them as the rest of the team left the car with Fischer.
They headed back up to the front of the subway through the cars once more, planning to go under in the conductor's car. Fischer struggled a few times, muttering various threats about his security and insurance, but Arthur just moved his Glock to the back of Fischer's head and muttered, "Shut it."
They found Cobb in the front subway car, just immerging from the conductor's cubicle with the PASIV in one hand and some fabric in the other. "Everything seems to be in order," Cobb said. "I've flicked some of the switches around to make sure that the train will continue automatically and not stop anywhere for anything."
"Good," Mal said quietly.
Ariadne nodded. If the subway couldn't stop, Fischer's militarized projections wouldn't be able to get on. Arthur and Eames had placed explosives in the track quite a bit further on along a bridge. They had the detonator to explode it once they were close enough so it would act as a kick.
"What are you going to do?" Fischer asked. In answer, Cobb stepped forward and pulled the fabric, which turned out to be a bag similar to the one they had used in the inception, over his head. Fischer struggled for a moment before he went slack. Cobb caught him as his knees buckled and let him slide gently to the floor. Ariadne realized the bag must have been saturated with some type sedative or drug.
Cobb, Arthur and Mal pulled their balaclavas off and Ariadne quickly followed suite as Cobb and Mal both kneeled down by Fischer. They began to prep him for another dream level, and as both their attentions were diverted, she felt Arthur's arms go around her. She hugged him back briefly, breathing in his scent, before he stepped back before Cobb could look up.
"That went better than I thought it would," Arthur said quietly. "I thought Fischer would have some kind of security with him."
There was a pause as Ariadne registered his words, then she felt her eyes widen slightly as she remembered. "He had a security guard," she breathed. Arthur's eyes narrowed in confusion, as did Mal's when Cobb's head snapped up at her words.
"I saw him get on with Fischer," Ariadne continued hastily. "He must still be on the subway, in the back car with the others. We couldn't have missed him unless he was somewhere in that crowd."
"He would be fully armed," Cobb said quietly.
They was a beat of silence as they all stared at one another, before Arthur finally said it.
"Eames doesn't know."
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I hope this chapter isn't too much like the movie. As you can probably tell, there aren't subways where I live and I haven't been on one since I was about four years old, so needless to say, my account of them is probably not the most realistic. Hopefully those two factors didn't take away from the story too much, though. Sorry about the cliffhanger. Please let me know what you think!
~kat