"Stand on the sides and keep the guns in their holsters. I don't want to hear a shot, not even the sound of a gun safety, without my direct order. Remember, we are here to welcome an ambassador, not to fight"

Abe was coordinating a group of soldiers who were stationing themselves along the border between the Great Republic of Beleriard and the rest of the continent, the same border that Jocelyne and her team had crossed a year earlier to go confer with the dinosaurs. Now the situation was the same, only reversed: now it was the dinosaurs who sent the ambassador.

As defense minister, Abe could easily have sent any officer to greet the ambassador, but given the delicate nature of the mission he had preferred to attend in person. Jocelyne had made it clear that this negotiation had to go well, so they could not afford false moves.

The group waited. Abe had thought of everything to make the ambassador at ease: to avoid making him walk, he had brought a truck with him (obviously armored to avoid attacks) and had readjusted it to make it a comfortable transport vehicle. Unless the ambassador was a sauropod, the truck could safely transport him wherever he wanted.

Besides, he would have prepared a large supply. Jocelyne had announced to the whole nation her intentions to deal with the dinosaurs since her election campaign, and recently the news that the dinosaurs had accepted the negotiation had been well received among the masses; however Abe knew that there were still radical fanatics around who could have attacked the convoy to cause a rift between humans and dinosaurs. Which was the last thing they needed, so he had mobilized a good chunk of the army to protect the ambassador.

Finally, around noon, a slight shock vibration began to be felt through the ground, a clear sign that something heavy was approaching. And in fact, the figure of a large allosaurus soon appeared in the field of vision.

Abe's heart leapt: he recognized it. It was the same allosaurus who had shown strong empathy towards humans a year earlier and who, according to Jackson, had participated in the delegation team. If he was the ambassador, then the negotiations would have been easier and fairer than expected.

The allosaurus approached without showing the slightest sign of fear, and in turn the humans gave no sign of hostility. When he came in front of them, the dinosaur raised his right paw in greeting: "Hello, gentlemen. I am Al, ambassador of the dinosaur people, sent here by the great pack leader Sobek to confer with your president"

Abe stepped forward: "We welcome you, Ambassador Al!" he greeted him. "We have prepared the best possible welcome for you"

"Thank you. You are too kind"

"This and more for the peace"

Abe was satisfied: the dinosaurus seemed quite sympathetic towards them and his words did not seem rhetorical or sarcastic. Perhaps, that first close contact could have ended very positively.

Following Abe's instructions, Al got into the truck and the convoy left for the capital. Abe made sure that all safety measures were respected: he had no intention of risking that due to some enthusiastic fanatic, relations with the dinosaurs deteriorate. Jocelyne was playing a delicate and extremely dangerous game, and it was her job as defense minister to make sure that all was well.

*********

"It took you a long time to came, Alan"

Billy was watching with amusement his mentor, who finally after almost two days of awakening him had come to see him. Professor Grant seemed unable to say anything, or even think of anything to say. "How are you?" he finally asked.

"It sounds weird, but I'm sleepy" Billy laughed.

Alan smiled at his pupil's joke. "I am happy that you are back among us. I was afraid that you would no longer be there..."

"Hey, hey, let's not think about bad things. I'm awake now, and according to the doctors I'm out of danger" Billy stopped him immediately. "There is no point in worrying about what might have happened. Sorry if I'm not dead, you'll have to withstand me for a while"

"I've had to work with Ian lately. If I have withstanded him, I can withstand anyone"

"You worked with the professor Malcolm? So he's dead?"

"Sorry?"

"Yeah, well, I know you can't speak out loud here, but... did he has an accident?"

"What are you saying?" Alan asked, starting to suspect that the coma had ruined his pupil's brain function.

"Well, I've always believed that if I took you and Ian Malcolm and locked you in the same room, you wouldn't hold out for more than ten minutes before turning into the Incredible Hulk and slaughtering him. Consequently, if you have been forced to work with him, I must conclude that by now the poor professor Malcolm has left this world, but I would be interested in how you would have covered up the murder and... ouch!" Billy grunted as Alan patted him lightly on the leg.

"Are you lucky to be on a hospital bed, or I would have punched you in the head" Professor Grant warned him, but that didn't stop Billy from continuing to giggle like a moron for the next five minutes, much to his chagrin. interlocutor.

"Anyway, I heard from the doctors that you phoned every week to make sure of my condition" the boy said as soon as he managed to calm down. "Thank you for so much apprehension. Even if you could have sent me a flower from time to time"

"I would have come to see you, if..."

"I know, I know, my family. They told me they warned you to stay away from me. They didn't even want me to let you visit me if you would come now that I'm awake"

"And what did you tell them?"

