Somehow, Gabriel managed to get his shell shocked guests back to the Jeeps. Castiel was still in a daze as his brother threw an arm around his shoulders, steering him back in the direction of the vehicle, his showboating in full swing.

"Didn't I tell you, Cas? Didn't I?" he asked with a grin, opening the Jeep door for Castiel. "Life changing. You could never regret this trip. First people outside my company to see a living dinosaur!"

Castiel looked over his shoulder at the Brachiosaur, the massive creature now stopping at a different tree, plucking entire branches from the top of it as easily as if they were single leaves. Its mouth moved much like a cow as it chewed, aside from the occasional loud snap of a branch between its teeth, and it didn't seem concerned in the least about the humans and the cars close by its feet.

Why would it? Not only was it far too big to be worried about anything human-sized, but it had no instincts toward humans. No built in need for caution within the species. Modern animals had learned, for the most part, that humans were to be feared, despite their size. Dinosaurs had never had the chance to learn that.

"Gabriel, how…" he started, but Gabriel just pushed him toward the Jeep, and he climbed inside clumsily.

"I'll show you everything. Promise. For now, let's show you where you're staying," Gabriel said, hopping back in the driver's seat and glancing over his shoulder at the other Jeep. Castiel followed his gaze, not surprised to see the paleontologists pointing at the dinosaurs by the lake and talking; he couldn't hear them over the Jeep's motor, but he imagined he wouldn't be able to keep up anyway. These scientists, after all, probably knew more about dinosaurs than anyone else.

Till now, of course. Gabriel's team had likely learned a lot. And maybe some of it the hard way.

"So the electric fences, they're for the ones that are dangerous? Like the T-Rex?" he asked, leaning forward and bracing his arm on the shoulder of Gabriel's seat. Gabriel nodded, steering back onto a dirt road and into heavier brush.

"Like I told you, Cas, top of the line security. We developed our own computer systems for it from the ground up," he explained, though somehow, Castiel didn't feel much better. "Electric fences, double gated computer activated steel entry points to every road that runs by the paddocks, camera systems that track the GPS trackers we implanted in every born dinosaur, hell, we even have a bunker full of safari game weapons and tranquilizers. You're safer here than in your house back home."

Castiel snorted. "Not sure I'd go that far," he said, and while Gabriel's system did sound impressive, it still ate away at him, a gnawing doubt that he'd flown right into a giant steel trap. He wanted to be optimistic, wanted to be as excited as the scientists in the car behind him, but while the beauty of the animals wasn't lost on him, their danger wasn't either. He hesitated, then finally decided to not dance around the most pressing question.

"How many casualties so far, Gabriel?"

Crowley snorted and rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, you bloody wanker. You're in the most innovative theme park in the world, dinosaurs are walking around, and you want to talk death tolls? We're going to make a fortune off this place, one way or another," the lawyer said, tapping away on what looked like a miniature spreadsheet on his phone. Probably already calculating ticket prices.

"It's okay, Crowley. I owe it to him to be honest, at least," Gabriel said, though he hadn't lost any of his confidence at the question. He'd probably expected it. "We've lost two people, Cas, and in both situations protocol weren't being followed. If they'd stuck to the guidebook, there wouldn't have been a problem. And anyway, those were employees working in unusual circumstances. It's not like we're going to let the guests get cozy with the carnivores."

Castiel still didn't feel convinced, but he didn't say so, not right now. Not when he was still reeling over what he'd just seen. He needed time to think, time to make sense of all this.

The Jeep rounded a corner and pulled up to a row of low-lying huts, each looking for all the world like a cheesy tourist-trap version of an old thatched roof cottage. Castiel got out as the other Jeep pulled up behind, and he watched the three scientists hop out of their vehicle, his eyes settling on the one with golden-brown hair and startlingly green eyes.

He'd always kicked himself for being a bit unrealistic by having such attractive protagonists working in scientific jobs in his novels, but perhaps now he could claim some basis in truth, because Dean didn't look like someone who spent all day in dig sites and museums. Sure, there were the rugged clothes and the plaid, which somehow suited him, and dirt still under his fingernails, but it all somehow fit together into a highly attractive package.

