Dream Team

ROSARITO, MEXICO

ASSES TO ASHES

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

So, how old is this guy?

I think he's 31.

That's so hot. When are you gonna make your move?

I can't. He's unavailable.

What do you mean? Like married?

Well, he's engaged.

Oh my god, are you kidding? He's ripe

I don't know...

Look - it's easy.

Get him alone in a small room.

You put one hand on the wall

the other hand on his chest - at least

Look him in the eye and say

"I know that you want me. We can do this right now."

I don't know.

Hi Chase!

Hello Chase!

Oh, hi ladies.

Chase, we've been doing some digging

into the transfers of "cabbage."

We're finding some really interesting patterns of movement

over the last financial quarter. I made a spreadsheet.

And I drew this map.

That sounds like great work, ladies. But I need you

to put aside the cabbage research. Something's come up.

There's been a murder in Rosarito, Mexico.

No is there investigating. I'll be joining her tomorrow.

The victim was a brilliant marine biologist and mathematician,

specializing in coral reefs.

I'm sending you the dossier.

I need you two to scour the databases

for everything you can find on this woman.

We're on it!

Okay, I'll start searching Lexis.

Got it, I'm on Nexis.

I was...a dog.

Not sure the breed. I don't know dogs.

What color? Did you have spots?

Well, there was another dog with me

Black..and I was black..and tan.

Mhmmm.

We were sniffing around like crazy for something

God, our sensory world was so rich.

Let's hold onto that. Describe the sensations

Were they smells... or images?

I wanna say...fish.

Fish.

Where are the fish leading you? Back towards the ocean?

I mean, it's probably coral. No, I knew the

dream was real. I knew the smuggler was dead.

But how does this connect to Theresa Gorgeous?

She's a coral scientist, sure. But in Mexico!

I mean, can coral kill two people?

And what would that even mean?

Chase, no wine til it's time. Right now we are just

talking about the dream - don't worry where it leads.

What are you wearing?

Um, electric blue silk shirt.

Black pleated slacks. Belt, no tie.

You need to relax. Loosen your belt and breathe.

Good.

Now, take off your pants.

Much better.

Now tell me about those chirping sounds you heard.

TIJUANA, MEXICO

FAX ON THE BEACH

Listen, No. There's been another murder.

We have to go to the beach.

ROSARITO, MEXICO

Listen, I'm sorry but I cannot release those documents to you.

But you told me to come pick them up!

Oh no, you're mistaken. We are happy to collaborate if this an

interagency request but I need a request

from another police organization.

Good luck!

Tell me about this shirt - are you with the Zapatistas?

What? No. I mean...

they're amazing but

I got this at Groundworks, which is a really sick

radical cooperative bookstore at UC San Diego.

Okay.

So, in the 60s, there was all this

activism on campus. Legendary.

Angela Davis, Herbert Marcuse,

that guy who set himself on fire...

And one of the big campaigns was

to name the new college they were building

"Lumumba Zapata" to center Third World consciousness.

Well, that didn't happen but there's been activism on

campus ever since. Like, not a lot but like - look.

UCSD was explicitly founded as a weapons engineering school,

based in no-Blacks, no-Jews-ass segregated La Jolla.

And these Vietnamese students came to UCSD in the 70s and

that's like"diversity" - but such a fucked up situation.

They are like refugees from the US war and

now they're at a school to build weapons?

Same with Filipino students who are here on the GI Bill,

and part of the war machine against their own homes.

It is crazy how conservative the

campus is but a few of us are trying...

Right now, we are fighting for a

living wage for custodial workers,

which is a student issue. They are

the family of many Hispanic students.

And there's this huge anti-immigration push in California.

Anti-affirmative action too, with bills like

SP-1, SP-2, and Prop 209, which have devastated

the already shitty minority situations at the UCs.

I guess, in comparison to the 60s

this stuff seems kinda trivial.

No, not at all.

You're fighting for where you live. Bravo.

So, that guy you are with -- what is he doing?

He's meditating.

Cool. He's hot. Can I talk to him?

Do you think I'd be bothering him?

Oh no, go.

¡Hola! Interpol. Okay if we look around?

Oh, Interpol. Welcome. Yes, you can look around

but everyone is just cleaning up.

-That's better. -Yeah, less clutter.

He was a professional bodyboarder.

Very beloved at this beach.

There was only one witness.

All of a sudden, there were multiple of him.

Many hims.

Time was moving at different speeds.

The sky sparkled like water.

Sometimes there was no horizon. The ocean was upside down.

Then he staggered out of the water... with a

gunshot wound in his chest. And then he died.

It was crazy.

I think she has had too much sol.

A large-caliber bullet entered to the left of his spine.

Punctured his heart and seems to have exploded inside the chest cavity.

There was massive hemorrhaging and organ damage.

The angle of entry is unclear.

I'd almost say the bullet either came from the ocean

Or the sky. But that can't be right.

How about we continue this over dinner some night?

Way to go, Rico.

What is it?

The Theresa Gorgeous toxicology report.

Finally! And?

Nothing. They are calling it a stroke.

Stroke my ass.

CORAL ME BAD

ACAPULCO, MEXICO

Chase, we've got that meeting.

Mhmm.

What have you got there?

Nothing.

Okay.

Hi. I'm Dr. Veronica Beef.

So, what can I tell you about coral?

Everything.

So, coral is a very, very simple animal.

They are really closely related to jellyfish

If you want to picture them, they are basically just sacks

with arms on them. And the sack is where everything happens.

It's both their stomach, their mouth and...the butt.

And the arms are how they capture food out of the water.

Coral famously have this amazing symbiotic relationship with algae.

The corals give algae a home and in return,

algae gives them excess sugars from photosynthesis.

This gives corals their lavish colors, and the extra

energy to fight other organisms and dominate the ecosystem.

But what's much more amazing, and totally

unique about coral - is their clonality.

It's like the real individual

is the colony.

There is no quote "I."

And this is one of the really important things about corals.

They live together but they die alone.

I mean that individual deaths don't really matter.

Just because half a coral colony dies

doesn't mean anything about the half.

The coral polyps that are still alive

can in fact regenerate the dead parts of a colony.

You know how a lizard can regrow its tail?

Imagine - it's like the tail can regrow the lizard.

Damn.

Yeah, it's funny actually.

Coral reef science started as a geologic discipline.

Basically began because the clipper ship trade started up.

The Europeans were going from the northern to

the southern hemisphere, and they were really,

really worried about these things growing up

to the surface and blocking their trade routes.

So they sent some nerds out there and they were like

"Hey nerds, are these coral reefs gonna take over the world?"

And isn't it ironic, that now we are

worried they are going to disappear.

Like the whole reason this started was

to stop them taking over the world.

Jamaica - sounds nice!

Jamaica is like a Graceland for coral reef scientists.