After leaving Alice and Adrian, the Mariner cut through the water, back to the reef. Jack and Drew were looking at the sonar scope. Jack said, "Any sign of our Liopleurodon friend?", to which Drew shook his head, "Fortunately not; the reef must be too difficult for him to travel in." Jack gave Drew a puzzled look, "So, do we know where the pups are?". Drew sighed, "Well, that's the thing… the pups are too small to pick up on sonar… so, we're gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way." Jack breathed out and said, "Isn't that always the truth, fearless leader?"
At the allosaur paddock, Leon told Nikolai the full details of his plan. "I got thinking after the Jurassic mission", he said, "and did some working out". He gestured at the allosaurs, "These are the largest carnivores we've ever brought back; they're thirty feet long and weigh two tons. However, in future missions, we're going to bring back things that make these look like geckos; things like T-rex and Giganotosaurus, which were some of the biggest carnivores ever to walk the Earth. If one of those got out, it could cause havoc". Nikolai raised an eyebrow and looked at Leon, "How is that relevant to your plan?" Leon gave Nikolai a serious look, "Having some big, powerful apex predators on our side tips the balance in our favour; in case anything happens and something big, toothy and dangerous ends up wreaking havoc, we can use these guys to stop it." Nikolai still looked sceptical, "And what convinced you to use them, specifically?" Leon smiled at Nikolai, "They were the perfect candidates; I saw them hunting in the Jurassic. Their level of co-ordination impressed me; it allowed them to bring down prey several times their size. We're going to need that in the future." Nikolai gave Leon a curious look, "So, what are you going to do?" Leon smiled, "I'm gonna do the best I can."
Back in the Jurassic, Drew and Jack swam through the reef, in search of the baby Opthalmosaurus. Finding the pups was proving to be more difficult than anticipated, presumably due to the many predators that they had. Which was fine from an evolutionary point of view… however, it meant trying to catch them was a bitch. Whenever they got within close range of a few, they would scatter, darting away into the caverns and tunnels of the coral reef. From what they saw, they noticed differences between these pups and the adults; the pups had a more mottled pattern, which he presumed was for camouflage. As they approached another pup, by a large spreading fan coral, it suddenly turned and snapped at Jack, inches away from his face, before swimming off. That was another difference; they had prominent teeth, which they probably lost when they grew.
Suddenly, in the corner of his eye, they noticed some pups tormenting a shoal of nautilus-like creatures. They looked at each other; they didn't need the info-packs to know what they were. They were ammonites. The pups were snapping at the ammonites, who had drawn in the hoods covering the opening of their shells, meaning that the pups could not get at them. However, the pups were persistent, nibbling at the closed hood and attempting to push it open. Jack turned to Drew and asked "Do you think we could send them all through the portal whilst they're distracted?" Drew shrugged and said, "Sounds like a plan. Get the portal." However, as they approached the ammonites, the pups noticed them and dived back into the reef.
The two looked at each other and rolled their eyes; so close and, yet, so far. They turned to look at the ammonites, which were swimming slowly away. They didn't need to say what the other was thinking; it wasn't much but, hey, it was better than nothing. Drew and Jack swam towards the ammonites and activated the portal directly in their path and, one by one, they swam through the portal. After the last ammonite had gone through, they noticed that the pups they were following had re-appeared on the edge of the reef, looking like children on the edge of a diving board. Drew turned to Jack and smiled, "Perfect opportunity?". Jack nodded in agreement and said, "Perfect opportunity". They swam closer, ready to activate the portal… before the pups suddenly disappeared into the reef. They only had a moment's pause before an enormous shadow, so big that it blocked out the sun, moved slowly over them. Looking up, they both gasped; Jack said, "And, what, pray tell, are those?".
Back at the park, Linda and Khatin were beginning their plans to introduce the Postosuchus to each other. Their plan had been very simple; to introduce the two on an area of the left side of the enclosure that the male had not marked out as his territory. This was neutral ground, in order to reduce the likelihood of a fight. However, just in case things came to worse, there were six security personnel, on standby with hosepipes to separate the warring archosaurs. When Khatin gave the signal, the door of the containment truck opened and the female Postosuchus emerging into the paddock. She briefly looked around, pausing to sniff on her new surroundings.
Suddenly, the male Postosuchus came walking towards her, bellowing and waving his tail. As he came towards her, he swiped the ground with his forelimbs, throwing dust at her, whilst snarling aggressively. However, the female did not back down. Instead, she reared up on her hind legs, bellowing at him. The male reared up and bellowed a threat in kind. The nearest member of the security personnel briefly raised his hose, but was stopped by Khatin and Linda. He gave them a look as if they'd gone mad. However, Khatin explained, "No, this is necessary. They're having a contest to set territorial boundaries; basically, whose side is whose." Linda nodded, "We just need to keep an eye out; if it gets violent, we interfere." Eventually, the brief conflict was over, and the two Postosuchus relaxed; the boundaries had been established without the need for physical violence. The two archosaurs walked off in opposite directions. The brief confrontation had been an exercise in setting boundaries; he had his territory and she had hers.
Meanwhile, Alice and Adrian turned the corner on the beach to see a flock of pterosaurs fishing on the shore. Each pterosaur was brown-furred and had a wingspan of about five feet. Much of their length was their tail, which was long and stiffened, ending in a diamond shaped point. However, it was the head that was the most distinguishing feature; their faces were bright red, and their jaws filled with horizontally-angled, needle-shaped teeth. They didn't need the info packs to know what these were; they were Rhamphorhynchus. The pterosaurs were on the shore, digging through the sand to find food; every now and again, a pterosaur's head would come up with a gelatinous substance in its mouth. Adrian and Alice gave each other puzzled looks. "Wonder what they're doing?", Adrian said. Alice shrugged, "Those things they're eating look like horseshoe crab eggs; maybe it's an important food source for them." Alice suddenly smiled and said, "They're all on the beach, searching for food… perfect opportunity, wouldn't you think?" Adrian smiled in return and said, "You just read my mind."
Suddenly, they heard something emerge from the water and turned to see a large dinosaur ambling onto the shoreline, some distance away. It was a theropod dinosaur, some twenty feet long. There was a similarity in appearance to the Allosaurus back at the park; like them, it stood bipedally on two large, muscular legs, whilst its arms were short and ended in three-fingered hands, with its body being counterbalanced by a long tail. However, its tail was slightly longer and flatter than the Allosaurus and its head was longer and deeper. The pterosaurs squawked loudly at this intruder, who ignored them to advance towards what appeared to be the decaying body of a large turtle. With a tug, it drew out a large blob of meat and began to feast. Alice and Adrian looked at each other; they knew what this was. From the info packs, this was a Eustreptospondylus; an opportunistic hunter-scavenger that could swim between the islands of this Jurassic sea. However, what they did not know was that, in the podocarp forests, there were others watching them.
