Case Closed 3/8
Title: Case Closed
Author: safaiagem / bloody-hellfire
Word Count: 21,590
Rating: light R
Characters/Pairings: Arthur/Eames, ensemble, OMC
Warnings language and violence
Summary: When Agent Nathan Burman of the International Dream Crime Association learns from an informant that a team has attempted inception he knows this will be the case that propel him to the top. Catching the people that have attempted inception might be a little harder than Nathan originally thought.
Notes: Based on this prompt on inception_kink. As always my beta is laria_gwyn and she is amazing/lovely/seriously I love this girl. This is the second part of the No Definition series and takes place between Against Us and I Took A Ride To Meet An Enemy. Reading in order is probably the best idea though this is the shortest of the series thus far. Still love this verse I so there will probably be more.
Case Closed
Dominic Cobb
Nathan was still seething when his plane took off from Paris and began to make its way across the Atlantic. There was no way his intuition was that far off. He knew Ariadne was involved in this somehow, but without any proof there was no way his superiors would allow him to progress any further. So it was time to move onto the next person, Dominic Cobb. Cobb looked like any normal person that was living in Los Angeles with two kids and no wife. It was listed that his wife died several years before but the reports made no mention of how she died. That was suspicious but he did not want to use the airplane’s internet to look into police records. If someone found out who he was looking into he could lose all leads on this case. Nathan was not going to risk losing everything because of impatience.
There was an immediate connection because the late Mallorie Cobb was formerly Mallorie Miles. That was a connection from Ariadne to Cobb but it was not nearly enough to launch an investigation. It did link Cobb to dreaming and that was enough to cause plenty of suspicion. There was still room for doubt though and after the situation with Ariadne he was sure Miles was going to warn his son in law that he was on the way. That did not bother Nathan because he was still confident that he was going to get these people and bring them to justice. Justice for whomever they incepted despite knowing that he would probably never find out who that was.
The layover in New York was annoying but not surprising. The airport internet was still not secure enough that he wanted to look into anything specific, but the more he dug around, the more it seemed like Cobb was just as ordinary as Ariadne. However, from what Nathan could see, there was a two year gap where he and his wife were not off the grid but not nearly as prominent. It was something he noted to look into along with other things that seemed a little off. There was not much in the way of records that were easy to access of how Mal Cobb, as she was referred to in the obituary, died but that just made the situation seem all the more odd.
It seemed like a long time before Nathan finally touched down in Los Angeles. It was hot to an irritating degree and it took far too long to rent a car and finally make his way to the IDCA field office. Nathan was not sure if anyone was already looking into Dom Cobb but he decided that he was going to be the one to take it a step further. There was a connection between these people and he was going to find it. It was nearly an hour later before Nathan arrived at the downtown office. The people in this office were not nearly as accepting or generous as the one in Paris but they still let him in the door and provided him with a secure internet connection.
The first thing Nathan did was look into Cobb’s police records. While Ariadne's record was clean, Cobb's was not. A few years prior he had been under suspicion for the murder of his wife. When he fled the country, he had looked even more guilty. He had returned to the States a month or so ago and all of the charges had been dropped. It turned out that the position of Mrs. Cobb’s body was that of someone who had jumped and not been pushed. Cobb had been declared a free man and was currently living with his two kids. It looked like the police were fairly convinced that Cobb was the culprit, but the new evidence had made them give up all together. Nathan decided that he needed to look into the LAPD and make sure that no one had bought them off.
The next thing he noticed was the reason that Cobb and Mal Miles had vanished. It appeared that they had been involved with the original dream project though from a different angle. They had not been involved in the military section of the project but the design factor. Cobb had a Masters in Architecture, which made no sense since Nash had listed Cobb as the extractor. Mal, however, had had a degree in psychology which pointed more toward someone who would do the extractions. When the project ended, they had both worked at an institute that was using the technology to try and help trauma victims and other such things. There was even an incident listed that they had tried to go into the mind of a suspected murderer. The man had gotten out of the dream early and attacked Mal, breaking her wrist and giving her a black eye. It had been enough to hold the man, but that seemed like their last big project. After that they had settled down and had two kids.