And when Dean looked up and met his gaze and smiled, it was all he could do not to break out the notebook and start waxing poetic about a ruggedly handsome paleontologist to star in his next novel.

"Alright, kids, come get your keys," Gabriel said, breaking Castiel out of his thoughts.

"These are our rooms?" Sam asked, both eyebrows raised as Gabriel handed him a card key.

"These are the crème de la crème. These are the top dollar rooms, called our luxury cottages. One bedrooms here, two bedrooms down the road a little ways, and some doubles mixed in," Gabriel explained, handing out the rest of the card keys. They were plain white, probably a placeholder until they made fancier keys. "Buy one of these for a night, and you get a private Q and A with a certified Jurassic Park scientist! 'Course, you guys are getting the full Monty. You get to see the labs up close."

"The full what…?" Castiel said with a frown, and Gabriel laughed, clapping him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry about it, bro. Look, the visitor's center is that huge building at the end of the road. I'll give you an hour to get settled and wash up, and we'll meet on the steps out front of it, cool?"

The group split up, with Gabriel, Meg, and Crowley driving on down the road, leaving Castiel and the three scientists standing by the huts. It seemed, for a moment, that no one really wanted to walk away, the craziness of the situation hanging in the air between them, but no one willing to break the silence for a long few seconds.

"Wow, your…your brother is somethin' else, Cas," Dean finally said with a soft laugh, eyes crinkling at the corners with his smile. "I would ask if you knew what he was up to, but I saw your face when that Brachiosaur showed up, so…"

Castiel shook his head and let out a deep, slow breath. "No. I had no idea," he admitted, thinking back over the past few years. Gabriel had mentioned something on the Africa trip, some kind of project he was working on with a PhD student in genetics and microbiology, but he hadn't thought anything of it then. Gabriel was constantly working on new projects; every year it seemed he came up with a new grand plan for a blockbuster theme park.

Castiel should have known something was different this time when there were no grand openings for three years straight. Then again, he'd spent those three years trying to forget Gabriel existed.

"I'm going to take a shower. Five minutes out here and all my clothes feel sticky," Jo complained, giving a mock salute to the boys as she walked to the door of her hut. It didn't take long for Sam and Dean to follow suit, and Castiel turned and made his way toward the hut that had the number five carved in the door. The card reader was a brown, flat panel set into the door, and he fumbled a few times before figuring out which way to hold the card in front of it until he heard the beep of the door unlocking.

He sighed with relief when the cool air inside hit him, and he closed the door quickly, shivering as the sweat rapidly cooled on his skin. His suitcase already sat at the foot of the king sized bed, and to the left of the door was a couch and chair both facing a massive flat-screen TV. He strolled across the light wooden floors and past the bed, where a counter and wall squared in a full kitchen. At first he wondered how in the world they expected the guests to cook for themselves on an island with no stores, but then he saw the sign hung above the sink.

Don't want to eat with the masses? Contact Guest Services on your phone to schedule complimentary in-room meals cooked in your kitchen by one of our Five Star Chefs!

(Please call at least two hours in advance, and have any food requests ready. Otherwise our chef will cook the menu of the day.)

The more he looked, the more he saw how much went into this; there were tour options listed in a leather bound book on the desk, the TV listing showed that eventually guests would be able to tap into webcams in various exhibits along with normal TV, and nothing in the room felt cheap. The floor was genuine hardwood, the sheets on the bed felt like silk, all the furniture looked meticulously hand carved, and that was before he even got to the bathroom. Massive whirlpool tub with lights and private TV aside, the toilet had more buttons on it than the remote control- though the picture on each button made less sense than a hieroglyphic to him.

For the moment the toilet felt more dangerous than the dinosaurs.

Castiel was well-off, but he had the feeling this kind of accommodation would be out of even his price range. But of course Gabriel was going to show them the best of everything, including the best of the guest rooms, if he wanted them to sign off on the park.

It hit him, suddenly, the weight of what Gabriel had said at his house; he'd said the investors were worried and wanted outside opinions. The investors weren't worried because they were afraid the park wouldn't do well- they were worried about the park safety. That's what all of this was about, had to be.

