Darling,

“The job involves dream-sharing,” Dom tells Arthur, “But in a far different way than we’ve ever used it in the lab.” He pauses a moment and then asks, “You still have the PASIV, right?”

Arthur says that yes, he does, it’s safely stored away, and Dom nods before continuing.

“You see, in dreams, we all know that the subject populates the dream with projections,” Dom goes on. “The projections all know information; the dream itself is full of information, waiting to be uncovered. Often times, the subject will hide things, secrets, in safes or a bank vault or some sort of locked case. These are the kind of things they don’t want anyone to know, and yes, some of those things may be petty, things that others probably wouldn’t care about, but there are certain people who hold information that others are willing to pay good money for – corporate secrets, the truth behind political scandals, things like that.”

Dom pauses there and kind of squints at Arthur in that way that reads “well, you know where I’m going, right?” And Arthur does; anyone could see where Dom is headed with this, he thinks.

“We’re being hired to steal information from peoples’ heads?” Arthur asks, a little incredulously. He shakes his head and picks at his salad. “That sounds like something out of a science fiction movie. Is it even possible?”

Mal purses her lips and nods. “We have reason to believe it is,” she says carefully, and Arthur wonders what she means by that. He doesn’t doubt that they might have already tried this sort of thing back when Project Somnacin was up and running. “It is all simply a matter of prompting the subject in the right direction and finding where the information is being stored. In theory, it should not be terribly difficult.”

Arthur hums contemplatively and sets his fork down. He rests his elbows on the countertop and props his chin on his hands. It wouldn’t be entirely inconceivable for something like this to work, but it sounds awfully tricky. Not to mention they’ll be going into the mind of someone they won’t even know. It could be too unstable. The dream could collapse. The projections could turn on them in an instant. There are too many variables, too many things that could go wrong. Arthur wonders if it’s safe.

“Have you accepted this offer yet?” Arthur asks, still rather wary.

Mal and Dom exchange a loaded look, and Arthur discerns that yes, they probably already have or at least they’ve discussed this between themselves and have come to the decision to. He knows that if the two of them accept, he will too, no doubt about that, because he’s with them, always, unwaveringly, till the end. If he doesn’t go with them and something terrible happens, he knows that he’ll never forgive himself for it.

“Well,” Mal stalls for a moment, and Arthur’s suspicions are confirmed, “Not yet, but we would like to.”

“And Arthur, we all need the paycheck,” Dom says. “We all need jobs. This is something we all love doing and we’re all good at. Why not?”

Arthur looks back and forth between the two. Obviously, these two are pretty much set on doing this. Obviously, there’s no persuading them out of it. So obviously, Arthur’s going with them. Dom is right anyways; Arthur does need the job, he does need the paycheck, and he most certainly does love doing this. He’s really missed going into dreams. Maybe, he thinks, maybe this isn’t as crazy as it first seemed.

“Okay,” Arthur agrees. “I’m in.”

Their job seems pretty simple at first glance. Their client is Prismatic, one of the biggest personal electronics distributors in the world. Their products range from personal computers to mp3 players to cell phones, and they have the reputation of coming out with the coolest new trend-setting devices. They earn more in a year than any other competing company. However, recently, it seems as if information about some of their gadgets have been leaked well before the set release date, as Prismatic’s competition, Callisso Electronics, has been coming out with certain electronics suspiciously similar to those being developed by Prismatic.

Their mark is Joseph Reid, an executive working at Prismatic. He’s been suspected of leaking information, but an investigation has been done and no solid information has been found. If he’s behind this, he’s doing a very good job at covering up his tracks. Dom, Arthur, and Mal have been hired to go into the one place he can’t hide everything, no matter how hard he tries – inside his head.

Arthur doesn’t quite know exactly how Dom even found a job like this, because surely, it can’t be common knowledge that the dream-sharing technology even exists (if everyone knew about it, everyone would want it, and if everyone had it, well then, that would defeat the point of reality, wouldn’t it?). But Arthur suspects that Dom has been searching around, looking for every possible opportunity to use the skills they have.

He later learns that in the time since, well, basically since the time dream-sharing became possible, an underground, probably illegal society of dreamers has developed. This whole “stealing ideas” thing isn’t exactly new, but it has never really been pulled off with much effectiveness or efficiency either. It’s been named Extraction, and it is, as Arthur first suspected, a terribly difficult and intricate process. It’s very precise, and many things can and will go wrong. It’s about careful planning and thinking on your feet. It’s something that is impossible to prepare for the first time it’s attempted by someone new. It’s a process, learning as you go and gaining experience.

This job is more complicated than anything they’ve ever done before in the lab. For one, they need to construct the dream space before hand, and they need to make it complicated, a maze preferably, something they can walk for hours in and have it look like one huge, sprawling city, when it’s really confined to a much, much smaller space. They need to figure out where this “safe” for the information they’re trying to find will be, how they’ll get Reid’s mind to place the needed information there. And for another, they need to learn about Joseph Reid himself. Who is he, what does he like, what does he do on a daily basis, any important friends, family, connections?

And even that is just scratching the surface. There’s so much that needs to be done and Arthur is a little worried that they won’t have enough time to complete it all. He’s also a little afraid that something will go wrong and one of them will get hurt, not that he’ll ever say that aloud. It’s just a dream, he keeps telling himself, when you die, you wake up. It’s safe, he reminds himself, the injuries aren’t real. Just a dream.

It’s decided that Dom will be working as the Extractor this time around. He’s been working in dream research the longest, knows the most, and he’s kind of a creative mastermind when it comes to plans. That leaves the roles of who will construct the dream and who will dig up all the necessary information to Mal and Arthur.

“You’re a better architect than me,” Arthur says to Mal. “You build it.”

Mal looks at him, a little unsure, but it looks like she really wants to be the Architect as well. “Are you sure?” she asks.

“Of course,” Arthur says with brisk efficiency. “I’ll run Point for us. It’s what I’m good at. It’s what I like.”

And it’s true, because this role is probably the most similar to the intensive research Arthur has fallen in love with. It’s bound to be a little different, of course, but Arthur’s not too worried about that getting in the way. Research is research, and that’s what Arthur is best at.

“Okay,” Dom says. They’re now sitting around the Cobb family dining room, papers and pictures and notes scattered between them as they talk and begin to plan. The PASIV is still in Arthur’s apartment. “We need to find a space we can work out of. I’m going to look around and” – he looks to Arthur – “I’ll call you when I find a place. Until then, just start doing some background research on Reid. We need to know as much about him as possible before we go under.”

Arthur nods. He can to this, he thinks to himself. He can. He’s good at this, many people have said so. He’s meticulous and thorough and this really shouldn’t be anything to be nervous about. It’s just research.

“Right,” he says. “See you then.”