Nathan had talked to people who were in the program and even interviewed a few people that IDCA had captured and they all said the same thing: it was an addiction. Once they started dreaming it was all they wanted to do. To Nathan it seemed unlikely that the Cobbs would stop dreaming all together and he thought it was likely that they had kept a machine with them at home. It still did not sit right with him that Cobb was the architect while his wife had all the skills, on paper, of an extractor. There did not seem to be any obvious reason as to why Cobb would have switched from building to extracting. It was interesting but not important.
After gathering as much information as he could Nathan decided it was time to start looking at Cobb in person. The direct approach had not worked with Ariadne and it had less of a chance to work on Cobb. Cobb was considered an extractor now, according to Nash, and extractors were masters at twisting words around to fit their needs. It was how they dug people’s secrets out of their heads with the mark being none the wiser. Instead he looked up where Cobb’s kids went to school and decided it was time to start watching from a distance again.
From a distance there was only so much Nathan could glean about the man. Cobb had an almost terrifying tunnel vision focus on his kids. After being away from them for three years Nathan could see why Cobb would be like that even if he could not understand it. Then again Nathan could not understand why Cobb had run in the first place. There was significant evidence against him but there had not been enough for an arrest. If he had stayed Nathan was fairly convinced that Cobb would have been cleared of charges long before that. Men did strange things in a panic, Nathan thought. When Cobb was not taking or picking his children up from school he was at his house. Whatever he was doing Nathan could not see from a distance. For all he knew Cobb was brewing somnacin and he was none the wiser. It was irritating and Nathan had found his road block; he had no choice but to establish contact.
After much debate Nathan decided that it would be best to accost Cobb when his kids were not home. He was much more likely to withhold information if they were present. After compiling what little evidence he had Nathan drove up to the Cobb house and was surprised to find the other man waiting for him on the porch. For some reason it set Nathan on edge and he was half tempted to say that he was armed. He climbed out of the car and Cobb smiled.
"Agent Burman. I was wondering when we were going to meet in person," Cobb said and that smile did not waver.
"I'm assuming your father in law must have told you I was coming," Nathan replied and he slowly walked toward Cobb, who still had not moved.
"He did but he only told me your name and what you looked like. You've been following me and my children for several days." Cobb paused and continued, "You're not as sneaky as you think." Nathan did not let the fact that Cobb had noticed him affect him in any way; people in the illegal dream business were paranoid after all.
"So let's stop dancing around the issue. I'm here to ask you a few questions about your involvement in illegal dream work," Nathan replied.
"Naturally. Would you like to come in?" Cobb stood and opened the door, holding it open. Nathan was armed and on edge enough that he did not think the other man could get the drop on him. At the same time he did not want to show weakness to a suspect.
"Of course." Nathan walked past Cobb into the house. It was a nice open house with lots of dark wood furnishing and a big glass door leading out into the backyard. Cobb brushed by him and settled in the kitchen, leaning against the counter, keeping his hands in sight. From where Nathan was standing he could see all of the exits and somehow he did not think it was an accident.
"You knew someone in the military," Nathan said.
"I did," Cobb replied. "You have good observation skills but you need to work on your stealth."
"Let's get through the basics; my name is Agent Nathan Burman of the Internation Dream Crime Association. Are you aware of what that is?" Nathan said and Cobb blinked at him.
"Oh you people are being formal these days? What a welcome change. Yes, I’m aware of what IDCA is,” Cobb replied.
“Are you aware of the dreamshare program and the PASIV?”
“Yes, I know what a PASIV is and about the dreamshare program. It is a matter of public record that I was part of the original project and research after it was canceled.” Cobb almost looked amused by this entire situation.
“Are you aware of what extraction is?” Nathan was waiting for something in Cobb’s demeanor to change but nothing happened.
“Yes, I was part of an extraction right before I ended my career. This is also a matter of public knowledge.” Cobb paused. “Are you ready to ask the real questions and skip all of this formal stuff?”
“Fine, if you want to have it your way, we’ll skip to the good part. As of right now your name has appeared along with a number of suspects regarding a team that recently attempted inception. Do you know anything about that?” Nathan asked his voice hard.
“I’m afraid I don’t, Agent Burman. I haven’t been part of the dreamshare community since my wife and I quit to start a family. Not to mention that inception is impossible,” Cobb replied and there was not a single twitch in his features. If he was lying he was exceptionally good at it and it seemed that trying to break him was going to be a lot harder than Nathan originally thought.
