After their encounter with the Albertosaurus, the drive down to the coastline of Cretaceous Texas was fairly uneventful. It was about an hour before they reached their destination. They got out of the Jeep and looked out at the beach they were on.

It was low tide and small waves gently lapped at the sand and it looked, for all in the world, like a deserted beach today. However, they were standing on the coast of the sea that cleaved North America in two during the Late Cretaceous; the Western Interior Seaway.

Meanwhile, Drew looked around this expanse of sand; there was no sign of Deinosuchus that he could see. Or no sign of much of anything. Of course, the story might be different elsewhere. Drew looked at both Cynthia and Leon and said, "Here's the plan; we'll search round the immediate area for any signs of Deinosuchus; if we don't find anything, we meet up and formulate a new plan. For this we'll split up; one of us will take a glider, whilst the other two will take the Jeep."

Leon said, almost immediately, "I'll take the glider and you guys can take the Jeep". Drew raised his eyebrows curiously, "Why?" Leon's reply was simply, "I need to think about a few things." After saying that, Leon went to get the glider, whilst Drew and Cynthia got the Jeep ready. The search had begun.

Leon had launched the glider and, after using its propeller for a short distance, was now soaring through the air, scanning the sea for giant crocodiles. He wasn't that high up; objects below weren't all but invisible specks, but it was high enough he felt isolated from the world. He smiled at that thought. The solitude was helpful. The solitude got him thinking.

Technically, it was because of Drew he was in this glider, right now. Unlike Drew, Leon hadn't been a Novum employee when Theodore had started recruiting. Rather, at that time, he had been a recently-unemployed animal handler who Drew had recommended to Theodore due to seeing a use Leon's extensive knowledge of animals. This hadn't gone down well with some and, when Leon had been hired, many thought he was a walking textbook and not up to the task required. Sadly, even after all this time, some people still thought this; despite all he could to dissuade this reputation, they still saw him as "the useless one".

He remembered Jack's conversation with him back in the Mongolia mission, in which Jack had told him that he wasn't a hanger-on, that people respected him. Jack's words should have rung true but, somehow, they didn't; whilst Jack had given him some reassurance, he still felt like people didn't have much confidence in his abilities. In particular, many people still thought Leon's plan about training the allosaurs was a fool's errand, doomed to end in either blood or tears.

Leon thought for a second; did he want to see himself vindicated? They said the best weapon was one you never used, but how would he have known his plan had worked otherwise? To be honest, Leon was thankful that most of the escapes had solved themselves fairly easily and Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion hadn't been needed. So far…

His train of thought was cut off by a sudden squawk. Leon looked up to see a flock of pterosaurs surrounding him. Each had long, pointed wings and a wingspan of about eight feet. They had long, slender, slightly upturned beaks, with a tall crest, like a single antler, which raised about above above its head. He knew what they were immediately; they were Nyctosaurus, a common pterosaur in the region. Leon leaned the glider towards the flock and pressed the button on the remote, and the portal whirred into life. The flock flew through, moving as if a single entity, into the present.

Right, eyes back on the prize. He looked down to the sea and saw a large, crocodilian shape swimming in the water. He knew what this was immediately; their target. Deinosuchus. His eyes followed the shape as it swam through the water, before it reached an estuary, the mouth of a river connected to the sea. As it reached the estuary, it turned left and swam up the river. Leon lifted his communicator and said, "Guys…"

On the ground, Drew and Cynthia's Jeep was trundling along the coastline, searching for any sign of Deinosuchus. So far, they had been unsuccessful. No Deinosuchus had hauled themselves out onto land from the water. All they had to do now was to wait until Leon got back to them; maybe he'd been a bit luckier.

Meanwhile, back at the park, Jack was standing in Raptor Territory, watching the Utahraptors, watching the pack. were in their individual holding areas, awaiting their physicals, pacing up and down irritably and hissing at the air. Jack walked up to the one containing Red, the alpha female; he'd spent most of his time with the Utahraptors working with her. If the alpha accepted him, he reasoned, the rest of the pack would. Jack gently reached his hand in and put it on Red's snout. Her snarls began to quiet, as she gradually calmed down. As he gently rubbed her snout (which he knew she liked), Jack smiled at the large Utahraptor, who cocked her head curiously at him. The two briefly regarded each other.

