"Rafiki, aren't you coming inside? It's quite cold"

Jackson was watching the sea waves calmly crash on the rocks. The faint rays of the morning sun could already be seen in the distance, but much of the sky was still dark. "It's not that cold, temperatures are rising. We are in mid-spring after all"

On Eden, the seasons lasted a whole year due to the longer orbit due to the larger orbit of the planet. When Sobek was born it was midsummer, and after more than three years it was now mid-spring. However, the temperatures were still a bit stiff due to the cold winter winds that came from the north and hit the northernmost coasts of Maakanar. Just like the one where Jackson was now.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow approaching behind him and a few seconds later Abe sat down next to him. "You say that. The air makes my skin crawl"

"Then go home or get something to cover yourself"

"And leave you here alone? Nah, you know I want to see the sunrise with you. We always did it as children, remember?"

"Yes, every time mom took us to the sea. We sneaked out every morning and ran to the dock to watch the sun rise, often risking falling into the water"

"Once you fell"

"You pushed me"

"I deny any involvement. You have no proof"

"There was no one within a kilometer, you were behind me, and suddenly I felt two hands the same size as yours pushing me off the dock. Who would it have been if not you? God who wanted to play a joke?"

"Why not? Even a deity will get bored sometimes"

"You would be able to deny that the sky is blue just to be right, right?"

"Blue? It's actually black now. Indeed, I would say slightly tending to purple"

Jackson sighed. His brother was maddening at times, but after all that was one of the characteristics that set him apart. Together with stubbornness, the total absence of awareness of danger and a marked ability to always get into trouble. "Is Dariela still asleep?"

"Yes, she is still in bed. She was quite tired. It was quite a night... full of emotions"

Jackson nodded. He knew what Abe meant. That night had been very eventful indeed. But after all, they understood that there was something underneath.

Jocelyne, a few days earlier, had called them to her room and had offered them a short vacation in one of her private homes on the north coast of Odaria. They would have had everything: private sea and beach, umbrellas and deck chairs, food for at least two weeks, all strictly offered by her. According to her, she was used to repay them for the excellent service they had rendered her in the last year.

Both men knew they had done a lot to deserve that vacation: after all, Jackson had risked his life to capture Henry Wu and Abe had been a prisoner for months in Cartago. A holiday was not disdained by either of them, but they both felt that so many comforts were a bit too much. However, Jocelyne had insisted and even proposed to Abe to take Dariela with him, much to the man's embarrassment.

By then, they both understood that something was boiling in the pot and that Jocelyne needed them to get away. Neither of them wished to leave their young miss alone, especially if something dangerous was coming, so they tried to ask for explanations, but they soon gave up: although Jocelyne had not lost her smile, in fact, her tone had made much harsher and more authoritative and his eyes more severe. She seemed to be shouting 'do as I tell you'. And so, in the end, the two men had accepted that vacation.

Initially everything had gone well: the sea and the beach were what they needed to relax a bit. Dariela in particular had benefited from that situation; the woman had been quite upset when Abe asked her to come with him on such short notice, but she had finally been persuaded. Jackson hadn't wanted to know what her brother had done to appease the woman's hot spirits. Dariela was still pouting all the way, but once she reached the house she was very mellow; that quiet place had been a cure-all for her, who was still recovering from the trauma she suffered during the battle with the dinosaurs. Abe had spent a lot of time with her and Jackson had given them space.

In short, everything was going well. Until the day before.

By the time Sobek's proclamation spread across the nation, he obviously reached Abe, Jackson and Dariela as well. When it had happened, all three were particularly frightened; Jackson and Abe, worried about the fate of Jocelyne and their mother, were already packing their bags to go back, but before the internet was shut down they had received a message from Jocelyne, which contained simply two letters: 'NO'. That word had been enough for the two to understand that she didn't want them around. Jackson and Abe had been confused about what to do, but in the end, on Dariela's advice, they simply barricaded themselves in the house and waited.