Nothing to be done about it now, though. Dinosaurs or not, he was here, and the helicopter wasn't picking them up till Monday morning. Gabriel had unwavering confidence in the systems, and if he was right about the two deaths being employees not following protocol, maybe he was right. Maybe.

Probably not.

Castiel sighed and washed his face and hands before dropping back on the bed- memory foam mattress, of course- and closing his eyes. He still had some time before he had to meet the others, and the moment of quiet was blissful after spending so many hours with Gabriel, who had to fill every moment of silence with something. It wasn't completely quiet, though; in the distance he could hear the foghorn like call of the Brachiosaur, and another call in return, more distant and eerie.

It reminded him of laying under a mosquito net in the tent in Africa, and hearing the yowls and soft roars of the lions carrying on the wind. The guide had said the roars could be heard up to five miles away, that it was like a phone call to other lions in the area- letting their pride know where they were, and letting outsiders know to stay away. The roars sometimes seemed to go on and on, and then there would be hours when they wouldn't make a sound.

He found himself wondering if any of the dinosaurs here would have the same nighttime chatter. And if a lion's roar up close was enough to make him cringe- what would a T-Rex be like?

One thing was for sure; the rifle their safari guide had carried would be useless. He'd freely admitted that up against a rhino or angry elephant, the rifle would just be a noisemaking tool to hopefully spook them into backing off. He couldn't imagine what kind of firepower they carried here, if they expected to be able to slow down an eight ton dinosaur.

He turned his head and opened one eye to look at the clock; he still had fifteen minutes, but sitting alone with his thoughts was proving to be a bad idea. He had resolved to give Gabriel a chance on this, and psyching himself up for the worst wasn't going to help. He stood and stretched, then braced himself for the island heat and made his way slowly to the visitor's center.

Dean had the same idea, it seemed. He was sitting on the top step, folding and unfolding his sunglasses in his hands, and he gave a small wave and smile when he saw Castiel. Castiel made his way up the concrete steps and joined the scientist, sitting beside him on the steps and looking out at all the huts and buildings meant for guests to stay in.

"Plague Strain was my favorite," Dean said after a few moments of companionable silence, and Castiel looked over at him. The paleontologist shrugged and hooked his sunglasses in his front breast pocket. "Had me washing my hands fifty times a day for weeks, though."

Castiel chuckled, that strange mix of pride and embarrassment settling in that he always felt when someone praised him. His publicist always said he needed to learn how to take a compliment without talking himself down. "Thank you. Though I have to admit, I liked the ending better before they suggested that I change it."

"What was it before?"

"Everyone died."

Dean laughed, tilting his head back as he did. "Yeah, I can see why they might not have liked that."

Castiel smiled, just a little. "Extinction events aren't very popular with my publisher, no. Aside from the obvious one that already happened," he said with a halfhearted shrug before giving Dean a curious look. "So, you a meteor theory type, or volcano theory type?"

"Hybrid theory," Dean said, the quick answer of someone who'd been asked the question many times before, and Castiel paused, sensing an explanation was coming. "Gradual climate change and a few major volcanic eruptions kicked off the party, the meteor just crashed it. The coup de grace, I guess."

"Makes sense."

"Be glad you got the cliff notes version. Sam could go on for days about fractured crystals and impact ejecta. He sometimes forgets not all of us read dissertations for fun."

"He's your…brother, right?" Castiel asked, vaguely remembering them both being introduced as Winchester. Dean nodded.

"Yeah, younger. Wouldn't know it from his altitude."

They fell silent as another low, almost sorrowful call stretched over the trees, and the call in return seemed to match it, as if the two dinosaurs were having a conversation across miles of trees and fields. It was like a melancholy song of sorts, worlds different from the confident bursts of sound from the lions. The lions' sounds had been efficient tools of communication, logical and bold; the sounds from the Brachiosaurs were more like entire dramas being held 30 feet above everything else, layers of depth to them that sent a shiver through Castiel.

"What do you think about…all this?" Dean asked, his voice low as he made a vague gesture in the direction of the sounds. "Think this can work?"

