Alan Grant could barely move. There was nothing around him, only rubble and dust. The corpses of humans and animals were scattered everywhere, completely burned by something, of some of them only the shadow squashed on the wall remained.

Alan felt he was in danger, he felt he had to leave, but he couldn't. It was as if something was anchored there. Then suddenly he heard a roar and snapped his head; but he could not see anything, because a great light hit him, and words emerged from it...

"Alan?"

Professor Grant gasped and sat up. Ellie appeared in his field of vision, visibly shaking him: "Alan, wake up. We're almost there" the boy said, only to notice the man's face. "Have you had another nightmare?"

Alan put his hat back on and turned to the window. "Forget it, I'm fine"

"Are you sure…?"

"I'm fine!"

Ellie fell silent. He knew that in some cases it was better not to provoke professor Grant.

Alan had visibly aged in those years; even if only three years had passed since the real outbreak of the war, the anxiety and stress had not benefited him at all. Now he had a longer beard and was forced to wear glasses, and some wrinkles were starting to appear on his face. Sure he would have looked much younger had the circumstances not been so critical, but with all the problems he faced every day, coupled with the fear of a real all-out war with the dinosaurs, the poor man looked at least twenty years older. Also, for some time he hadn't been able to sleep well.

Ellie had tried several times to help him, trying to give him sleeping pills and drugs, but nothing seemed to solve the problem. Even though drugs could decrease physical stress, they could do nothing about mental stress. And every time he fell asleep Alan always had the same dream: a ruined city with thousands of dead and a great light that hit him. He had never been able to make sense of that nightmare, but his instinct told him that something very, very dangerous was looming on the horizon.

"Come on, Alan, be kinder to your woman" Billy teased, sitting in the back seat.

Professor Grant sighed. "Remind me why I agreed to take you with us"

"Because I insisted until you gave in"

"Good. Now remind me why I shouldn't leave you alone here"

"Because I'm disabled"

"Thanks. Now I have clearer ideas"

Billy laughed. "Wow, that's already the second line I've heard from you! Let's make progress. Ellie, you're really change him in better..."

Trying to ignore his pupil and his girlfriend that made fun of him, Alan looked out the window. Hammond's mansion was getting closer and closer. Alan had repeatedly wondered what the reason for this secrecy was, but he knew he would have no answers until Hammond gave them to him.

When they got out of the car, they found a surprise waiting for them. "But look! Are you here too?"

It was Ian Malcolm. He too had aged a bit due to stress, but he still retained his unmistakable style. He had a thicker beard and grayer hair, but he still dressed like a rock star and hadn't lost his inevitable smirk. Alan let his old friend kiss the hand of Ellie and crush him in a bone-breaking hug, only to become the target of a long series of not-so-gentle pats on his shoulder.

"Ian, stop it" Alan thanked heaven as Sarah Hardy came to his aid and pushed the overly expressive Professor Malcolm away from him. "Sorry, you know he's happy to see you"

"Don't worry, I know. Too well, unfortunately" Alan replied. "So, have you already regretted marrying him?"

Sarah smiled as she looked at the ring inserted into the ring finger of her right hand. She and Ian had married about six months ago. Professor Malcolm, in his constant pessimism, had decided that life was too short to be wasted and had chosen to take the plunge. Before that time, if anyone dared to claim that Ian Malcolm would get married someday, that person would be locked up in an asylum. The same thing many people wanted to do to Ian Malcolm himself, not least Alan.

"Sometimes it's hard, but… it keeps going" Sarah replied with a smile.

"Hey, what are you saying? I'm a model husband!" protested Professor Malcolm.

"The words 'model husband' and 'I', spoken by you in the same sentence, are one of the greatest lies ever conceived by mankind" said a weary voice behind them. The group turned to see Mitch Morgan get out of a newly arrived car.

Ian pretended to be offended: "At least I have my company here. Where did you leave Jamie?"

"With Clementine. You know how it is, I can't leave a daughter alone" was Mitch's prompt reply. "You, instead? Who did you give Kelly to?"

"Kelly now at seventeen. She is a teen now. She went on vacation with a friend of hers" Ian explained. "I gave her some money and in return she promised to call me once a day. Don't laugh, sooner or later your daughter will do the same too"

"Hope as late as possible" Mitch replied. "Well, we're all here. At this point there is only..."

A fourth car pulled into the courtyard and stopped in front of them. From it came a slightly aged Robert Oz, with a few less hairs on the nape of his neck. "But look! Speak of the devil…" Ian laughed, earning Sarah an elbow in the side.

