Jocelyne had had to go through another intense discussion with her parents, which this time was joined by her newly proclaimed godfather. From their point of view, it was foolish to risk her life again. However, from Jocelyne's point of view, she took far fewer risks in dinosaurs' territory than in humans' one. The argument went on for at least two hours, until the three adults gave in to the fact that she would do what she wanted regardless of what they were told.

She had returned to Odaria the day before in an airliner; although Hammond had offered to give her a private jet, she had preferred to travel by conventional means. The result of the fact that the richest man in the world had become her godfather was immediately evident: if this hadn't been the case, there would have been a sniper waiting for her at the airport exit, or the car on which had traveled it would have been blown up by a car bomb. Instead, as she expected, the heads of the families had lowered the crest and left her alone.

However, she hadn't returned home. She honestly she couldn't wait to lie down on her bed or sunbathe in her garden, but she knew she couldn't waste time. So she, along with Jackson, left for the dinosaurs' territory. Her security chief had used an off-road vehicle and took very rough and hidden roads to get around the checkpoints. If the NMWA had known what she was doing they would probably have sent her to court martial. Chloe would surely have committed suicide.

But luckily Jackson knew about her, and in fact they weren't detected by any roadblocks. Once in dinosaur territory they had continued until they encountered the overseers, this time some streakers. Jocelyne had introduced herself politely and asked for permission to pass. As she had imagined, after a while the streakers agreed. After all, Sobek had said that he did not intend to completely close the borders to humans, so by asking politely it was still possible to pass, provided of course that he did not come with hostile intentions.

After a long journey through the territory of the dinosaurs, they managed to reach Cartago at dawn the next day. Once they arrived, Jocelyne had ordered Jackson to visit Abe and find out about his condition and those of the other prisoners. Despite being reluctant and knowing that this was just an excuse to be alone, Jackson obeyed.

At that point, Jocelyne went to meet the leader of the dinosaurs. Sobek had been informed of his arrival well in advance, so he was not at all surprised to see her arrive. "Welcome back, ambassador Jersey. What brings you back here?" he greeted her politely.

"Lord Sobek, forgive me for my sudden arrive" Jocelyne retorted equally politely. "I thought that, after you allowed my men to pass months ago, it was only right to pay a courtesy visit and thank you"

Of course, they both knew that this wasn't a courtesy visit and that that wasn't the reason for her coming, but Sobek pretended to play along: "No problem. After all, they were working to keep the peace treaty. I heard that they arrested that man... what's his name... Henry Wu?"

"Yes. I hope that what you have learned has not upset you"

Jocelyne was naturally referring to the Mother Cell. Sobek shrugged. "Nah. I didn't really care much about it. After all, I already knew I was different, I'm not stupid. I don't care if I'm a natural or artificial organism. My pack is my family and my life is conditioned only by my choices: as you can see, I don't lose anything"

Jocelyne was a little surprised. She looked at him expecting to see the typical lie in the spinosaurus eyes, but she found them extremely calm. Apparently she was telling the truth. Jocelyne did not imagine how it was possible to not give importance to such a revelation, but probably Sobek reasoned differently from her. "Oh good. I'm happy about that" she said, then turned serious. "Anyway, I have a question for you"

"Please tell me"

"Would it be possible to speak privately? It's a rather... personal question"

Sobek was silent for a moment, then stood up and motioned for her to follow him. Jocelyne did not let herself be begged. The spinosaurus led her in front of a large shed, so large that it could contain even his enormous bulk. Once inside, the dinosaurs outside closed the entrances and exits. Sobek looked around him and sniffed the air for a moment, as if he wanted to make sure no one was there with them, then returned to focus on her.

"Now we are alone. What did you want to ask me?"

"It's you, right?"

Sobek let out a snort. He knew exactly what Jocelyne was referring to. "Did you get it from my name or did I leave other signs?"

"First for your name. After I found out your name, I suspected it was you right away" the girl replied. "But when I met you… well, let's just say I recognized many traits of you. We never talked in the forest, but I watched you. The way you walk, the way you move... you can change your body, but you cannot change your habits"

Sobek let out a half laugh. "So, you caught me. And now?"

Jocelyne was silent for a moment, then she bowed her head: "I think a thank you is a must"

"You already thanked me some time ago"

"It doesn't matter. You couldn't answer me at that time"

"Is it that important?"

"It is for me"

Sobek stared intently at Jocelyne. The girl wasn't moving a muscle: she had remained motionless with her head lowered in a bow, as if she were waiting for him to speak. "Well, if you want an answer to your thanks, know that I accept them with pleasure and that I am happy that that unpleasant situation has been resolved in a favorable way for both of us"

"You risked your life for me. Many times"

"But we always got away with it, didn't we?"

