13.
~ Seth rode the lift up to his loft apartment. He loved his apartment. It was filled all the kitsch items from the 50's and 60's he had always liked. Ariadne hated it, but it suited his taste perfectly.
When she eventually came to live with him, she would learn to love it to. The kids would spend most of her time in school or dance camp and then off to be with their dad. Seth was sure he would see very little of the four kids that he knew came along with Ariadne. He liked children, but he didn't like Arthur. Boring, domineering Arthur. He wondered how a flower like Ariadne could stand him.
"Arthur?" Seth said in surprise as he saw the Point Man waiting for him.
His rival was sitting in one of the off beat, trendy chairs he had over paid for and looking over the collection of vintage vinyl records.
"Seth." the Point Man said.
"I'm glad to see you. Ariadne said Daniel is home safe and sound. That's good." Seth said nervously.
He shrugged off his messenger bag and tired to look innocent.
"It is good." Arthur said coldly and gave him a penetrating look.
"So, did he get a good look at the people who took him?" Seth asked.
"Daniel's blind, remember? He didn't recognize the voices and the area wasn't near where any of us had ever been before." Arthur explained as he slid out a first pressing of 'Meet the Beatles!" and looked it over.
"That's an... that's an original." Seth said nervously.
"Right." Arthur said and casually slid the record back in it's worn sleeve. "I only came here to bring your money back."
"Oh." Seth said brightly. "Well, that's good. That you were able to get the money and the boy back."
"It is." Arthur said and stood.
"How... how did you get in here, anyway?" Seth asked and felt somehow inferior to Arthur in an strange way.
"You will find, Seth, that I have many talents." Arthur said dryly. "One of those is finding out things about certain individuals."
Seth felt a sudden chill go off down his spine.
"Secrets." Arthur clarified. "We all have them."
The Point Man closed the distance between them and gave Seth what he could only assume was a smile. Although on Arthur, it was hard to tell.
"You, for example have been laundering money from your own company for about a year now. Thats why you were able to get your hands on five million in cash so easily. You've set up dummy accounts all over the world and never paid taxes on any of them. You've misled the share holders. That might be considered a very serious crime." Arthur said.
"You're wrong." Seth retorted eagerly.
"I'm not wrong." Arthur said shaking his head.
"I paid my taxes."
"Not on the so called 'variable loss' that you devised. It's very clever. Your software was successful, but you didn't report how successful. Just pocketed the money and claimed you did okay. It's good for you image to. You don't want to be too popular, or you'll lose your hipster crowd. But, we both know you'll get caught. When you do, you'll lose everything."
Arthur was moving around him and Seth wondered how he could have found all this out.
"What do you have now?" Arthur mused "Twenty million? Thirty?"
"What is you want?" Seth said bitterly. He knew that Arthur knew the truth.
"I want you to leave Paris. Never come back. Go to America. I'm sure New York or California would love to have you. I want you to liquidate your company and give your faithful employees a share of the sale. If you do, you'll get away clean. If you come back or try to make contact with my wife again, my friends and I will expose you."
"Your friends?" Seth laughed.
Arthur was unfazed and shrugged.
"My associates. They know all about this little game of yours and if anything happens to me or my family, you will be exposed for the thief and criminal you are." Arthur said.
"I had nothing to do with your son's kidnapping." Seth said in a final act of revenge.
"I know. Believe me, I thought you had for a while. But my friends made sure that you had no knowledge of who took him." Arthur said in a dangerous voice.
"If the worst had happened, if the boy had died, she would have come to me." Seth said with a cocky smirk. "She doesn't love you anymore."
Arthur didn't appear pained or phased in the slightest.
"Leave." he growled and, for a terrible moment, Seth thought the Point Man was going to strike him.
"I'll leave. But if she comes to me, and she will, I won't turn her away." Seth said at last as Arthur was turning to go home.
"Don't forget your stupid vinyl." the Point Man called back.
~ Arthur felt his eyes roll awake and saw the light coming from the window. He was in Seth's apartment. A place that looked like it was decorated right out of . All that was missing was Zooey Deschannel.
"How'd it go?" Eames asked from his seat next to the Point Man.
"I think it worked." Arthur said and quickly disconnected himself from the line connecting himself and a sleeping Seth to the device.
"I thought Ariadne said no more inceptions." the forger said.
"She said no more extractions." Arthur clarified and Eames rolled his eyes. "I think it will work. Seth will harbor the idea that the law is closing in on him. He'll be paranoid and want to sell his company to cover his tracks."
"Right. I still don't see why I couldn't have gone in. Forged myself as you or even better, Ariadne." Eames offered.
"No, I wanted to do this myself." Arthur said as he watched Seth sleeping in his chair. The Point Man and Forger had taken Ariadne's boss into dream sharing to implant the idea of leaving town forever.
"You sure he didn't take Daniel?" Eames asked.
"It wouldn't have been his style. Besides, I went though all his secrets. There was nothing about my son." Arthur sighed and felt something wet on his upper lip.
"You're nose." Eames said and pointed.
Arthur felt at the wetness and drew back blood.
"Damn." the point man growled and fished out a cotton handkerchief.
"Don't let Ariadne see that." Eames advised.
Arthur said nothing as he waited for the bleeding to stop. He hadn't had a random nose bleed like this in weeks.
"Arthur, are you okay?" the forger asked.
Arthur looked at the blood soaking the handkerchief. The nose bleed stopping just as suddenly as it started.
"I'm fine." the Point Man said and tried to ignore the dizzy feeling he was having. Tried to ignore the strange symptoms he had been experiencing lately.
Symptoms he didn't dare tell Ariadne about. He didn't want her to worry about him. He would go back to the doctor again and they would run more tests. He would worry Ariadne when he had something definite to worry her about.
Right now, he would go home to his wife and children. Enjoy the time he had left with them.
~ END ~