Inception - Hollingsworth Job

Two Days Later

"As requested," Sofie said, smiling as she reclined on the luxurious bed of her hotel room. "Lana has gone on a little retreat with her father and mother to their chateau in the Alps. The family-friendly version of a long bachelorette party, I suppose."

It looked as though John's little plan was coming into fruition. The question was what the next move would be to get the Mark under.

"So, John, how do we move into position?" she asked, running her fingers through her hair as she waited.

John frowned at the building outside his car, slowly tapping his fingers on the steering wheel while he held his cell phone between his ear and shoulder. "I'm already in position." He grumbled through the receiver. "The Mark has yet to show his face at his studio though."

He dipped into his pocket for a moment, pulling out his watch to check the time. Behind the cracked screen, the hands displayed almost 6:30 pm. "Mercier probably decided to grab an early dinner before going to work. I'll send everyone a message when he shows up. In the mean time, get ahold of Elliot and see if that stuff he was testing on us can be used in a tranq dart."

John pocketed the watch and reached to the passenger seat, where a stack of papers rested. "According to these blueprints for the studio, there's a skylight that opens from the roof, and a fire escape to get up to it. We can probably drop in on him without him ever knowing it. Might be a good idea to bring rappelling gear though. It's a three story drop to the main floor."

"Grappling hooks? When did this turn into Mission Impossible?" Sofie sighed, rolling her eyes. Oh well. It couldn't be helped. She had a feeling John had a flare for the dramatic.

Suddenly, she could hear a knock on the window through the phone and smiled.

"I already took the liberty of telling Elliot to meet up with you for the stakeout, make sure everything was ready," she said, smirking to herself. "Well, I'd best get ready then. Ta~"

Sofie said hung up and stood, heading over to the mirror to get her hair back in proper order.

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Elliot smiled brightly as he waved at John through the window, then pointed at his the black case in his hand, no doubt filled with all his chemical samples.

Rina

Rina was fully ready with the action, but was not ready for the delay. It seems like the target was not present in the studio.

Rina stared at the phone, waiting for the signal from John. Then suddenly a text came, surprising Rina.

[-I might need a extractor, after your job, call me.- Han]

Rina shook her head, 'As if!' she thought and waited for John's text once more.

John glared disgustedly at the phone in his hand and dropped it into his shirt pocket before unlocking the passenger door to let Elliot in. "Evening, professor." He quipped, nodding to the man before turning his attention back to the studio. "I don't suppose you've got anything we can shoot him with in that case, do you? There's a tranq rifle beneath the floor of my trunk. So, if you can fill a dart with it, I can shoot it."

He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel again but stopped, realizing that he was doing it for the first time. It was long past time for this job to be over and done with. If Trevor hadn't skipped town for a few months, John wouldn't have needed to branch out past his usual contacts. Things were more simple when you knew the people you were working with.

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POP!

Michael sucked the bubble gum back in between his lips and worked it into a wad before blowing another bubble.

POP!

He repeated the process without thinking about it, all of his concentration on the visor dropped over his eyes. This project had proven to be more difficult than anticipated, considering he needed three layers, and that had set him back on his other schedule. Now, he was adding the finishing touches to the dreamspace he'd been developing before the job started. Just a few more tweaks, and it would be done...

[OOC: Kitty, you can have Elliot spot the Mark pulling up in your next post.]

Elliot blinked in surprise, utterly nonplussed.

"Shoot?" he repeated, looking down beneath the seat. His hands grasped at something, and he pulled out the tranquilizer gun, looking as though he had pulled out a boa constrictor instead.

"Uh, right," the professor murmured, opening up his case and producing his serum, which he began to carefully extract and place in one of the tranq darts.

"So," Elliot began a bit awkwardly, trying to find something to talk about, "You and that Sofie-"

He'd clearly picked the wrong topic. John looked as though he might use that tranquilizer on Elliot instead at the sound of the name.

"Never mind," he mumbled, handing over the dart. Just then, a car pulled up at the studio, and the Mark emerged.

"That's Mercier," Elliot said, peering out through the windshield tensely.

"It most certainly is..." John responded as Mercier crossed the parking lot. His voice was level, masking any previous irritation with the man sitting in the passenger seat. To be honest, John wasn't angry with him. Some topics just weren't good for discussion...