Suddenly, he heard someone clearing his throat behind him and he turned to see Collete Dubois standing behind him. Jack raised his eyebrow and asked her, "What are you doing here?" Collete shrugged and said, "Dropped in to visit. How well are you doing with the Utahraptors?" Jack smiled, "Good. I've got a connection with Red; she seems to have accepted me. That'll make it easier to bond with the rest of the pack."

Collete walked down the walkway to stand next to Jack. Looking around, Jack reflected, "It's amazing, you know." Collete looked, confused, "What do you mean?". Jack looked around and said, "Amazing how well things have been going lately. We've passed a safety audit, given two sets of orphaned dinosaurs new families, the list goes on and on… That's the thing I've realised; sometimes change is for the best. Like…"

He directed this last remark at Collete. Smiling, Collete raised her eyebrow and asked, "Like what?" Jack smiled, "Like you and me." Collete looked curiously and asked "Why not?" Jack opened his mouth to say something before suddenly realising himself and saying "Never mind." At this, Red let out an amused squawk. Jack's eyes darted around the room, as Collete chuckled and said "And, besides, it hasn't all been sunshine and rainbows; the Stegosaurus incidents, the Borealosaurus escape…" Jack shrugged, and said, "Hey, life isn't perfect." Collete briefly considered and smiled, "That's true." They turned, looked at each other and smiled, at once savouring and regretting the intimacy of the moment.

Suddenly, Jack and Collete's communicators whirred into life, "Can anyone hear me?". Jack and Collete looked at each other, both silently cursing this interruption of an intimate moment, and picked them up almost synchronously, with Jack saying, "This is Jack; what do you want?" Nikolai's voice crackled in, "Stay where you are; myself, Kyle and a team will be arriving here shortly. There's an emergency." Jack and Collete looked at each other, and Collete said, "What kind of emergency, Captain?" Nikolai replied, almost casually, "Well, the entire Velociraptor pack escaped; so, it's quite the emergency."

Back in Cretaceous Texas, the team were following the river in the Jeep; they had discussed going upriver in canoes, but with the presence of Deinosuchus, this was deemed too risky. After about an hour of driving, they reached a large, freshwater lake. Drinking by the lake was a herd of Parasaurolophus, including the two youngsters from earlier.

Resting on the banks of the other side of the lake were several large crocodiles. In fact, they were incredibly large; the largest was up to forty feet long. There was a close resemblance to the Sarcosuchus back at the park; they had the same armoured body, short, powerful limbs and long, heavy tail that characterised crocodiles. However, rather than the Sarcosuchus' sandy yellow scales, these were a greenish grey in colour, becoming darker on the back and lighter on the under belly. Also, unlike the Sarcosuchus' long, thin snout, they had the short, broad snout of an alligator. Drew smiled, "Deinosuchus. Guys, we've just found our targets." Cynthia turned to Drew, "So, what do we do?"

Drew turned to her and smiled, "We've got the crocs and the Parasaurolophus both in the same place; that means we could, hopefully, get two species for the price of one. All we need to do is wait". As they watched the herd, a young Parasaurolophus, having strayed slightly from the others was drinking from the lake.

Suddenly, the water churned and the young hadrosaur was grabbed in a pair of crocodilian jaws, as the enormous form of a Deinosuchus came erupting out of the water. The herd, panicked, stampeded away from the lakeside. Drew, not wanting to miss the opportunity that this afforded, turned to his team and yelled, "Now!". Leon and Cynthia began to set up the portal in the direction the herd was stampeding, before Drew pressed the button and the portal whirred into life. Not changing their course, the entire herd stampeded through the portal, into the present.

Drew turned back to the lake; the Deinosuchus had got away. He sighed, "Damn". Leon walked up to Drew and asked, "What's the plan now?" Drew sighed and looked around; the sun was setting and it wouldn't really be safe looking for Deinosuchus at night. He breathed out, "We make camp."