Castiel sighed and slid his fingers through his hair, Gabriel's confidence pitting itself against the dread that seemed to cling to Castiel's every thought here. "I don't know," he admitted, leaning forward and setting his elbows on his knees. "Gabriel can be…overconfident, at times. I suppose I'm waiting until I see more of these systems he has set up," he added, tilting his head to look at Dean. He felt like a high school kid with a crush all over again, his stomach unsteady and his mind trying to convince him that every word out of his mouth was stupider than the last. "What about you? Aren't you afraid this makes your job…obsolete?"

"Don't you mean extinct?" Dean asked, his smile widening for a moment before he looked back out at the trees and shook his head. "Nah, I…I don't think so. I mean, there's plenty of stuff other than dinosaurs that we find when we're digging. Sam is a paleobotanist, kid goes crazy over prehistoric plants. Don't ask me, I don't get it either."

"There is a ten foot tall rainforest flower that smells like rotting flesh when it blooms," Castiel pointed out; while he certainly wasn't a botany aficionado, he still appreciated the utterly strange. But Dean grimaced, giving Castiel a look.

"Yeah, you're not really selling it, there," he said, and then his expression turned curious. "You don't know what The Full Monty is, but you know all about flowers that smell like dead things?"

Castiel felt himself blush a little, and he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I don't really keep up on pop culture. It's distracting," he explained. He was probably going to make Dean think he was a complete freak. That seemed to be the pattern, once people got past talking about his books. A few minutes into normal conversation and it seemed they were starting to wonder how many times he was dropped on his head as a baby.

"So, what, no TV? Internet?" Dean asked, leaning toward Castiel a bit.

"Haven't owned a TV for years. I have the internet, but only because if I don't answer my agent's emails promptly, she calls my phone nonstop. She's a somewhat scary woman."

"Sounds like my boss at the museum. I mean, my bosses boss, technically. The curator," Dean said, swatting at a mosquito. "She's one of those people who would skewer her own grandma to raise attendance."

Castiel would have laughed, but someone called Dean's name, and they both turned to see Sam and Jo heading up the steps. Jo had switched into shorts and a flannel shirt knotted in the front to expose a lean midriff, and Castiel couldn't say he blamed her, given the heat.

"Sam thinks they used preserved blood from mosquitos trapped in amber. That theory was debunked years ago, I told him," Jo said, and Sam rolled his eyes.

"As if you'd come up with any better ideas."

Jo crossed her arms defiantly. "Frozen flesh is a lot easier to extract genetic material from than mosquito blood!"

"When was the last time you dug up a T-Rex in the arctic?"

"The arctic now wasn't the arctic back then!"

Dean managed to stop laughing at them, just for a moment. "Guys. Hey, you two, stop it," he said though a grin, shaking his head. "He said he was going to show us the labs. We'll find out in like, an hour. Can you avoid strangling each other till then?"

"He's still wrong," Jo said with a huff, and Sam shot her an exasperated look, just as Gabriel strode up to the group.

"Alright! We ditched the lawyer and the bitch, so how about that tour?" he said, clapping his hands together and wiggling his eyebrows at them. Castiel couldn't say he was sad to see Meg and Crowley go for now, but he still snorted in disbelief and shook his head, standing up slowly. He wasn't surprised to see Dean and Sam share a look that clearly said they were just tolerating Gabriel's antics, and he couldn't blame them.

Gabriel led them into the massive lobby of the visitor's center. The roof was arched glass with a metal frame holding it up, letting in all the light from outside. A huge staircase curled up and around one side of the lobby, around the huge pedestal in the middle. On the pedestal was the centerpiece; a full skeleton of a T-Rex, standing tall with its jaws open.

It was a sudden reminder, like a slap to the face, of just how big those teeth were. Castiel wasn't sure he wanted to see one of those alive and walking around, however fascinating. He didn't have time to dwell on it, though, as Gabriel led them past the gift shop and up the stairs, swiping his card to get them into a staff hallway.