“Do the names Arthur Cohen, Daniel Eames, Yusuf Sajeev, Saito Hiroshi or Ariadne Mauro ring any bells?” he asked and Cobb at least had the decency to look like he was thinking about it.
“The first three no. The name Saito sounds familiar but I don’t know him, is he someone important? And I’ve heard of Ariadne Mauro but only from my father in law. As you probably already know, I studied architecture, and Miles likes to bounce ideas off of me when trying to teach someone who is younger. Appealing to the younger generation, I’m sure you can understand, Agent Burman.” Cobb did not outright mock Nathan for his age but somehow it sounded like it. If Cobb was trying to get under his skin it was working far more than Nathan was willing to admit.
“I see. So you admit a connection to Ariadne Mauro,” he said and Cobb shrugged.
“If by ‘connection’ you mean ‘my father in law teaches her and he and I talk on the phone sometimes.’ I have never met any of those other people in my life. Are those other people that have shown up on your little list?” Cobb asked and now Nathan was sure he was being mocked.
“Extraction and inception are both serious crimes, Mr. Cobb, and the fact that your name came up at all should be more distressing.”
“I’m aware, Agent Burman, I did say I was familiar with IDCA and what you people do. I also know that innocent men have nothing to worry about when being accused of something they did not do,” Cobb replied.
“Is that why you fled the country when you were under suspicion for your wife’s murder?” Nathan knew it was a low blow but he had to find some way of rattling this man somehow. He was almost pleased when the smile faded from Cobb’s face.
“That was not a smart move on my part and I panicked. I know that running was wrong and I lost three years with my children because of it. It is not something I need reminding of. It is, again, a matter of public record that I was cleared of all charges when it was declared a suicide.” Cobb’s voice had dropped in pitch but he was talking about his dead wife so there was no way of knowing if it was guilt or not.
“What did you do while you were out of the country, Mr. Cobb?” Nathan asked.
“Sulked and brooded, mostly. I went to various countries and tried to figure out what I could do to clear my name. When I realized that running had been the wrong decision I came back and let the law clear my name. I flew from Sydney to Los Angeles and I have been with my children ever since.” Cobb crossed his arms across his chest. “I was a player in the dreamshare community years ago, Agent Burman, so the fact that my name came up is not surprising. Anything you need to know about me is either in those records or somewhere just as easy to find. Now I would appreciate if you stopped following me around, and if you have any other questions, you can talk to me directly or through my lawyer. As of right now I need you to leave.”
“Kicking me out before we can really get this conversation going, Mr. Cobb?” Nathan asked smirking.
“Actually, I need to pick up my son from school. I would assume your research had covered that,” Cobb said and he walked over to Nathan. They were the same height but for some reason Nathan felt much smaller before this man.
“This isn’t over, Mr. Cobb,” Nathan said quietly as they walked toward the door.
“I don’t doubt it, Agent Burman. Have a good afternoon,” Cobb said and he closed the door quietly. Nathan stared at the the door and then walked back to his car. Cobb had obviously underestimated him due to his age. The man could not have been more patronizing if he tried, and Nathan was more than eager to prove him wrong.
+++
For the next three days Nathan poured himself into research concerning Dominic Cobb. Every time he thought he found something it was like running into another road block. For every inconsistency there seemed to be some sort of explanation concerning it. It was getting to the point that he was beginning to think that someone had tampered with these records because there was no way a man who was wanted for his wife’s murder had walked away this clean. There should have been more photographs, more people asking questions, more sightings around the world, but it was as if Cobb had vanished for two years. If he had been involved with extraction then it was not surprising but that just made it all the more frustrating. There was nothing he could find on this man that pointed toward him being involved in anything illegal. All records came up clean and everyone he talked to said that Cobb was a stand up guy who had panicked in the wake of watching his wife commit suicide. They all said that it was not a surprising reaction because the Cobbs had been very close. They all said that Mal had been Cobb’s entire world. The weeks prior to her suicide had been the first time anyone had witnessed the couple having problems.
Nathan held up a picture of Mal and Cobb standing in Paris together. It was a snapshot that was attached to an article concerning their work in the dream share project. They were not married at the time but there was an engagement ring on her finger. They were looking at each other fondly and that just confused Nathan even more. He could not understand why this couple would get involved with illegal dreaming. They were brilliant but normal, exactly like Ariadne. He was beginning to wonder if all of the people on his list were going to appear as good citizens to the rest of the world. Nash would not have given him a list of random people with minor connections to dreaming. Not when he thought that the information could save his life. Not like it mattered in the end, he thought. There was nothing here that he could prove. Once again he was staring at someone that he knew was part of illegal dreaming and there was nothing he could do about it.