With a deft movement, John flipped out his phone and sent out a group message to all the other members of the team. Mark just showed up. They would know what it meant. After punching send, John powered his phone off and slipped it into the console between the seats. Nothing like your phone ringing at the wrong time to screw up an infiltration.

"You done with that?" He asked, waving at the dart gun. "If the stuff in there lasts a while, I can go ahead and stick him so that no one else has to go in through the roof."

Rina

Rina was playing with the phone, staring at the text that was from Han. Should she reply to him? Should she just ignore it?

Before she could make up her mind, John's text caught Rina's attention. Rina smiled, and her eyes flashed like a cat discovered new toy to play with. She stood up from the place where she was sitting.

She moved to her next location, where she could move in easily when John and Elliot pin down the target for extraction.

Elliot fumbled with the gun for a moment before passing it off to John, happy to get it off his hands.

"Yes, it's good to go. Should last long enough for us to make it through, based on our tentative time schedule for each layer."

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Sofie was already on her way when the text arrived from John. She pulled around the corner from the studio, emerging from her car and slowly making her way around to the studio entrance, careful to make sure she wasn't spotted before they'd gotten the drop on the Mark.

"Great." John grabbed the dart gun and stepped out of the car, leaving Elliot behind. Finally, a chance to vent some irritation...

He didn't bother with the fire escape though. Just as Mercier pushed the key to the studio into the lock, John hit the man square in the back with the dart. Quick was more efficient than crafty sometimes.

After a second, Mercier slumped against the door, and John made his way towards the Mark, grateful for the abandoned neighborhood where Mercier set up shop. It was almost like the man was trying to get robbed.

"Not much for subtlety," Sofie commented as she appeared by the doorstep, shielding Mercier and John from view in case anyone happened to be looking - which didn't seem likely, given the neighborhood. Didn't hurt to be cautious, however.

She signaled to Elliot to follow, trusting that the others would arrive shortly.

"Well, let's get him inside and get started then," she said pleasantly, as though this were as routine as setting up for a house party.

"I hope that didn't hurt much," Elliot remarked, plucking the dart from the Mark's back.

Rina

Rina joined her team, smiling warmly. "Does it matter?" Rina asked Elliot in curious tone, "I mean, it won't affect the job, right?"

Rina then took out her equipment once they reach the place to perform extraction. "Well, let's get this over with..." Said Rina, in confident manner.

"Subtle is overrated..." John replied as he crossed back to his cat and stashed the dart gun back under the seat. "Besides, sometimes, you're presented with an opening that's too good to pass up."

POP!

Michael rounded the corner just as Elliot pulled the dart out, and for a moment, he made a choking noise, followed by the forced ejection of the gum from his mouth, probably to avoid swallowing it. "You shot him?" He asked, sounding a little too excited.

"Don't get any funny ideas." John shot back in Michael's direction. "We need him alive in the dreams. Otherwise, it would defeat the purpose."

The boy rolled his eyes in response. "Says the guy who just shot him..." He mumbled.

Elliot stared at Rina for a moment, disconcerted. With such an apathetic response and a Stepford smile to match, she seemed slightly sociopathic. But as he looked at the others, he could that his concern definitely placed him in the minority here.

"No, it won't," he mumbled, following after the others as they made their way inside. Sofie quickly took to the front and began to scan the interior before motioning imperiously for the men carrying the body to bring it over and set it down in the artist's main studio room.

"Plenty of space here," she said. "No good chairs though..."

"Can't we just use the floor?" Elliot suggested. Sofie turned on him, giving him a most incredulous look.

"This outfit is Chanel," she said exasperatedly. "I'm not laying on the ground."

Elliot sighed and looked around, spying a black velvet curtain, no doubt for one of the portrait backdrops. He pulled it from its shelf, then laid it down carefully on the ground.

"Better?" he asked, managing a rather pleasant smile. Sofie blinked, taken aback.

"Uh, yes... thanks," she replied as he walked away to get the rest of the gear.

Once everything was set up, everyone took up spots by the PASIV and the Mark's unconscious form.

"All right, we all know the plan, yes?" Sofie asked, looking around. "Any last remarks?"

[OOC: One of you guys can take us under. I wanted to give you a chance to respond.]

"Let's get this done already." Michael spoke up, reaching for one of the plugs. "I want to finish reading that manual on how to setup a camera network infrastructure."

He didn't seem to notice the looks that the rest of the crew shot him as he laid down and put his hands behind his head.