Jocelyne finally raised her head. "You kept it" she said. "The name I gave you. You made it yours"

Sobek wanted to tell him that in reality that was his name even before she 'baptized' him, but to do so he would have to reveal to her the existence of the afterlife and of God. "For a long time it didn't mean anything to me. I didn't have anyone I could introduce myself to, after all. But when I met my first subordinate, Buck, it seemed strange to me that we couldn't call each other in some way, so I chose to use the name you gave me"

"I'm glad of it. It means a lot to me, even though it isn't probably of equal value to you" Jocelyne said, then she turned serious. "But I need to know the truth"

"What truth?" Sobek asked.

"You know" the girl grumbled. "Why? Why did you save me that day, and why did you keep protecting me all along? I was nothing but a nuisance to you. I couldn't give you anything and I was of no use to you. You attacked my captors, you fought that carcharodontosaurus, you risked your life against the torvosaurs. Why did you care so much about me?"

Sobek frowned at that question. Especially since he didn't know how to answer.

Why had he saved her? The most natural response was that it had been a fit of anger due to his previous life experiences. But when that anger had vanished and he had been able to think clearly again, why he had continued to protect her despite this only complicating things for him? To demonstrate some kind of moral superiority? Nonsense, for an animal that was completely useless. Because he find her nice? False, even if he then began to appreciate her company, at first he hated her. So what had moved him?

"I really can't give you an answer" he finally admitted.

Jocelyne raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know why I saved you. That night... when I heard your screams and the smell of your fear, and I understood what those bastards were doing to you, I acted without thinking. My body moved by itself. With a clear head, I probably never would have acted that way. But for some reason unknown to me, at that moment I couldn't help it" Sobek replied.

"You could have eaten me. Or even just ignore me and go away"

"Yeah, I could have, but I couldn't. And again, I don't know why. You were so... small, fragile, scared. When I saw you looking at me with those terrified eyes, something in me clicked. Maybe you reminded me of myself... after all the way I have done it is difficult for me to remember what I felt when I was still a puppy and I was at the mercy of any other creature, but looking at you I seemed to see myself again then. Powerless, terrified of anything. So, I don't know why, I chose to protect you. My survival instinct told me to go away, logic told me you were just a useless burden, but I couldn't let you down. Because I do not know. I never understood it. And then..."

"And then?"

"It is difficult for me to explain it, especially to a human being, but it is as if at that moment I understood that we were bond"

"Bond?"

"My intuition told me. Something inside me warned me that you would be important in the future, even if you were so small and fragile then. I didn't know what to do about it, and I confess I even thought about killing you once; your intelligence frightened me, and I feared that one day you might become my worst enemy. After all, you would have become the most dangerous predator in the world. However, there was also the possibility that you would have influenced my future for the better. I chose to believe the second hypothesis, and apparently I did well"

Jocelyne had been watching him with curious eyes the whole time. "So you chose to save me and protect me because you felt a bond between us?" she asked.

"Such a thing" Sobek said. "And then, who knows: maybe I imagined everything, and in reality it was only my subconscious that commanded my actions. Or maybe it was simply what you humans call 'pity', even though I wasn't very used to it at the time. Or maybe it was God who crossed our paths and pushed me to act like that"

Jocelyne looked surprised. "Do you believe in God?"

Sobek realized that he had spoken without thinking. Did he believe in God? He had met her, so he knew for sure that she existed. However, he didn't want to tell Jocelyne. Sobek felt that was better if life after death remained a surprise. Nor did he want people to start saying that he was acting under God's account. From what he remembered, the last person on Earth who claimed to be acting in God's name had been hung on a cross, and though he had done nothing else that by preaching love and brotherhood his followers had committed the worst atrocities in his name for centuries. Therefore, he had no intention of fulfilling the role of messiah. So he gave a rather vague answer: "I learned about it thanks to that thing you call the 'Internet'. I cannot say that I am a devoted believer, but the idea of a higher entity that has shaped the universe does not seem so far-fetched to me. But I don't think it's how you depict it in your churches... I'm pretty sure it's a woman"

"Why?"

"Because only a woman could be so moody!"

Sobek thought he heard a snort behind him, and it almost seemed to him that someone was looking at him with disapproval. 'What? Don't say it's not true! You've freaked me out so many times since I've been here, so it seems legitimate to me to not call you sane!'

Jocelyne tilted her head slightly to the side, as if he was thinking, then shrugged: "I don't know why, but I have that impression too"

'See? She thinks so too!' Sobek laughed in his mind. Even though there was no one in the room apart from them, he felt like if someone had just turned the other way with an angry look.

Jocelyne coughed. "Anyway, regardless of your reasons, I'm really happy to have met you again. You don't know how long I've hoped to see you again..."

"I missed you too, even if only a little. I admit that I appreciated your company"

"You roared at me after that crocodile almost swallowed me"

"Well, I'm referring to the period after that episode"

Jocelyne was silent, then she let out a soft laugh, which very quickly grew louder and boomed all over the room. "What's so funny?" Sobek asked.