The wait had been long and very tense, but fortunately not in vain: when President Medley appeared on screens across the nation and announced the government's intention to continue the peace, all three had breathed a sigh of relief. However, the situation returned to confusion as soon as they learned of the eradication of all families except the Jersey family.

That had been a moment of total shock. In an instant, the nation's political and economic structure had collapsed. However, one thing they knew for sure: Markus Jersey could not be the real culprit for what had happened, much less the government. Therefore, behind everything that was going on had to be Jocelyne. And since she had sent them away before the mess started, it was clear that it was something premeditated. All three did not know what to think. Not that they blamed her, on the contrary: the elimination of the heads of families could only be beneficial for the country and above all the peace with the dinosaurs would last another day. However, now the nation would find itself with a great power vacuum. None of them could understand what Jocelyne was planning to do.

Eventually, they concluded that their views were too limited to understand what their young miss wanted to do and decided to await new orders. Since, at least for the time being, the nation would not capitulate, they had decided to go to bed.

Jackson, however, had not been able to sleep and at the crack of dawn he had gone out to watch the sun rise on the seashore. "Did you also spend the night asleep too?"

"Oh, no. It's just that Dariela often moves in her sleep, especially when she's under pressure. She unwittingly threw me out of bed"

Jackson laughed. "She's the one who fuck you, right?"

Abe nearly choked on his own saliva. "Rafiki!"

"Ah! I knew that" Jackson chuckled. Not that he had ever had any doubts: Dariela was probably the strongest and most authoritative woman he knew and was only surpassed in charisma by Jocelyne and Chloe. And her brother, despite his size, was rather peaceful. He had no doubts that, while they were doing 'that', she was the one in charge.

Abe turned his head embarrassingly, trying to change the subject: "What do you think will happen now?"

"Now? Well, since she threw you out of bed, I'm afraid you'll have to decide whether to stay here with me or spend the last few hours of darkness on the sofa..."

"Rafiki..."

"Yeah, I know what you meant, sorry. I tried to play down"

Silence fell between the two. The truth was that none of them really knew what was going to happen. Both felt that hard times awaited them, but could not figure out what hardships they would actually have to endure.

"One thing is certain" Abe said after nearly ten minutes of silence. "If the young miss has acted now, it is because she or she is sure of winning or circumstances have forced her to hurry. But anyway, I doubt that you have not calculated everything carefully"

"Yeah, but don't think it will be easier for this"

"But we can trust, can't we? At least we know that she knows what she is doing"

Suddenly both of their phones rang. The two men pulled out their cell phones and looked at the message. It was from Jocelyne and said: 'Finish your holiday, then you can come back'.

"Finish the holiday, mh? There are only a few days left. Maybe we could come back sooner" Abe suggested.

But Jackson shook his head. "Absolutely no! I've learned the lesson: don't contradict the young miss unless you want to find yourself fighting with your bare hands against a carnotaur! If you told us to wait, let's wait. You have it, she knows what she does"

Abe would have liked to ask for clarification on the 'carnotaur' subject, but he felt that this was not the case. "Okay, you are right. Ok, then let's enjoy these last days of vacation"

The two sat on the seashore for at least another hour, talking about the most disparate things. Neither of them said a single word about what had happened the night before or what was expected to happen in the next few days. As time passed, the sun emerged from the waters of the sea and rose into the sky, first red, then orange and finally yellow, coloring the sky with a thousand colors. Only when it was morning and Dariela, now awake, called them for breakfast did the two get up and went back to the house.

********

Jocelyne was in her room when her phone started ringing; when she checked she saw that it was an unknown number, but she had a half idea who it was. "Hi?"

"Hello, miss Jersey" the changed voice she had learned to associate with Nero by now replied.

"Did you want to make sure you were happy with your job?" she asked rhetorically.

