Jackson watched the waves crash against the ship's keel. Their noise was now so familiar to him that it was almost unbearable. In the distance, through the dense sea mist, it was possible to glimpse a strip of land.

The docking on Maakanar was imminent.

'Very soon we will cross the border line. I hope the dinosaurs don't take us down as soon as they see us' he thought tensely. He looked at the other soldiers, most of whom were seated on the deck. All of them were trying to distract themselves as best they could: there were those who smoked, those who read, those who polished their weapons, who watched a video on their mobile. But Jackson knew they were tense, he could tell by the veins on their necks and their posture.

The soldiers weren't the only ones worried. The ship's crew was also tense, and unlike the soldiers they weren't good at hiding it.

Very soon the captain himself came to him. "Sir, in two minutes we will cross the border line and be in dinosaur territory. If you have second thoughts, this is the time"

Jackson knew the captain was implicitly asking him to turn around. However, it was not a request he could comply with. "Let's go on, but get ready. As soon as you spot a flying reptile, or more than one, stop the ship. Don't change course, just stop"

The captain was clearly nervous, but he nodded and didn't make a fuss.

Jackson raised his voice: "Listen to me, soldiers! We are entering dinosaur territory. From now on, eyes on everything, but don't shoot without my precise order!"

The soldiers abandoned whatever they were doing and lined up on either side of the ship. They did not draw their weapons, but they kept them close at hand. Their eyes scanned the horizon as if they were hawks.

Jackson stepped into the bow and stared at the coast as it approached. Dan came up to him and whispered in his ear: "So what's the plan?"

Jackson bit his lip at his second-in-command's request. "We will explain our intent and ask that they let us pass. If they refuse we will go back"

"Seriously? That's all?"

"They defeated an army of ninety thousand trained soldiers with minimal casualties. How long do you think it will take them to sink this ship? We have no choice but to rely on their approval"

Dan shook his head. It was clear that he did not like this uncertain situation.

Suddenly Charlie's voice rang throughout the ship: "Pterosaurs at hour ten!"

Everyone turned to the point indicated by Charlie and immediately felt the anxiety rise. To the west there was a cloud, but if you looked at it better you realized that it was actually an immense flock of flying reptiles. And they were heading towards them.

The captain promptly followed Jackson's instructions and ordered the ship to be stopped. The boat thus remained motionless, in the middle of the ocean. The flying reptiles rushed towards the ship; most of them just circled above it, but many descended and alighted on the deck, edges, and parapets. None of them said a word, just staring at them with an inquiring gaze.

Charlie felt the urge to draw his weapon when several tethydracos landed in front of him and watched him with their watchful eyes. "Er... hello" he murmured. "Nice to meet you…"

"Shut up, you idiot!" Dorian stopped him immediately, who was watched by an enormous phosphatodraco, which towered over him for at least a meter.

Despite the tension of the soldiers, none of them lost their temper and did not draw their weapons, despite having the dangerous pterosaurs very close. Eventually a gigantic barbaridactylus descended from the sky and alighted in the center of the bridge, and from the tattoos on his face Jackson realized that he was a fourth degree star, so quite high up in the hierarchy. "What is a human boat doing here? You don't take any of our brothers with you and you haven't identified yourselves with the signal. Who are you?"

Jackson stepped forward and said what Jocelyne had ordered him to say: "We're not here to hurt you. We need to resolve an important issue that concerns the human world. However, this is confidential information. We will not hide anything from you, but I would like to speak to lord Apache"

The barbaradactylus didn't answer, merely scrutinizing him carefully, as if looking for some sign of lies in his expression. Jackson just remained silent and waited. Eventually the pterosaur turned and made a sign, and a group of alcyons (small seagull-like pterosaurs) took off and headed for the continent.

Probably no more than a quarter of an hour passed, but to the people on the ship it seemed like days. The pterosaurs remained silent and kept an eye on them with unlikely attention. The silence was so overwhelming that every time one of them took a step his claws rattled on the hard deck of the ship.

After a wait that seemed infinite, an immense shadow covered the sun for a moment and a giant quetzalcoatlus descended from the sky and landed on the ship; the other pterosaurs dodged to let him pass. "I've arrived" he said. "Speak now, humans; what is your goal?"

Jackson knew he had to pay attention to his next words. Apache was about the height of a giraffe. He could have easily lowered his beak and sliced him in two. Jackson would have preferred to ask for an audience with Carnopo or Buck, dinosaurs he already knew, but Apache was the only one who could fly and therefore the only one who could reach the ship. If Jackson and his crew had asked the pterosaurs to let them continue without explanation to the ground, where they could meet with the great leaders, the answer would surely have been a sharp no. The only hope was therefore to apply to the only great leader who could fly.

"Lord Apache, we didn't come here to fight you. There is a peace treaty between our two peoples and we intend to respect it; that's why we are here. We have discovered that very dangerous humans are hiding in your territory, who do not even obey governments and nations. We want to capture them and take them away"

Jocelyne made sure Jackson learned the words to say well and made him repeat them until he was exhausted. In that short speech she explained that they were not enemies, that they intended to continue the peace and that those who violated it did not do so with the consent of the rest of humanity. If the dinosaurs thought that humans had deliberately violated the peace treaty, then that expedition would have become the cause of a war.