"Sorry, it's just…" Jocelyne bit her lip to stop laughing and wiped a tear away. "Well, look at me. I am faced with the most powerful and dangerous being that has ever existed, a creature that practically holds the world in check, and I am talking to him as if we were old friends who remember times gone by..."

"I could say the same about you"

Jocelyne froze. "H... How?"

"A being that keeps the world in check... I would say that the definition can be applied to you too, don't you think?" laughed the spinosaurus. "So, from my point of view, I am the one who speak with the most dangerous being that has ever existed as if we were old friends"

Jocelyne was caught off guard. "You... do you know?" she asked in shock.

"You can deceive others, but my intelligence is superior to that of you humans. With each evolution, the cells in my brain multiply and become more efficient. When I learned about the capture of Henry Wu and the financial situation of the human world, I immediately realized that you were behind it all. After all, not only everyone involved were connected to you, but everything was in favor of peace between humans and dinosaurs. How likely was it that Jackson Oz, the man who was negotiating with you here, was the one who captured Dr. Wu? Or that John Hammond, the new richest man on the planet, took you as his goddaughter just out of sympathy? Or that someone so quickly decided to found a movement in favor of peace with the dinosaurs?" Sobek smiled showing his teeth. "It wasn't difficult for me to put the pieces together. I was quite impressed. I understood that you were intelligent since our forced coexistence two years ago, but I didn't think you were so skilled as to control the whole world without everyone's knowledge"

Jocelyne was surprised by Sobek's intuition. Even though she knew he was a very smart and far-sighted pack leader, she didn't expect her to be able to notice those discrepancies that most of the world's population had ignored! "Well... I told you that time, I'm quite intelligent and mature for my age"

"Those words don't describe you in the slightest. You are much more than this"

"Thanks for the compliment"

"Tell me, with such an understanding, why did you choose to insist on peace between our two peoples? You could have concentrated on coming up with a grand attack plan and eliminating the threat. Isn't that what you humans do?"

Jocelyne put on a frown. "I'm not a warmonger. I calculate the situation on the basis of the loss of life, not of economic gain. I thought it was clear"

"Oh, believe me, it was. But that doesn't explain anything. From a purely mathematical point of view, it would have been much smarter of you to sacrifice a few thousand men to murder me now that I am far from most of my pack, since you knew of the existence of... what do you call it? The Mother Cell, right?" Sobek snorted. "Logically, your best bet would have been to try to kill me by any means possible. In this way, you would have avoided that in the future I could become a threat to the human world, thus avoiding any possible loss of human life. Maybe a few soldiers would have died, but after all they are used to make war, right? Soldiers already know they could die and accept this truth, or they wouldn't do this job. I am more than sure that if you had asked for volunteers, entire ranks would have gathered in front of you. So why not do it? Why risk and bet on an uncertain future, instead of trying the safest way?"

"I could ask you the same question"

Sobek was surprised by that request. "Sorry?"

"Why didn't you kill me? You said it yourself, when we were together in the forest you thought about it. You feared I might become your enemy. So why did you choose to let me live instead?" Jocelyne asked rhetorically. "And when we concluded the negotiations, I showed you how smart I was. Knowing this, why didn't you send one of your dinosaurs to kill me? I'm sure some of them could have eliminated me in my sleep without leaving any trace. Who told you that once I got out of this city I wouldn't start a plan to exterminate you all? So why did you take the risk?"

The spinosaurus was caught off guard by that request. "I just wanted to see what you would accomplish. I still didn't know what kind of person you were and I wanted to find out"

"So you too have bet on an uncertain future, just like me. The most logical choice would have been to kill me before I could even think of becoming your enemy, instead you chose to risk it and keep me alive" Jocelyne said. "So? Why take such an action? Why did you prefer to risk everything, including the lives of your own subjects and also yours, for the sole hope that I would reveal myself as a friend?"

Sobek let out a half growl. "I have chosen to take a calculated risk. I can't say I know you perfectly, but I can read the human soul quite well. You did not seem interested in the war, on the contrary you did everything to ensure that our negotiations would obtain conditions that would have allowed us to avoid it"

"And I don't know you perfectly, but I can understand the soul of a dinosaur... quite well" Jocelyne retorted. "You weren't interested in the war either, I understood that when you accepted my terms. If I hadn't done it, then I would have known that you just meant to take time"

"Take time?"