He knew it was a bad idea but Nathan decided that cornering one of Cobb’s children and asking questions seemed like the only option left. It was massively illegal but if it led to an arrest of an extractor IDCA would be willing to overlook it. He put on his best suit and waited outside of her school. When Phillipa, five years old, emerged, Nathan walked casually up to her.
“Hey, Phillipa, my name is Nathan and I’m with the police,” he said trying to lighten his voice because he had no idea how to act around kids.
“My daddy didn’t hurt my mommy,” she said firmly and he was not surprised that it was the first response she made.
“I know he didn’t. I just wanted to ask if you’ve ever heard some of these names before. Is that okay?” Nathan asked and she stared at him.
“I’m not supposed to talk to strangers,” Phillipa said and she looked around nervously. It was going to draw attention.
“I’m the police, remember? Here.” Nathan took out his badge and handed it to her. “you can hold it, okay?” She looked over the badge but did not say anything. “Do you know anyone named Saito?” She shook her head. “Yusuf?” Another shake. “Ariadne?” That was a no. “Eames?” She shook her head again and now he was annoyed. “What about Arthur?”
“I don’t know any of those people,” Phillipa said without breaking eye contact. “I don’t want to talk to you anymore.” She handed him back his badge and walked away without another word. If Cobb had told his kids to lie to a federal agent he was going to have some serious words with the man.
Somewhere between deciding that he was about to punch a hole through the wall and trying to get a hold of someone who could send him in the proper direction Nathan decided that he needed to go talk to Cobb in person again. There was no way he was leaving California without some sort of evidence. There had to be something and he intended to find it.
It was evening when Nathan pulled up and he made no attempt to hide his presence. Instead he walked right up to the door and knocked. There was the sound of someone running toward the door and it opened to reveal a little girl watching him carefully. It was Phillipa and she stared up at him.
“Uh, hi, is your dad around?” he asked.
“Daddy! That guy is here to talk to you,” she called and bolted around a corner when Cobb emerged.
“Agent Burman, what can I help you with this time?” he asked.
“You’re involved with this, with the inception that took place recently, and I know that you got out of your murder charges from it.” Nathan realized that his ranting was probably doing the exact opposite to help his cause.
“Agent Burman, first of all, inception is impossible. The mark can always trace the idea back to the source. You can’t tell someone what to think. It doesn’t work that way, and I would hope IDCA would have explained all of that to you. Second of all, can you present me with any evidence to back up the claim that I’m somehow involved in a job that can’t be done in the first place?” Cobb sounded almost annoyed at this point and Nathan was hoping that it meant he was getting under his skin.
“Perhaps I do. If you tell me about the rest of your team, when I arrest them, I’ll put a good word in for you. You don’t want to leave your children behind again, do you?” Nathan asked and he knew it was a low blow but if it meant he got one of these people he was going to go as low as needed.
“Agent Burman, you have no evidence because there is no evidence to find because I was not involved with this job. There is no point to any further conversation with you. If you would like to continue to speak with me, you can do it through my lawyer,” Cobb replied.
“Getting antsy, Mr. Cobb?”
“No, getting annoyed, because you tried to get information out of my daughter. IDCA is not a safe organization and I don’t want you people anywhere near my children. This conversation is over.” Cobb slammed the door in Nathan’s face and he grit his teeth together. There was nothing that could justify a warrant and there was no way Cobb was going to just let him walk around. Nathan clenched his fists tight enough to leave half moons in his palms and walked away from the house. There were still four more people on his list and Nathan was confident that once he got one, the rest would follow.
+++
Cobb looked out the door and watched the IDCA agent pull away from his house. When the car was nothing more than dust on the road, he turned and saw Phillipa staring back at him.
“I told him I didn’t know anyone,” she said firmly.
“I know you did,” Cobb replied kneeling in front of his daughter. “You were very brave.”
“I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Phillipa said, tears welling up in her eyes. Cobb pulled his daughter into a tight hug.
