Let's jump back a few days.

After that eventful night, Malcolm had been dragged into Victory Square, a square a few hundred meters from the city center. The dinosaurs had removed fountains, trees, monuments and any other objects, leaving only the asphalt and the sidewalk. They didn't seem to have much regard for historical places: Malcolm wondered if they even knew what they were and what they meant.

After having 'cleaned up' the entire area, they had left the humans there and barricaded all the streets that gave onto the square. They had given him nothing but a blanket. Nobody complained: people were too scared to ask for mattresses. Many, however, struggled to sleep on the hard ground, and there had been a sort of race to grab the less gravelly parts of the square. Malcolm initially thought that the dinosaurs had left them like this out of revenge, but then he realized that they had no intention of harming them: from their looks it was evident that they were quite confused by human behavior. Later, Malcolm noticed that many dinosaurs slept on the asphalt without any problems. It was clear that they didn't know that for humans this wasn't that easy. So there was no revenge behind their actions, just a… 'cultural misunderstanding'? Could it be called in this way?

Malcolm had considered this. He had spent almost a whole day looking for Ellie and his son in the square, but he soon had to surrender to the evidence that they had been taken somewhere else. After all, the dinosaurs had divided the population to better control it: it was easy for families and friends to be divided. Despite it was a cruel action, Malcolm could understand their motivations: too many people in one place would not only be more difficult to contain, but the lack of living space would also increase the tension causing both internal and external clashes. After all, humans tended to freak out easily. If the dinosaurs wanted to keep control, they had to divide the population.

Unfortunately there was no way to communicate between the different 'prisons', so his only chance of knowing how his partner and his son were doing was to get information from the dinosaurs. However, to succeed Malcolm had to keep in mind that dinosaurs likely had a morality and mentality different from that of humans, or he could have made them angry without meaning to.

At least, the dinosaurs didn't seem to be bad at dealing with prisoners. All the while they had just stood outside the plaza, keeping a close eye on the humans and making sure no one attempted to escape or cause trouble. For the rest, they had done nothing: no abuse, no violence, they hadn't even mocked them. Sure, they glared at them menacingly, but Malcolm knew that this wasn't a big deal. Considering how prisoners were typically treated, the humans of Cartago could say they were receiving preferential treatment.

Around noon the dinosaurs entered the square for the first time and brought to the humans a lot of food. They arrived with a veritable mountain of meat and vegetables; to transport it they had tied with some lianas a truck to a sauropod, probably a brachiosaurus or a giraffatitan, and then they had loaded it and dragged it to the square. The huge animal didn't seem to have much trouble pulling a vehicle weighing at least seven tons, but probably the dinosaurs had removed the brakes to make the job easier.

"It's time to have lunch! Everyone, in a row!" roared a large tyrannosaurus that was following the sauropod. After the humans carried out the order, the t-rex began distributing food.

The meat and vegetables were raw, but there were plenty of them. Malcolm got more than he could eat in two days. However, the meat made him a little suspicious. "Sorry, may I know what kind of meat it is?" he asked fearfully, fearing to discover that the dinosaurs were cannibals.

"It belongs to a large herbivore, one of those who give birth to live babies. It has long tusks and a very long nose" the tyrannosaurus explained.

It was a lie, of course: dinosaurs hadn't needed to hunt thanks to feeders for a long time. However, Sobek didn't want humans to know about this secret yet, so he had trained the dinosaurs to tell a false story. Humans did not have a strong sense of taste or smell, so they would not have had the opportunity to verify their words. A human would never have been able to tell a piece of cow meat from a wildebeest's one.

"Oh! I understand" Malcolm said, believing the story, convinced that it was meat from some kind of elephant. Apparently the dinosaurs didn't eat each other. And he had also gained another valuable piece of information: at least for the time being, only dinosaurs seemed to have become intelligent, while other animals hadn't. This was flattering. "Sorry... can I ask you something?"

"You can ask, but I can't guarantee I'll answer you" the tyrannosaurus replied simply. A more than intelligent answer: the animal was basically telling him that if Malcolm would ask for something that would compromise the safety or the plans of the dinosaurs, he wouldn't answer him.

Malcolm didn't know how to formulate the question. He could have asked about Alexander and Ellie, but he doubted the dinosaurs knew who they were. He couldn't just tell him two names and hope that he guessed, or that he went to find out: after all, with all the people in Cartago, what were the chances that that dinosaur had talked to them? He should have asked a more general question. "Have there been any accidents in the other squares?" he simply asked.

"Oh, so it was just that. No, no accident. I can say that with absolute certainty" the t-rex replied.

Malcolm breathed a sigh of relief. It was enough: if there had been no accidents, then it meant that Ellie and Alexander were still fine. "Excuse my question, but… is it possible to change the place where you are locked up? That is, if I agree to remain a prisoner, but I want to go to another square, with other people..."

"Oh, no, this just can't be done. No human can get out of their enclosure without the pack leader's permission" the tyrannosaurus shook his head. The sauropod, who was listening to the conversation, moved his neck as if to nod.

Malcolm expected that answer, but he wasn't willing to give up: "Then could I talk to the pack leader?". It was a risky move, talking to the leader of the dinosaurs could put him or other people in serious danger, but he had to try.

But the t-rex immediately dismissed that possibility: "No. The pack leader doesn't want to talk to any humans. He does not want contact with those who have refused his benevolence and his offer of peace"

Malcolm was stunned for a moment. The words of their presumably leader of the pack, that 'Sobek', seemed more like an ultimatum than an offer of peace. But then he remembered again that the dinosaurs probably had a different morality from him. After all, he reflected, when the animals had a territorial dispute they fought hard and sometimes one of the challengers could even be killed. For the dinosaurs, just giving humans a chance to walk away on their own legs could be considered a benevolent and merciful act.

As for the aggression of the pack leader's words... well, even that could be considered normal. Not only among animals, but also among humans. Malcolm had studied some History and he knew that during the Three Hundred Years War many generals had made very aggressive and overbearing peace proposals; it was a kind of tactic to scare the opponent and convince him to come to terms the soon as possible. For Sobek and the dinosaurs, those words were probably not considered an ultimatum, but a simple offer of peace.

Malcolm decided that he asked enough for one day. He had a lot to learn about dinosaur morals, so he couldn't push too hard on the first day, or he would have seriously risked offending them. He took his food and retreated to a corner.

His teeth made it a bit difficult to eat the raw meat, but he didn't complain. After all, it could not be said that the dinosaurs were not generous: they had given more than abundant rations, much more than one would expect for hostages. The fact that they hadn't cooked the meat could be put off: Malcolm reflected that maybe the dinosaurs had some aversion to fire, or maybe it had a different value to them. Perhaps they only used it to build their shields and weapons and considered it too important to waste on cooking, or perhaps they simply favored raw meat. At the moment, he had too little information and could only speculate.

As he ate he thought that maybe it wasn't the dinosaurs that he should be worried about. Although they obviously had a morality different from that of humans, they did not look like savages. Perhaps, Malcolm reflected, he should have cared more about humans.

Humans were extremely unpredictable beings and in extreme cases they could do very stupid things. Malcolm didn't know how the dinosaurs would react if someone tried to escape or worse start a riot. As for the humans outside the city, the ones the dinosaurs wanted to negotiate with… maybe they could do even worse.

He had to act with caution. He promised himself that if there were bad signs around, he would do anything to stop any conflict.