"Of course. The request to negotiate was too insistent. It could only come from two types of people: either from someone who seriously hated bloodshed, or from someone who wanted to take time. And since you didn't really give me the idea of being someone who has trouble killing any obstacle in his path, I thought that the most likely hypothesis was the latter. You probably wanted to prolong the stalemate because you didn't think you could handle an all-out war. However, I couldn't be sure. So I used the negotiation to verify. If you had refused such advantageous conditions, I would have had confirmation that you weren't ready to face humanity and then I would have immediately contacted the world governments and requested a full-scale attack"

"You know, don't you, that you would have killed the entire population of Cartago like that? Didn't you say you care about human lives?"

"I said that I calculate the situation based on the loss of lives, not that I am stupid enough to let go of an opportunity when it presents itself to me. Sacrificing a million people to save billions: if I had had absolute certainty of victory, it would have been an acceptable price. After all, if you had refused such advantageous terms you would also have confirmed to me that you were planning to reopen hostilities in the near future, so it would make no sense not to hit and eliminate you now that you were weak, rather than wait for you to start destroying cities and killing hundreds of million of people. Killing a million civilians is certainly not a good action, but if that were the situation, then it would have been necessary"

Sobek scratched his chin with his claws, then smiled. "Funny. Most human beings would hide under a false mask of morality when talking about civilians. Instead you aren't afraid to say things as they really are"

"Wars aren't win with beautiful words. It would be nice if that were the case, but we both know it's just a lie" Jocelyne replied. "In nature, the charitable doesn't win, nor the ruthless: the one who is not afraid to do what must be done when necessary wins. It is wrong to not worry at all about the life of others and to use people only as tools, but it is equally wrong to delude oneself that in a situation of tension like this you can save everyone"

"A more than fair thought. I like you every second more"

Sobek's words were sincere: he truly appreciated the girl's company. He was not surprised that she had long ago been able to look through his elaborate scheme, after all she had already proved she was too smart to be fooled so easily, but he was amazed that Jocelyne would not hesitate to wipe out the entire population of Cartago in order to defeat him and admitted it so easily.

"Hearing such words come out of the mouth of a girl your age, many humans would recommend a good psychologist" he joked.

"Trust me, I've had quite a few in the past two years. I didn't quite have the simplest life, you should know that" Jocelyne grumbled. "I don't care if the rest of the world thinks I'm crazy or cruel. They are probably right. As long as there is as little bloodshed as possible, they can even burn me at the stake like a witch if they want"

The spinosaurus moved slightly and rested its head on one leg. "You didn't come here for a courtesy visit, did you?" he asked sarcastically.

"Did you believe me even for a moment?" Jocelyne retorted.

Sobek let out a slight laugh. "So why are you here? I doubt that you have come so far and taken so many risks just for a chat with an old friend"

"You doubt right" Jocelyne replied crossing her arms. "What I want is the same thing I came here for the first time: to mantain the peace. I don't know what has happened in the last few months, but I know your power is increasing. Even if you weren't ready to face humanity before, you certainly are now"

"On what basis do you deduce this?"

"Oh, please. You evolved and, amazingly, a few days later the illegally detained dinosaurs started to revolt. Although governments prefer to stick to the excuse of 'there is no relationship between the rebels and you', no one really believes that you aren't the mastermind behind these attacks" Jocelyne rolled her eyes as if she were saying the obvious to a child. "I don't know what powers you got and personally I don't care to know them. What I know is that your power will only increase in the future. The more powers you get, the more the balance between my people and yours will be severely tested, and the more easily peace will end. You have shown me that you are a reasonable creature and that you sincerely care about the life of your subordinates, so I ask you to help me to mantain the peace"

Sobek took a deep breath. "You know how to use the words, I can't deny that. Okay, I'm interested. What do you propose?"

"Easy. Do what you already did once: use popular thought to condition the nations" Jocelyne replied. "As you surely know, I have already done everything possible to ensure stability in the human world and I have created an ideology of coexistence with dinosaurs. However, as long as we keep walls between us, humans will continue to look suspiciously at dinosaurs. Therefore, I ask you to tear down that wall. I don't want you to let humans enter your territory without restraint, but neither do I want to keep a distance between us. Invite people here, show them your world, show them that dinosaurs aren't just the killing machines they think they are. In this era where all humans are interconnected, convincing even one person is equivalent to convincing thousands. It will certainly not be a job that can be done in a day, but if people get used to seeing dinosaurs as peaceful creatures, then they will be less suspicious of you. In this way, even if you continue your evolution and become more and more powerful, the nations will be more reluctant to seek conflict with you"

Sobek scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Very smart. Using humans as pawns to convince them not to act against us. It might even work..."

Jocelyne smiled satisfied: "So you gonna do it?"

"No"

Jocelyne's smiles vanished in an istant at that answer. The spinosaurus seemed to agree with her, so she did not understand the reason for that refusal. "For what reason? You just said it can work!"

"No, I said it might work. There is a difference" Sobek replied. "And if you had let me finish you would also know why. What I meant is that such a strategy could work if humanity were different from what it really is. But humanity, at the current state, cannot be saved"