“Don’t worry. No one is going to hurt anyone. We’ve made sure of that.”
back forward
Author: safaiagem / bloody-hellfire
Word Count: 21,590
Rating: light R
Characters/Pairings: Arthur/Eames, ensemble, OMC
Warnings language and violence
Summary: When Agent Nathan Burman of the International Dream Crime Association learns from an informant that a team has attempted inception he knows this will be the case that propel him to the top. Catching the people that have attempted inception might be a little harder than Nathan originally thought.
Notes: Based on this prompt on inception_kink. As always my beta is laria_gwyn and she is amazing/lovely/seriously I love this girl. This is the second part of the No Definition series and takes place between Against Us and I Took A Ride To Meet An Enemy. Reading in order is probably the best idea though this is the shortest of the series thus far. Still love this verse I so there will probably be more.
Case Closed
Dominic Cobb
Nathan was still seething when his plane took off from Paris and began to make its way across the Atlantic. There was no way his intuition was that far off. He knew Ariadne was involved in this somehow, but without any proof there was no way his superiors would allow him to progress any further. So it was time to move onto the next person, Dominic Cobb. Cobb looked like any normal person that was living in Los Angeles with two kids and no wife. It was listed that his wife died several years before but the reports made no mention of how she died. That was suspicious but he did not want to use the airplane’s internet to look into police records. If someone found out who he was looking into he could lose all leads on this case. Nathan was not going to risk losing everything because of impatience.
There was an immediate connection because the late Mallorie Cobb was formerly Mallorie Miles. That was a connection from Ariadne to Cobb but it was not nearly enough to launch an investigation. It did link Cobb to dreaming and that was enough to cause plenty of suspicion. There was still room for doubt though and after the situation with Ariadne he was sure Miles was going to warn his son in law that he was on the way. That did not bother Nathan because he was still confident that he was going to get these people and bring them to justice. Justice for whomever they incepted despite knowing that he would probably never find out who that was.
The layover in New York was annoying but not surprising. The airport internet was still not secure enough that he wanted to look into anything specific, but the more he dug around, the more it seemed like Cobb was just as ordinary as Ariadne. However, from what Nathan could see, there was a two year gap where he and his wife were not off the grid but not nearly as prominent. It was something he noted to look into along with other things that seemed a little off. There was not much in the way of records that were easy to access of how Mal Cobb, as she was referred to in the obituary, died but that just made the situation seem all the more odd.
It seemed like a long time before Nathan finally touched down in Los Angeles. It was hot to an irritating degree and it took far too long to rent a car and finally make his way to the IDCA field office. Nathan was not sure if anyone was already looking into Dom Cobb but he decided that he was going to be the one to take it a step further. There was a connection between these people and he was going to find it. It was nearly an hour later before Nathan arrived at the downtown office. The people in this office were not nearly as accepting or generous as the one in Paris but they still let him in the door and provided him with a secure internet connection.
The first thing Nathan did was look into Cobb’s police records. While Ariadne's record was clean, Cobb's was not. A few years prior he had been under suspicion for the murder of his wife. When he fled the country, he had looked even more guilty. He had returned to the States a month or so ago and all of the charges had been dropped. It turned out that the position of Mrs. Cobb’s body was that of someone who had jumped and not been pushed. Cobb had been declared a free man and was currently living with his two kids. It looked like the police were fairly convinced that Cobb was the culprit, but the new evidence had made them give up all together. Nathan decided that he needed to look into the LAPD and make sure that no one had bought them off.
The next thing he noticed was the reason that Cobb and Mal Miles had vanished. It appeared that they had been involved with the original dream project though from a different angle. They had not been involved in the military section of the project but the design factor. Cobb had a Masters in Architecture, which made no sense since Nash had listed Cobb as the extractor. Mal, however, had had a degree in psychology which pointed more toward someone who would do the extractions. When the project ended, they had both worked at an institute that was using the technology to try and help trauma victims and other such things. There was even an incident listed that they had tried to go into the mind of a suspected murderer. The man had gotten out of the dream early and attacked Mal, breaking her wrist and giving her a black eye. It had been enough to hold the man, but that seemed like their last big project. After that they had settled down and had two kids.