Apache seemed to reflect. "If there are humans on our territory, then we should take care of them"

Jocelyne had foreseen that eventuality and had instructed Jackson on what to say. "True, but they are our responsibility. Governments and nations cannot allow the peace treaty to be violated so with impunity. Those bad humans are a responsibility of us humans, and we have a duty to punish them according to human law. Besides, you don't know where they hide, we do. It is better for peace that you let us do it. We therefore humbly ask you to let us disembark; you have our word that as soon as we have captured those people we will go away"

Jocelyne had studied that speech so that humanity would appear as a species that longed to keep the peace and could therefore be considered reliable. At the same time, he almost casually added an element of logic: the humans knew where Wu's laboratory was, while the dinosaurs hadn't even noticed his existence.

Apache was reluctant, but suddenly Sobek's voice rang in his head thanks to the mind-sharing ability of the [Contract]: 'Let them pass'

'Are you sure, pack leader?' Apache asked him with his mind.

'Yes. Rambo kept an eye on them and I was informed of their every move. Their intentions are genuine' Sobek replied. 'Let them do what they have to. Just check them and report any suspicious actions to me'

Apache replied in the affirmative, after which he felt that Sobek had turned off the ability to share minds. Again with a clear mind, he turned to Jackson: "Okay, we'll let you disembark. However, you will not have to raise a weapon against any member of the pack. If you kill the people you have to capture I don't care, but try to shoot one of us and you will never see the sun rise again"

If he could, Jackson would have smiled triumphantly. "Thank you. We will not betray your trust, we promise"

"I hope so. For your own good" Apache replied, and then took off. Quickly all the other pterosaurs followed suit and the entire flock disappeared into the sky in a few minutes.

The people on the ship heaved a long sigh of relief. Even Dorian's expressionless face showed signs of relaxation for a moment. "I can't believe it, they accepted!" Charlie exclaimed with a gaudy smile on his face.

Dan clapped him on the shoulder. "Right. It went well"

"Anyway they were scary as fuck! Did you see them as they stared at us? They looked like cats ready to jump on a mouse..."

"It's all over, you can rest easy now"

Jackson let the soldiers relax for a couple of minutes, then decided they couldn't wait any longer: "All of you! Our work is not done. Captain, dock at the designated spot! All the soldiers, get ready to go down!"

His orders were promptly carried out. The tension seemed to have disappeared; even the sailors seemed to have regained their spirit. Even though they were still going to the most dangerous place on the planet, everyone had the illusion that the worst was over.

The point established for the docking was a half-hidden bay between two cliffs that was highlighted in the naval sections of the Raiding. This for a simple reason: not far from it was the entrance to the underground structure where Henry Wu resided.

The docking was carried out smoothly. As soon as the ship was completely stopped in the bay, the lifeboats were lowered with the soldiers on board, who quickly reached the coast. As they approached the beach Charlie pointed to a spot to their right: "Spinosaurus at ten!"

The others looked at the indicated point. About a hundred meters from them was a large reptile of at least nine meters with a sail on its back. Apparently he seemed to be sleeping. "Let's ignore it" Jackson ordered.

"Seriously? What if it attacks us?" Charlie asked.

Jackson was about to answer, but instead it was Dorian who spoke for him: "It won't, it's here to check on us. The dinosaurs are keeping an eye on us" he grumbled. "And anyway that's not a spinosaurus, it's a sigilmassasaurus"

Charlie swallowed. "How can you be so sure?"

"Look carefully" Dorian handed him a pair of binoculars. Through it Charlie could see some lizards climb onto the dinosaur's snout. "Any animal would have at least opened its eyes to see what had come up on its face, but it is still sleeping" said Dorian. "And then the spinosaurids are river animals, they don't live in coastal areas. It makes no sense that it is here if not to control us"

"Dorian is right. After all, this is their territory, it's only natural that they want to control us" Jackson said. "Ignore the dinosaurs unless they display hostile behavior. As long as they just keep an eye on us, they are not a problem"

Jackson and Dorian had seen it right. As they disembarked, they could see that there was also a pair of sinopliosaurus on the beach and that a siamosaurus was swimming not far from the shore. As they continued along the sandy shore they could also see a group of camarillasaurus approaching and near the trees they found an angaturama also intent on 'sleeping'.

Then they headed into the forest following Jackson's directions. Here, too, the presence of dinosaurs made itself felt: from time to time birds and pterosaurs appeared on the branches of the trees that apparently ignored humans, but that were surely controlling them. Here and there then sounds and sounds undoubtedly coming from dinosaurs could be heard, and sometimes some gigantic animals let themselves be seen in the distance. The group caught a glimpse of a herd of parasaurolophus, two tyrannosaurs, a carnotaur, a trio of baryonyx, some sauropods, a ceratosaurus, a pair of stegosaurs and a sinoceratops. However, they ignored them all: the dinosaurs were not hostile and there was no reason to make them so. Rather, the capture team was focused on the dangers inherent in the Raiding's secret laboratory.

Jackson knew he had to move carefully: the underground facility was equipped with many security systems. The files that Robert, Mitch and Jamie had procured for him showed the presence of several traps in the area. But contrary to his expectations, none of them were activated. The troop reached the entrance to the underground facility without a hitch.

Jackson pursed his lip. He couldn't just have luck: someone had voluntarily disabled the security system. "I don't like this. Blow up that door and get ready to enter!"

Dorian did not have it repeated twice and placed two pieces of TNT on the sides of the door, causing it to detonate; with the entrance open, the troops rushed inside, their weapons ready to be used with anyone who resisted.