John shrugged it off and attached himself to the machine as well. When everyone was patched in, his fingers hovered over the button, but right before he punched it, John turned to wink at Sofie and silently mouthed the words, "Could have lain on top of me."

--------------------------------

"Mr. Mercier?" John spoke in an even tone as he flipped over a paper on his chart. Medical scrubs were hardly his favorite choice in work clothes, but blending was important. "I was just about to go look in on your mother. She seems to have developed an ear infection, and I was called over to look at it."

He extended his hand to the man in greeting. "Dr. Samuel Chase from Melbourne General Hospital."

Michael walked past them, holding onto Rina's hand and giving it a slight tug. "Mom, why can't grandpa live with us anymore? I don't like it here. It smells funny..."

Rina

"Darling, don't worry. He will be coming back with us. Just not today..." Said Rina, comforting the young boy with her smile. But there was a pain in her smile, showing that she was trying her best to keep it together.

Giving the room for John to lead the conversation freely with the mark.

Mercier shook the doctor's hand with a polite, perfunctory smile, his eyes flickering to the chart in the man's other hand.

"Yes, thank you for your help, doctor," he said in a quiet, measured voice. "Whatever you can do to make her comfortable."

He followed in John's wake, looking over at the young boy and mother as they passed. His expression wavered at the boy's words, and he looked quite melancholic at the idea of the family separated like that. Realizing that he'd paused in his steps a moment, he shook his head and followed after John toward his mother's room.

--------------------

Sofie sat in the old bed, wondering how many other hapless souls had expired on it. The idea was revolting, but she had a part to play. Pushing the thought away, she adjusted herself and put her face into an expression of absent-minded contentment, like she'd seen Mercier's mother wear.

"We'd just better get through this part quickly," she thought broodingly, her dark thoughts unable to penetrate her placid mask.

"312... 312. Ah, here we are." John said, as he tucked the chart under his arm and opened the door. His stride was confident, but not quick enough as to seem hurried, and he dipped into the room moving straight to the bed.

"It's good to see you awake Mrs. Mercier." John quipped, sitting the chart on a table and pulling an ear probe off of a rack on the wall. "I was afraid I'd have to wake you, since the nurses informed me it was time for your afternoon nap." He gave her a big smile before stepping up to the bed.

"I hear that you have some pain in one of your ears. Do you mind if we take a quick look at it so we can get you feeling better again?"

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In the hallway, Michael slipped away from Rina to duck inside the men's room. He walked up to the sink, looking in the mirror for shoes under the stalls. Only one pair...

"A rather odd location to hide, Professor..." He quipped, turning on the cold water and splashing his face with it. "Surely, you don't think that they won't look for you here?"

The little old woman in the bed smiled pleasantly, as though an ear checkup was as cheering a prospect as afternoon tea.

Under the surface, however, Sofie wanted nothing better than to hit John.

"Pain in my ear," she thought darkly. "Pain in my ass is more like it."

"Thank you, doctor," Mrs. Mercier said sweetly, folding her hands politely on the bedspread and sitting up attentively for him. She looked over at Gerard, her smile becoming broader, her eyes crinkling happily.

"Ah, Gerard," she cooed. "My boy."

"Mother," Gerard said, smiling from the foot of the bed. He didn't want to interrupt the doctor's work, so he watched quietly, giving his mother a reassuring smile.

--------------------

Elliot inched open the stall door and peered out, looking half-sheepish, half-defiant.

"Well, it would be very rude if they did," he said before deciding to step out. Everything seemed quiet and relaxed, so he wiped his hands on his pants and gave a hopeful smile.

"Everything going according to plan then?" the professor asked.

Rina

Rina was ready in her position, she just needed John to bring her in when Sofie manages to bring the mark down and ready for second layout.

Rina made it sure that she blended well with the surrounding, not drawing too much attention to her.

At Sofie's consent, John reached up and put his fingers on her throat, applying gentle pressure to tilt her head so he could insert the device into her ear. Just as it slid into place, he thumbed her earlobe, a gesture that Mercier wouldn't see with the device obstructing his view.

After peering into the device for a moment, he nodded and pulled his hands away. "There does appear to be some slight irritation. I'll have a prescription written out for antibiotics. In the mean time, let's get you something to get started." John unlocked the cabinet over the sink and took out a syringe, which he uncapped and tested.