Nathan had talked to people who were in the program and even interviewed a few people that IDCA had captured and they all said the same thing: it was an addiction. Once they started dreaming it was all they wanted to do. To Nathan it seemed unlikely that the Cobbs would stop dreaming all together and he thought it was likely that they had kept a machine with them at home. It still did not sit right with him that Cobb was the architect while his wife had all the skills, on paper, of an extractor. There did not seem to be any obvious reason as to why Cobb would have switched from building to extracting. It was interesting but not important.
After gathering as much information as he could Nathan decided it was time to start looking at Cobb in person. The direct approach had not worked with Ariadne and it had less of a chance to work on Cobb. Cobb was considered an extractor now, according to Nash, and extractors were masters at twisting words around to fit their needs. It was how they dug people’s secrets out of their heads with the mark being none the wiser. Instead he looked up where Cobb’s kids went to school and decided it was time to start watching from a distance again.
From a distance there was only so much Nathan could glean about the man. Cobb had an almost terrifying tunnel vision focus on his kids. After being away from them for three years Nathan could see why Cobb would be like that even if he could not understand it. Then again Nathan could not understand why Cobb had run in the first place. There was significant evidence against him but there had not been enough for an arrest. If he had stayed Nathan was fairly convinced that Cobb would have been cleared of charges long before that. Men did strange things in a panic, Nathan thought. When Cobb was not taking or picking his children up from school he was at his house. Whatever he was doing Nathan could not see from a distance. For all he knew Cobb was brewing somnacin and he was none the wiser. It was irritating and Nathan had found his road block; he had no choice but to establish contact.
After much debate Nathan decided that it would be best to accost Cobb when his kids were not home. He was much more likely to withhold information if they were present. After compiling what little evidence he had Nathan drove up to the Cobb house and was surprised to find the other man waiting for him on the porch. For some reason it set Nathan on edge and he was half tempted to say that he was armed. He climbed out of the car and Cobb smiled.
"Agent Burman. I was wondering when we were going to meet in person," Cobb said and that smile did not waver.
"I'm assuming your father in law must have told you I was coming," Nathan replied and he slowly walked toward Cobb, who still had not moved.
"He did but he only told me your name and what you looked like. You've been following me and my children for several days." Cobb paused and continued, "You're not as sneaky as you think." Nathan did not let the fact that Cobb had noticed him affect him in any way; people in the illegal dream business were paranoid after all.
"So let's stop dancing around the issue. I'm here to ask you a few questions about your involvement in illegal dream work," Nathan replied.
"Naturally. Would you like to come in?" Cobb stood and opened the door, holding it open. Nathan was armed and on edge enough that he did not think the other man could get the drop on him. At the same time he did not want to show weakness to a suspect.
"Of course." Nathan walked past Cobb into the house. It was a nice open house with lots of dark wood furnishing and a big glass door leading out into the backyard. Cobb brushed by him and settled in the kitchen, leaning against the counter, keeping his hands in sight. From where Nathan was standing he could see all of the exits and somehow he did not think it was an accident.
"You knew someone in the military," Nathan said.
"I did," Cobb replied. "You have good observation skills but you need to work on your stealth."
"Let's get through the basics; my name is Agent Nathan Burman of the Internation Dream Crime Association. Are you aware of what that is?" Nathan said and Cobb blinked at him.
"Oh you people are being formal these days? What a welcome change. Yes, I’m aware of what IDCA is,” Cobb replied.
“Are you aware of the dreamshare program and the PASIV?”
“Yes, I know what a PASIV is and about the dreamshare program. It is a matter of public record that I was part of the original project and research after it was canceled.” Cobb almost looked amused by this entire situation.
“Are you aware of what extraction is?” Nathan was waiting for something in Cobb’s demeanor to change but nothing happened.
“Yes, I was part of an extraction right before I ended my career. This is also a matter of public knowledge.” Cobb paused. “Are you ready to ask the real questions and skip all of this formal stuff?”
“Fine, if you want to have it your way, we’ll skip to the good part. As of right now your name has appeared along with a number of suspects regarding a team that recently attempted inception. Do you know anything about that?” Nathan asked his voice hard.
“I’m afraid I don’t, Agent Burman. I haven’t been part of the dreamshare community since my wife and I quit to start a family. Not to mention that inception is impossible,” Cobb replied and there was not a single twitch in his features. If he was lying he was exceptionally good at it and it seemed that trying to break him was going to be a lot harder than Nathan originally thought.