"I would say that I don't need it" Nero replied. "It was enough for me to watch the news to find out how much evidence I have provided has been useful to you"

The evidence Nero had provided to Jocelyne was posted online just a couple of hours after President Medley's proclamation. The purpose was very simple: Jocelyne needed to make the heads of the household look like the absolute villains. Not that it wasn't true, but if she hadn't presented evidence, it could have created considerable tensions.

Just as Sobek needed evidence of heavy weapons deployment on her border to justify his actions and appear as the victim, so too Jocelyne needed to show evidence to make the household purge appear right. In this way, the population would have all lined up against them and there would have been no risk that someone would try to take their place, because he would have been the target of suspicion and criticism.

Humans were just a hypocritical species. Therefore, to accomplish what she and Sobek contemplated creating, Jocelyne needed to make the old status quo look wrong and corrupt. Now the people of Odaria were ready for what was to come.

"Yes, they have been useful to me" she replied sincerely her. "Or rather, they will be"

"Yes, I thought. You didn't just want to justify your purge, did you? Otherwise you wouldn't have asked me so many. Do you have something else in mind"

"Of course. But as I told you when I hired you, this doesn't concern you"

"Partly yes, actually. If it were just your country, I would have no problem waiting. However, now the fate of the world is at stake. May I know why you gave some of the evidence I gave you to lord Sobek?"

Obviously Nero was aware of this, since the evidence Sobek had shown was the same that the hacker had sent her. "I'm afraid it's confidential"

"Aren't you going to tell me?"

"You know everything about me, but I don't know anything about you. I can't risk revealing what's about to happen to a stranger" Jocelyne replied. "It is enough for you to know that no nation's security is in danger. Lord Sobek doesn't intend to attack any country or kill any civilians. I know with absolute certainty"

"You are strangely specific. I wonder what kind of deal you made with lord Sobek to get so many promises"

"No deal. Lord Sobek had no intention of doing these things right away. But as I told you before, I don't mean to tell you anything" Jocelyne frowned. "I know you have the power to stop me, as it would be enough for you to reveal my involvement in the matter. However, I would ask you not to, Nero. My intentions are the same as a year ago: to create a better nation and a world of peace. Everything I do, I do it for this"

"This is not an excuse. Many of the most horrendous actions are carried out for a good purpose"

"I know it. Therefore you will have to trust me, again. The choice is yours now, Nero. But know this: if my plan fails, humanity will cease to exist. There are no third options. So be careful"

"It's a menace?"

"No, it's a weighted consideration based on every available data" she responded. "Let's do this: if even one of the things I said turns out to be false, you will be able to reveal my actions to everyone. But until that happens, you'll have to keep your mouth shut. Deal?"

Nero was silent for at least a minute, so much so that Jocelyne wondered if he had already left the conversation and forgotten the phone on. But finally, he replied, "Okay, miss Jersey. Your background gives me hope for the best. For the time being, I will suspend my judgment. We will see who you really are. Continue what you want to do: I will not act, at least until I deem it appropriate". And having said that, she closed the call.

Jocelyne sighed. Well, at least for the moment Nero would have been quiet: it was a goal. He knew that the hacker would not take some of his actions well, but they were necessary to ensure the continuity of the survival of the human species. He had to keep ingratiating himself with him and taking his time until the positive results of his plan came.

He looked at his cell phone. Nero's call had already been deleted from the call log, a sign that the hacker had infiltrated his phone to delete it. However, many missed calls were present there, along with several messages. All of them were from Hammond, Ian, Sarah, Chloe, Alan, Jamie, Mitch and Robert.

Was it appropriate to call them? Better not. They would have demanded explanations and she didn't know if the calls were being intercepted. Also, if they had known what she was planning to do, they might have agreed with her, but they would have come there to help her, which meant exposing them to great danger. "No" she finally chose. "I don't want to involve them"

So she deleted all the missed calls and deleted the messages without even reading them. She then refocused on what she was doing before Nero called her: after all, a new nation didn't build itself.