"I screwed them up and pointed out that I am a grown man and that I can choose for myself who can and who cannot visit me while I am lying on a bed with half my bones broken after a coma that lasted more than a year"

Alan smiled at Billy's joke, but it was a sad smile. In the end, he asked the fateful question: "How was it, well... waking you up?"

The hilarity on the face of his pupil died away for a moment. "Well, I can't say it was pleasant" he replied. "The world went crazy while I was indisposed. I had to recover... many things"

"It must not have been a good recover"

"No, not that much. Imagine falling into a coma on a perfectly normal day, and then waking up to find that the whole of humanity is preparing for an all-out war, that a foolish fool made the dinosaurs smart, and that the person who hired us before I fell. in a coma she became president of a nation that is opposing the international organization that has ruled the world for nearly a century" Billy grumbled. "Believe me, it's not easy to digest"

"I imagine"

"When I fell asleep, I had just heard a dinosaur speak, something that went against all my beliefs. Then I wake up and I find that the intelligent dinosaurs are now declaring war on us. Indeed, from what I understand it is we the ones who declare it to them... I'm still trying to put the pieces together"

Alan nodded with a sigh. "So is this what you wanted to tell me that night? That a dinosaur had talked to you?"

"Yeah, it was the asshole who made me like this. He wasn't a great talker, but I managed to loosen his tongue... even if unintentionally"

"What was it, by the way?"

"An utahraptor. But it wasn't a fair fight, he got some pigeons to help him"

"Pigeons? What do you..."

"I'll explain you another time. Now tell me about yourself. What have you done in this last year? I've heard your name on the news several times. Apparently you are now famous"

"We became after we solved the mystery. Me, Ian, Ellie..."

"Right, Ellie Sattler! You are back together, huh?"

Alan turned red. "We don't have that kind of relationship. We are just working together, as in the past"

"Really? I mean, do you have your ex that you're still in love with there by your side, and you don't even make a move with her? You could have done better, you disappoint me"

"Oh, shut up! We are no longer young"

"It is not an excuse. I understand that you may feel a little uncomfortable, after all it is better to try with girls when you are like me: young, beautiful, heroic..."

"Heroic? What would make you heroic?"

"Hello? I'm on a hospital bed after a furious battle"

"I doubt that being attacked and beaten by dinosaurs makes you heroic"

"Always to specify! I am heroic. Even when I was in a coma I was heroic"

"For real?"

"Yes! You will never believe what I dreamed of. Basically you and I went to an island full of dinosaurs in the company of some guys who promised us money, but there the plane we were traveling on was attacked by a giant spinosaurus with a suchomimus nose and a crescent sail which then it clashed with a strange tyrannosaurus without feathers and with protruding teeth until it killed it. Then we found out that the two guys who had hired us were looking for their missing son, so we went looking for him too and fought a bunch of plucked two-meter-high velociraptors. Then we were separated, you found the boy and we reunited the next day, but we were again attacked by the spinosaurus and took refuge in an aviary where we were attacked by pteranodons who kidnapped the boy. Then, very heroically, I would launch myself with a parachute and I was able to save it, but at the cost of my own life since I was captured and massacred by the pteranodons. Miraculously, however, I managed to save myself and the marines came to get me out of trouble..."

"Ok, I will advise the nurse to reduce the amount of your drugs" said Alan stopping him in the middle of the story.

"Oh, come on! I don't think it was the painkillers or whatever medicine they put in me"

"Then the coma has messed up your brain functions. You have too absurd dreams"

"Ha ha! I can finally hear you making a joke!" Billy laughed, only to get serious again. "Anyway, what I meant was that you don't have to let Ellie go. Maybe you are no longer young, but love has no age, right? How did they say in that movie? 'Life is like a box of chocolates...' "

"... 'you never know what is happening to you'. Okay, I get it. You are the one who showed me that movie"

"And then you already know what I mean. Come on, Alan, what do you have to lose after all?"

Professor Grant bit his lip, then simply said: "I will reflect on your advice, but only as long as you don't bring up the subject in the future"

"If you really insist..." Billy replied with a grin. "But you have to let me know her. I have the right to do this after you have talked to me about her for so long"

"Forget it"

"Okay, I'll ask Ian"

"Don't try to involve him!"

"Then introduce her to me"

Alan seemed to be about to jump on him, but luckily he restrained himself. Evidently, beating a man lying on a hospital bed was a bit too much for his moral code. "Okay, I'll let you know her one day. But don't dare to talk to her about me or about something I told you!"

"I don't make promises" Billy laughed. Alan looked at him like he was tempted to strangle him.