“Do the names Arthur Cohen, Daniel Eames, Yusuf Sajeev, Saito Hiroshi or Ariadne Mauro ring any bells?” he asked and Cobb at least had the decency to look like he was thinking about it.
“The first three no. The name Saito sounds familiar but I don’t know him, is he someone important? And I’ve heard of Ariadne Mauro but only from my father in law. As you probably already know, I studied architecture, and Miles likes to bounce ideas off of me when trying to teach someone who is younger. Appealing to the younger generation, I’m sure you can understand, Agent Burman.” Cobb did not outright mock Nathan for his age but somehow it sounded like it. If Cobb was trying to get under his skin it was working far more than Nathan was willing to admit.
“I see. So you admit a connection to Ariadne Mauro,” he said and Cobb shrugged.
“If by ‘connection’ you mean ‘my father in law teaches her and he and I talk on the phone sometimes.’ I have never met any of those other people in my life. Are those other people that have shown up on your little list?” Cobb asked and now Nathan was sure he was being mocked.
“Extraction and inception are both serious crimes, Mr. Cobb, and the fact that your name came up at all should be more distressing.”
“I’m aware, Agent Burman, I did say I was familiar with IDCA and what you people do. I also know that innocent men have nothing to worry about when being accused of something they did not do,” Cobb replied.
“Is that why you fled the country when you were under suspicion for your wife’s murder?” Nathan knew it was a low blow but he had to find some way of rattling this man somehow. He was almost pleased when the smile faded from Cobb’s face.
“That was not a smart move on my part and I panicked. I know that running was wrong and I lost three years with my children because of it. It is not something I need reminding of. It is, again, a matter of public record that I was cleared of all charges when it was declared a suicide.” Cobb’s voice had dropped in pitch but he was talking about his dead wife so there was no way of knowing if it was guilt or not.
“What did you do while you were out of the country, Mr. Cobb?” Nathan asked.
“Sulked and brooded, mostly. I went to various countries and tried to figure out what I could do to clear my name. When I realized that running had been the wrong decision I came back and let the law clear my name. I flew from Sydney to Los Angeles and I have been with my children ever since.” Cobb crossed his arms across his chest. “I was a player in the dreamshare community years ago, Agent Burman, so the fact that my name came up is not surprising. Anything you need to know about me is either in those records or somewhere just as easy to find. Now I would appreciate if you stopped following me around, and if you have any other questions, you can talk to me directly or through my lawyer. As of right now I need you to leave.”
“Kicking me out before we can really get this conversation going, Mr. Cobb?” Nathan asked smirking.
“Actually, I need to pick up my son from school. I would assume your research had covered that,” Cobb said and he walked over to Nathan. They were the same height but for some reason Nathan felt much smaller before this man.
“This isn’t over, Mr. Cobb,” Nathan said quietly as they walked toward the door.
“I don’t doubt it, Agent Burman. Have a good afternoon,” Cobb said and he closed the door quietly. Nathan stared at the the door and then walked back to his car. Cobb had obviously underestimated him due to his age. The man could not have been more patronizing if he tried, and Nathan was more than eager to prove him wrong.
+++
For the next three days Nathan poured himself into research concerning Dominic Cobb. Every time he thought he found something it was like running into another road block. For every inconsistency there seemed to be some sort of explanation concerning it. It was getting to the point that he was beginning to think that someone had tampered with these records because there was no way a man who was wanted for his wife’s murder had walked away this clean. There should have been more photographs, more people asking questions, more sightings around the world, but it was as if Cobb had vanished for two years. If he had been involved with extraction then it was not surprising but that just made it all the more frustrating. There was nothing he could find on this man that pointed toward him being involved in anything illegal. All records came up clean and everyone he talked to said that Cobb was a stand up guy who had panicked in the wake of watching his wife commit suicide. They all said that it was not a surprising reaction because the Cobbs had been very close. They all said that Mal had been Cobb’s entire world. The weeks prior to her suicide had been the first time anyone had witnessed the couple having problems.
Nathan held up a picture of Mal and Cobb standing in Paris together. It was a snapshot that was attached to an article concerning their work in the dream share project. They were not married at the time but there was an engagement ring on her finger. They were looking at each other fondly and that just confused Nathan even more. He could not understand why this couple would get involved with illegal dreaming. They were brilliant but normal, exactly like Ariadne. He was beginning to wonder if all of the people on his list were going to appear as good citizens to the rest of the world. Nash would not have given him a list of random people with minor connections to dreaming. Not when he thought that the information could save his life. Not like it mattered in the end, he thought. There was nothing here that he could prove. Once again he was staring at someone that he knew was part of illegal dreaming and there was nothing he could do about it.