Robert smiled at that scene. "Doctor Hardy, you have more and more my respect"

"She has the esteem of all of us" Alan added as he watched Ian squeeze his aching stomach.

"Go fuck yourself" was the only reply from Professor Malcolm, who turned his back on them and strode towards the door. "Well, I guess it's time to go inside" Sarah said seeing him advance so resolutely. The others agreed.

The servants welcomed them warmly into the house and led them up to Hammond's room. After receiving the consent of their master, they let them in. The group found old John Hammond lying on his bed, but other people were also present in the room.

"John! It's nice to see you again. I hope you haven't summoned us to read your will. In that case, I want the mansion" Ian greeted him with his usual irony, but was soon overtaken by Billy who quickly look to a man standing at the side of the room: "Mr. Tanz! " he exclaimed, shaking his hand. "I didn't think you would be here!"

"Wait… Tanz? Are you Darius Tanz? Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Niger?" Sarah asked, opening her eyes wide in her surprise.

"As well as the owner of the Tanz industries, international tycoon, brilliant scientist, playboy and philanthropist billionaire" replied Darius, stepping forward and kissing her hand. "I assume you are Dr. Hardy... your husband, on the other hand, needs no introduction"

"Flatterer" Ian said with a smile as a boy approached him, "Professor Malcolm, I'm… Liam Cole. Sorry I introduce myself this way, but I'm a huge fan of him. I wanted to tell you that your mathematical theories of chaos and fractal models are incomparable, something brilliant. I learned a lot from you and your talks while preparing my degree"

Sarah would have liked to hit herself on the head: if there was one thing she had learned in her life, it was never to tease professor Malcolm's ego. And indeed ten seconds later Ian was deep in conversation with his new flatterer.

Darius didn't seem very happy with it, but he ignored it and continued the introductions: "Professor Morgan, professor Grant, professor Oz, professor Sattler; it's a pleasure to meet you"

"For us too" Alan replied. Ellie nooded.

Darius looked at Billy: "I'm glad to meet you too, but I didn't expect you would bring a guest, professor Grant, professor Sattler"

"Billy is my assistant and a dear friend. What you say to me you can tell him too" Alan replied.

Another man came forward: "Very pleased, gentlemen. I am…"

"Simon Masrani" Mitch interrupted. "We know who you are. John Hammond's heir does not go unnoticed. And those are Claire Dearing and..." He realized he didn't know the latest girl. "Excuse me, who are you?"

"My name is Jillian Hayes. I'm an employee of the Tanz industries" replied the girl with a smile.

Suddenly a voice trilled out of nowhere: "Very good. Now that you've finished the introductions, can we start?"

Everyone turned to the right wall of the room, where the voice had come from. Hammond smiled slightly and pressed a button near his bed. Under the astonished eyes of all, the wall rotated and showed a huge screen, where the face of a well-known girl appeared. "It's a pleasure to see you again for me too"

"Jocelyne! Or should I call you president Jersey?" Ian greeted her warmly. "I remembered you lower..."

"In three years, people change, professor Malcolm. I also remembered you less bearded" Jocelyne replied back, grinning at the frown assumed by Ian at her comment. "And anyway you can call me whatever you like. We are not at a public conference now, and I do not forget those who helped me"

"It's nice for us to see you again, Jocelyne" Alan said, anticipating Professor Malcolm's spite.

"Professor Grant. I see you in good shape" Jocelyne said.

"How do you get connected?" Mitch asked curiously. "There should be a block of communications..."

"Darius here has granted me access" Jocelyne explained. "Forgive the short notice, but given the situation we thought it appropriate to speak together face to face. After all, turbulent times are ahead of us, so it's important that each of us guarantee his support"

"Can we know what you're talking about?" Robert asked, speaking for the first time since he had entered the house. "The plan..." he froze, remembering they weren't alone.

Darius shrugged and signaled him to be quiet: "You can speak freely. I already know everything and I can guarantee the silence of my employees"

"We know everything too" Claire said.

Robert was silent for a moment, then continued: "I'm pretty sure I finally understand your and Lord Sobek's intent. The plan was to force the hands of the nations and then create a new international organization. Well, even if there are still no official statements, I am pretty sure that this will happen very soon, otherwise the Queen of Niger would certainly not have proclaimed peace. But if everything is going according to plan, then why call us to this secret meeting? What's cooking in the pot? "

"Always the same, huh, Professor Oz? Well, this time I have to agree with you quite right" Jocelyne replied. "Unfortunately, an unexpected event has occurred"

Jocelyne, Darius and partly Hammond explained to the scientists what had happened in the last few weeks, revealing that the reason that had prompted the queen of Niger to act was the creation of the terrible nuclear bombs. As expected, the scientists had no positive reactions to the news.