"Just a little prick." He said soothingly, slipping the needle into Sofie's arm. Acting skills wouldn't be required in another minute or two. According to Elliot, the sedative he'd just slipped her would knock her out cold, and her heart rate would drop to only nine or ten beats per minute for about three minutes' time. That would be the window to put Mercier under...

------------

"Yeah, everything should be moving along." Michael took one more look in the mirror before moving back towards the door. "I should get back to Rina. Don't get hemmed in here without an escape route." He gave Elliot a mock salute and stepped back into the hall, heading for the room where Rina was waiting.

Sofie felt the tug on her earlobe and knew that was the signal. Hopefully, Elliot knew what he was doing. If she were going to die, she'd be damned if it was an old woman in a nursing home.

She felt Mercier take her hand, and she gave him a sweet smile before the needle slipped in. She winced slightly. Even with using the PASIV, she never liked the idea of jabbing sharp metal instruments into her silky skin.

Ugh. This was unpleasant. She felt the world spinning. Her eyes rolled back and she fell onto the pillow, aware of muffled sounds before falling unconscious.

--------------------

Gerard had been watching his mother with tender eyes. At the doctor's assessment, he looked concerned, but not overly worried. It didn't sound too problematic. She should be fine. He moved around to the other side of the bed and took her hand before the doctor gave the injection.

Suddenly, his mother seemed to swoon back against her pillow, unconscious. The monitor began to beep, and the heart line flatten out.

"What's happening?" he said, his own heart rate moving perpendicular to hers. It couldn't be that - no, he couldn't even voice.

--------------------

Elliot smiled and nodded to Michael before he walked out. Sighing, the professor donned a volunteer's uniform and left the bathroom.

The cost seemed clear. His subconscious wasn't militarized, so it would probably be some time before it caught on, provided they didn't do anything too obvious.

"Easy," he told himself reassuringly. "I can handle this."

John had been washing his hands when the heart monitor started screeching. He quickly ran them over a towel and turned back to the bed. "She might have suffered an allergic reaction to the antibiotic." He said, picking up Sofie's wrist for a pulse. At the same time, he twisted the pin out of the heart monitor behind him, preventing it from picking up Sofie's occasional heartbeats.

Clicking his teeth, John pushed a button on the wall. "Code blue! Room 312! I need a crash cart, stat!"

Only a moment later, two nurses pushed a defibrillator into the room, and one of them switched it on while the other pulled Mercier out into the hall, apologizing about his removal, but firmly stating that he was to remain outside.

From his vantage point across the hall, Michael saw Mercier drop to the bench outside. Without knocking, he dipped into the room where Rina was supposed to have changed into a nurse's outfit. "You're on." He said as soon as the door closed behind him. "Go help the guy relax."

---------------------

John ripped open Sofie's hospital gown and held his hands out for the nurse to hand him the paddles. A quick motion of his hand swapped the burn cream he was supposed to administer with a different tube that had been up his sleeve, and he dribbled the anti-conductuve gel over Sofie's torso before pressing them to her skin.

"Clear!"

He bore down slightly, and the heart monitor showed no change.

"Again! Clear!"

A second time, there was no change.

"Again! Clear!"

He dropped the paddles this time and pressed his fingers to Sofie's neck, feeling for a pulse. The seconds ticked by before he finally felt a single flutter of her veins.

"We've lost her... Record the time of death, nurse. I'll tell Mr. Mercier."

Rina

Rina was ready in proper attire, and she smiled at the architect. "Little late." She gave him a wink, and with that she walked out from the room.

Rina passed by the target, then just like ordinary caring nurse she turned around, looking at the mark concern. She quickly got a cup of water from the water cooler, which she slipped a pill that melt silently to the water without a trace.

She passed it to Mercier, "Drinking water helps, time to time." Said Rina, giving him the gentle smile.

The panic surging through his veins was almost blinding. Mercier stared, horrified, at the sight of his mother's unconscious form as everything else blurred into an unidentifiable haze. The shrill beeping of the monitors, the doctor's shouted instructions, the flurry of activities seemed strangely distant and muted.

"Mother..."

He tried to rush forward, to hold her, but he was forced out of the room. He tried to force his way in, but they had locked him firmly out.

"Oh god. Oh god," he moaned, pulling at his hair. He dropped into one of the chairs, for lack of anything better to do, his hands covering his mouth as though to stifle a scream that never came.

Rina came along presently, offering him water. He stared at her, as though she were holding up an alien life form.

"I don't want any damn water," he snapped. "I want to see my mother!"