Author's Note: Whoa! Eames sure is a chatty Cathy. Please excuse him.
Ariadne hated keeping secrets. Well, she hated keeping other peoples' secrets. By nature she was a very curious person who loved to talk and share; not that she considered herself a gossip, but she knew the value of the very natural human practice of exchanging information. Cobb's secret, one that probably even he didn't know, that he had been responsible for Saito's suicide, was eating at her like a parasite.
She tried her best to convince herself that Saito's death had in fact been murder. Cobb wasn't to blame, but just another anonymous scumbag that all major companies seemed to deal with. Honestly she had never been paranoid until finding out about extraction.
She and Arthur had done a whole lot of nothing in New York since arriving, and today was no different as they waited for Eames' plane to arrive. Arthur worked on his laptop doing god knew what, while Ariadne tried to distract her troubled thoughts by reading a Steig Larson book. Finally, just before 6pm, came a call on Arthur's cell phone.
"Arthur, darling!" Eames said jovially. "I'm here at Penn Station, and I was wondering if you might want to meet here? Did you know they have a Krispey Kreme?"
"Fine, we'll be there in twenty minutes," Arthur said, rolling his eyes.
"Do hurry dear, the smell is killing me!"
"Breath deep then, Eames!" Arthur said and hung up the phone. Ariadne was giving him a strange look.
"He's at Penn Station," Arthur said, trying to sound casual. "I was making a joke," he added, slightly embarrassed.
At Penn Station
The bustle of thousands of impatient travelers filled Pennsylvania Station with a welcome noise. Arthur loved big crowds, how they worked in unconscious unity to hide him, how without instruction they did exactly what he wanted. He and Ariadne dove through the throngs searching for a familiar face, which Arthur had guessed would be by the donut shop. Sure enough, as they approached the Krispey Kreme and the smell wafted towards them they saw a figure leaning against the wall whom they recognized at once.
Eames hadn't changed much in the year since they'd seen him, Arthur thought as he made his way to the forger. He still had the stubble, his hair was similar, although he looked perhaps more haggard than the Eames who had left LAX so long ago.
Eames had been people-watching and waved pleasantly when the people he was watching finally ceased to be strangers.
"Hello loves!" He said, giving Ariadne a kiss on the cheek and starting to do the same to Arthur before he pulled back. "Thanks for meeting me! Fancy a donut? I don't think I can take this any longer," he gestured at the glass behind him which displayed a machine cranking out greasy donuts at an astonishing rate. "I've been drooling like Pavlov."
"Pavlov's dog," Ariadne corrected him.
"What about it?" Eames asked without much interest. "Nevermind, anyway I have genuinely shocking news that as of yet, we have some power over," his tone suddenly serious, he pulled out his phone and inspected it while they headed towards the cue.
"Yes, I'll have a dozen, half glazed, three crème filled and three with the little sprinkles," Eames said to the cashier, and then turned to Arthur.
"I've got no money to speak of, love," he said with a smile.
Arthur knew he should have expected it. He handed over eight dollars, and Eames patted him on the back affably, saying "I'll share of course!"
They took the box of pastries out of the station, walking to a less populated area before Eames launched into his story.
He explained about Tamamoto, the extraction job he had out on Cobb, the three million dollars. Ariadne looked ill at the information, while Arthur had an expression of grim determination.
"It's absurd that they think Cobb has anything to do with it," Eames concluded, while Ariadne bit her lip. "But these people are not reasonable. Nor very bright, I'd wager," he grinned suddenly, and Arthur knew he wanted to be asked.
"Why do you say that, Eames," he said in a bored tone.
"Well you see that 'totem' I let them have, the playing card? It's, obviously, not a totem at all, but a um…technique I sometimes employ while playing poker. It's got a tracking device in it." He popped a donut in his mouth, barely able to contain it within his great smile.
"So we know where they are, how is that going to help us stop it?" Ariadne asked.
"I rather expected more of a, 'Gosh Eames aren't you clever for planting a tracking device on them so sneakily, and all off the top of your head as well! Good show!'" Eames said indignantly, spraying crumbs as he spoke.
"Yes, all that," Ariadne said, giving him a somewhat patronizing pat on the arm, "But what's the plan? How are we going to stop them from getting into Cobb's dream?"
"Well, frankly I thought perhaps we wouldn't," Eames said.
"Great plan!" Arthur said sarcastically.
"Because," Eames continued. "We are absolute little insignificant buggers up against Tamamoto and his mates in the real world. But in the dream world, and especially in the dream world of our dear friend Cobb, we have a serious upper hand."
They had reached the West Village now, and the crowds were increasing.
"We wait until they enter Cobb's dream, then go in after them and stop them from ever reaching his secrets, not that they'll find anything, but a man deserves his privacy," Eames said, and for some reason he glanced at Ariadne and gave her a significant look, as though daring her to spill her secret. But he couldn't know, she thought worriedly.
"When do you think they'll try to get to Cobb?" Arthur asked, unable to object to Eames' plan, as much as he hoped to.
"Well they'll need time to gather information on him, though most likely all that was done by the time they found me. But they'll need a new extractor. I'd say within the week they'll be on their way. According to my lovely totem," he held up his cell phone, which displayed a map of the globe and a red dot blinking in Japan," They've gone back to headquarters."
"Why are they keeping it with them?" Ariadne asked, peering at the cell phone screen.
"I suspect so they can convince Cobb either that they've killed me, or they are me," he said smiling. "Unskilled forgers need to resort to little gimmicks like that."
"Once we've gotten them out of Cobb's dream though, they'll just wake up and actually kill us," Arthur said.
"Well, we'll need a man on the outside to make sure that doesn't happen. Someone to tie them up and make sure they behave."
"Yusuf?" Ariadne asked.
"I was actually hoping we could employ that lovely air hostess again, but perhaps your suggestion is more practical," Eames said.
Suddenly, a bleep from Eames' cell phone prompted him to examine the screen again.
"Our friends are on the move already," he said, trying to keep the alarm from his voice. "Looks like we've got to time for practice runs on this one,"
Without hesitation, Arthur flagged down a taxi and the three of them were headed to LA, where Yusuf now worked and where Cobb's mind would soon be invaded.