He knew it was a bad idea but Nathan decided that cornering one of Cobb’s children and asking questions seemed like the only option left. It was massively illegal but if it led to an arrest of an extractor IDCA would be willing to overlook it. He put on his best suit and waited outside of her school. When Phillipa, five years old, emerged, Nathan walked casually up to her.
“Hey, Phillipa, my name is Nathan and I’m with the police,” he said trying to lighten his voice because he had no idea how to act around kids.
“My daddy didn’t hurt my mommy,” she said firmly and he was not surprised that it was the first response she made.
“I know he didn’t. I just wanted to ask if you’ve ever heard some of these names before. Is that okay?” Nathan asked and she stared at him.
“I’m not supposed to talk to strangers,” Phillipa said and she looked around nervously. It was going to draw attention.
“I’m the police, remember? Here.” Nathan took out his badge and handed it to her. “you can hold it, okay?” She looked over the badge but did not say anything. “Do you know anyone named Saito?” She shook her head. “Yusuf?” Another shake. “Ariadne?” That was a no. “Eames?” She shook her head again and now he was annoyed. “What about Arthur?”
“I don’t know any of those people,” Phillipa said without breaking eye contact. “I don’t want to talk to you anymore.” She handed him back his badge and walked away without another word. If Cobb had told his kids to lie to a federal agent he was going to have some serious words with the man.
Somewhere between deciding that he was about to punch a hole through the wall and trying to get a hold of someone who could send him in the proper direction Nathan decided that he needed to go talk to Cobb in person again. There was no way he was leaving California without some sort of evidence. There had to be something and he intended to find it.
It was evening when Nathan pulled up and he made no attempt to hide his presence. Instead he walked right up to the door and knocked. There was the sound of someone running toward the door and it opened to reveal a little girl watching him carefully. It was Phillipa and she stared up at him.
“Uh, hi, is your dad around?” he asked.
“Daddy! That guy is here to talk to you,” she called and bolted around a corner when Cobb emerged.
“Agent Burman, what can I help you with this time?” he asked.
“You’re involved with this, with the inception that took place recently, and I know that you got out of your murder charges from it.” Nathan realized that his ranting was probably doing the exact opposite to help his cause.
“Agent Burman, first of all, inception is impossible. The mark can always trace the idea back to the source. You can’t tell someone what to think. It doesn’t work that way, and I would hope IDCA would have explained all of that to you. Second of all, can you present me with any evidence to back up the claim that I’m somehow involved in a job that can’t be done in the first place?” Cobb sounded almost annoyed at this point and Nathan was hoping that it meant he was getting under his skin.
“Perhaps I do. If you tell me about the rest of your team, when I arrest them, I’ll put a good word in for you. You don’t want to leave your children behind again, do you?” Nathan asked and he knew it was a low blow but if it meant he got one of these people he was going to go as low as needed.
“Agent Burman, you have no evidence because there is no evidence to find because I was not involved with this job. There is no point to any further conversation with you. If you would like to continue to speak with me, you can do it through my lawyer,” Cobb replied.
“Getting antsy, Mr. Cobb?”
“No, getting annoyed, because you tried to get information out of my daughter. IDCA is not a safe organization and I don’t want you people anywhere near my children. This conversation is over.” Cobb slammed the door in Nathan’s face and he grit his teeth together. There was nothing that could justify a warrant and there was no way Cobb was going to just let him walk around. Nathan clenched his fists tight enough to leave half moons in his palms and walked away from the house. There were still four more people on his list and Nathan was confident that once he got one, the rest would follow.
+++
Cobb looked out the door and watched the IDCA agent pull away from his house. When the car was nothing more than dust on the road, he turned and saw Phillipa staring back at him.
“I told him I didn’t know anyone,” she said firmly.
“I know you did,” Cobb replied kneeling in front of his daughter. “You were very brave.”
“I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Phillipa said, tears welling up in her eyes. Cobb pulled his daughter into a tight hug.
“Don’t worry. No one is going to hurt anyone. We’ve made sure of that.”
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