"This is a beautiful mountain of shit"

Only one thing could be said with absolute certainty about professor Malcolm's personality: he had no restrictions on saying what he thought. Whether this feature was an advantage or a defect, well, it still had to be verified.

Beside him Alan groaned slightly. As much as he hated to admit it, he fully agreed with his colleague. At that moment, he seemed to have aged another ten years.

In the end, it was Mitch Morgan who really voiced everyone's thoughts: "If we really created these 'nuclear bombs', then we really have one foot in the pit"

"I agree" muttered Robert Oz.

Darius tried to calm them down: "Gentlemen, I can understand that the situation seems critical, but..."

"Sounds critical? The situation is critical!" Mitch exclaimed. "Those fools will let weapons of mass destruction turn the planet into a radioactive wasteland! Within half a day the world would be devastated by wave upon wave of destruction! We are talking about firestorms, acid rain, sand and dust storms, tsunamis..."

"Not to mention that the dust that the bombs would raise would be enough to cover the entire planet for years, decades, perhaps even centuries!" Billy added as white as a rag. "Even if humans manage to survive the catastrophes triggered by the fallout, what will they eat when the absence of sunlight kills all plants and consequently also animals? What do they think, that they can live eating air?"

"Those have equipped bunkers. They are certain that they will survive, which is why they are ready to devastate the planet. They don't give a damn about ordinary people" Ian said with a hint of disgust in his voice.

"CALM!". Hammond's sudden scream made everyone jump; no one imagined that that old sick man could produce such a sound. "Stop squawking and listen! I didn't summon you here to hear your complaints!"

Hammond coughed after those words; evidently speaking in such a loud voice had not done him much good. Simon and Claire ran to help him, and it took at least two minutes for the old man to stop gasping.

When silence finally returned, Jocelyne spoke up: "Hammond is right, crying on yourself is useless. We rather need to act"

"I hope we have a plan" Robert grumbled.

"Yup. Lord Sobek had taken this possibility into account and had calculated a backup plan, which both the Queen of Niger and I are aware of" Jocelyne replied. "Our goal, in a nutshell, will be to present an even more powerful front to the Commission than we had set out. The original idea was simply to create a new international organization and let the nations surrender on their own one after the other. However, due to the circumstances, we will have to be much more incisive. We need to get the support of industrialists, large financial groups and so on"

"I've already thought of those" Hammond said. "I have already contacted my friend Benjamin Lockwood, who has sometimes brought many other tycoons to our side. I can already guarantee that Mantah Corp, BioSyn and many other international companies will support us. And of course, the Raiding Global I own will fully side with the new organization"

"I've done my part too" Darius said. "I had to lick my uncle Nicholas' ass a bit, but when he realized that the world was about to blow up he decided to help us. Probably the only good thing he will ever do in his life. My uncle knows the seventeen wealthiest men in the world, and he assured me that he will convince at least five of them to side with us"

"The support of the big financial groups will convince many nations to join the new organization. Pauline intends to bring at least a hundred countries to our side before appearing before the Commission, but if even the biggest supporters of the planet's economy side with us then we will get at least double the support" Jocelyne continued. "But if we really want to avoid the nuclear war, then we must use every means at our disposal to strike ever harder. The support of the scientific community would be perfect"

"The support of the scientific community?" Grant asked confused.

"Apparently we still have an importance" Ian grumbled. "What would our task be?"

"If we want to attract more and more nations to our side, then advertising will be key. And an extraordinary advance in science and technology would be perfect for the case" Jocelyne replied. "In recent years, my country has been working hard to advance in the pharmaceutical field. Likewise, Hammond here has laid the groundwork for the creation of new alternative and renewable energy production methods. And finally, the Tanz industries are ready for an incredible breakthrough in aerospace research. And there are at least a dozen other projects that could change our society for the better. What we need to complete them now are the best minds on the planet"

The scientists in the room began to understand. "Basically, you want us to spread the news in the scientific community that the new international organization is ready to finance scientists around the world and allow them to carry out those works they have so far only dreamed of" Mitch said.

"Exactly. Support from the scientific community would be perfect. The more scientists we bring to our side, the more we keep those crazy Commissioners from recruiting new ones to design even worse weapons" Jocelyne said. "You are currently the most important characters in the entire academic world. If you support us, almost all scientists on the planet will do the same. So, are you with us?"

There was a moment of silence, then Ian let out a chuckle: "Is there a need to ask? Rather, when do we start?"