In a hotel room, a phone blared abruptly in the early morning. Leonardo's call hit Martin's cell.
"Goddamn it, Leo, don't give my number to people who ruin my sleep!" Martin grumbled, answering while his other hand mischievously slipped under the covers.
"Martin, what's the deal with you and Kate?" Leonardo's voice came through.
A soft "Mmm" escaped from Kate, still half-asleep, her eyelids fluttering.
Martin chuckled, finally focusing on the call. "Leo, what's up?"
"Are you and Kate back together or what?" Leonardo pressed.
"What the hell? You called me at dawn to gossip?"
"It's not gossip! I'm her friend, your friend—I'm just looking out."
"Looking out doesn't mean waking me up, asshole!"
"Wait, it's 9:30 and you're still in bed? Hold up—" Leonardo's suspicion spiked, then he heard a familiar muffled sound from the other end. "Holy shit, Kate's there? You're in bed together? And you're—what, screwing while talking to me?"
Martin glanced at Kate, now fully awake and moving rhythmically atop him, doing push-ups of a sort. He grinned. "You called me, man. Your fault."
"You filthy dogs! I'm hanging up!"
"Who was that?" Kate asked instinctively, mid-motion.
"Leo, asking if we're back together. The paparazzi caught us leaving last night."
"Screw it, I don't care if we're 'together,'" Kate said. "I'm not expecting you to marry me, you bastard. I just want to drain you dry."
"Try me!" Martin laughed, flipping her over to take control.
After seeing Kate off, Martin drove back to his Beverly Hills estate. Yang Mi was on a long-distance call.
"Yifei, L.A.'s winter isn't cold at all. Just a T-shirt and a light jacket do the trick. Did you see the pics I sent? Don't I look stylish?"
"Hehe!" Liu Yifei giggled.
"What's so funny?" Yang Mi asked.
"My mom saw your photos and said you deliberately showed off the mansion in the background."
"What? Auntie saw? She doesn't know about me and Martin, right?"
"Nah, I didn't tell her. She asked why you're staying in such a fancy place, and I said it's the cast dorm Martin arranged. She was impressed, said Martin's super generous for setting up such a luxe place for the crew, haha!"
"That's how you lied to your mom? Not cool!"
"Should I tell her the truth then?"
"No, no, no! I was kidding—uh, Martin—mmph, mmm!" Yang Mi's words were cut off by smacking sounds.
Liu Yifei pulled the phone away, puzzled by the odd noises. "What was that? Mmph, ahh?"
A moment later, Yang Mi's voice returned, flustered. "Hey, Yifei, you still there?"
"Yeah. What was that sound?" Liu Yifei asked.
"Uh, nothing! Just, uh, eating some cake," Yang Mi stammered, her face flushed, lips swollen from a kiss.
Cake makes those noises? Liu Yifei was skeptical but didn't press. Instead, they chatted about Martin's new film.
"Yifei, Martin's script is soo fucking good. I was floored when I read it. How does his brain even work? Have you heard of multi-layered dreams? Dream within a dream? Imagine someone sneaking into your dreams—scary, right? Guess who's starring? Not Martin—Leonardo DiCaprio! Yup, Jack! He plays a spy who steals secrets in dreams, and I'm his assistant… Oh, crap, I said too much. It's confidential, Yifei—don't tell anyone!"
After hanging up, Liu Yifei felt a pang of envy. Yang Mi's excitement made it clear: this was another hit in the making. Martin never missed. Unlike that damn King of Kung Fu, she thought bitterly. Her friend's career was about to eclipse hers, leaving her both happy and frustrated, emotions tangled in a complex knot.
Mid-month, Martin took the Inception crew to Paris for filming. Before leaving, he congratulated Obama—the election results matched the original timeline.
"My character's named Cobb? Weird name. Any meaning behind it?" Leonardo asked at the script read-through.
"Cobb's pronunciation echoes 'dream' in Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi—fitting for the film's title," Martin explained. "Alright, let's dive in. I'll break down the script so you understand your roles."
"The film opens with Cobb waking on a beach, washed ashore. Guards seize him and tell an old man, 'He's delirious but insisted on seeing you.' They bring Cobb to a weathered elder who eyes a spinning top and says, 'I know what this is. I saw it long ago on a man. We met in a dream.' Cobb's head snaps up, his eyes sharp, pausing mid-meal."
"This opening scene sets the tone and ties to the final act's limbo search for Saito…"
"What's dream theft? In the film, Cobb and his team are dream thieves—'theft' meaning stealing. They use drugs to put targets into a dream state, entering alongside them to steal critical secrets from their subconscious. That's the heist…"
Associated Press: "The U.S. presidential election results are in: Democratic candidate Barack Obama secured 297 electoral votes, clinching victory per election rules and becoming America's first Black president. Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff urged the president-elect to appoint a transition team for national security matters to deter international terrorists in the next six months…"
Le Monde: "Obama's victory drew cheers from nearly 200,000 Berliners, representing most Europeans, including the French, led by Nicolas Sarkozy. While Sarkozy's support may be diplomatic, ordinary French citizens have no such obligation. Obama has captured nearly everything he could want in France. Wear a badge with his image, and you'll get free fruit at Paris markets or free rides on buses driven by Black drivers. A wave of pro-Obama fervor has swept French intellectuals, professors, journalists, and political figures, including the conservative chair of France's National Assembly Foreign Affairs Committee, Axel Poniatowski…"
Le Figaro: "Martin recently brought his film crew to Paris for his new project, receiving an overwhelmingly warm welcome, driven by two men: Martin Meyers and Leonardo DiCaprio…"