"There's still a lot of work to be done in here. Decorations kind of come last when you're trying to get dinosaurs herded around the park," he explained, leading the way past several doors till he got to a set of double doors that were propped open. Stepping inside was like stepping into NASA's control center- multiple monitors at each desk, a bay of security camera monitors, rows of servers with blinking rows of lights down an entire wall, and a scale model of the entire park taking up a large table in the middle of the room.

"Guests! Hi!" a cheerful voice said, and a redhead popped up from behind a bank of monitors, flipping the microphone on her headset up and out of the way. The woman at the other station, a brunette, rolled her eye and turned away, obviously not interested.

"Charlie, this is my brother Castiel, the guy whose home security system you hacked for me," Gabriel said with a grin as Charlie moved to stand behind him. "And these three are the Paleontologists here to ogle the dinosaurs, Dean, Sam, and Jo. Guys, this is Charlie, my head of computer systems for the park, and the grouch over there is Ruby, head of security systems."

Ruby just gave them a halfhearted wave without even turning to look, but Charlie was nearly bouncing with excitement as she shook each of their hands in turn with both of hers. Her hair was straight and pinned back at the sides, falling down just past her shoulders, and she had delicate, pretty features. It obviously wasn't a formal business environment in here, though, judging by her t-shirt with a strange red and white ball on the front, and her cargo pants that were slightly worn out in places.

"You have no idea how great it is to see some new faces. I've been on this island 340 days out of the last year looking at the same people every single day," she said, having to crane her neck to look up at Sam. "I've been running and re-running the whole tour protocol for days, you're going to love it!"

"You only have two people running your control room?" Dean asked with a frown, looking around the room- but he was right. The room was stuffed full of fancy equipment and monitors, but only two desks.

"Only need two. My two girls here are geniuses. They designed this entire system from the floor up to be able to run with minimal staff. Hell, if we all dropped dead, the park could run its own basic security and support for nine days without anyone touching a thing," Gabriel bragged, and Charlie turned one of the monitors toward them and brought up a screen full of what looked like red and green squares, each with a number in the middle.

"This is the skeleton of the whole thing, right here," Charlie explained, sitting on the desk beside the monitor and giving it a poke. "Even if the rest of the system overloads, this protocol is designed to feed straight off the solar powered backup generators. It keeps all the fences, locks, gates, and camera systems going. The only way this system could shut down is if it was purposely turned off for some kind of maintenance, but I haven't run into maintenance yet that couldn't be done with the system live."

"Gabriel said you have GPS tracking on the dinosaurs," Castiel said, and before he could even finish the question, Charlie hopped up and went to the bank of monitors on the wall, pointing to one that looked like a mess of slender colored lines and moving dots with numbers by them.

"Every dinosaur has a tracker implanted when they're first hatched. Each tracker is assigned to a certain paddock, and if the system senses the wrong sensor in the wrong paddock, every alarm in this room is gonna go nuts," she explained as Jo stepped closer to take a better look at it. Castiel paused to look at the screen next to it, which was a radar view of the coast of Costa Rica and the islands. Off to the southwest of the island chain a storm was churning over the ocean; they were probably watching it in case it headed this direction.

"And what if one of the trackers stops working?" Sam asked, and Charlie laughed.

"Now that is one of the few things on this island that is not my job. That's why we have the dudes out there with the heavy-duty tranquilizers. They deal with bringing the dino down long enough to have Benny extract the failed tracker and implant a new one."

"Benny?"

"The veterinarian."

Dean chuckled. "Where did you pick up a dinosaur vet?" he asked, and Castiel moved over to the wall of security cameras to get a closer look. Most of the camera showed nothing but empty hallways, employees working, or trees; a few were focused on the open fields they'd driven through on their way here, but the cameras weren't made for detail. He could see the Brachiosaurs and the smaller dinosaurs moving around the lake, but the other dinosaurs seemed to prefer the most densely forested areas.

"Well, technically Benny has been working for zoos for the past fifteen years. We just asked him if he'd like to try his hand at some experimental veterinary medicine," Gabriel said, jerking his head toward the door. "Come on, I know you guys want to get to the exciting stuff. It's lab time."

Charlie pouted. "My stuff is the exciting stuff. Why does Kevin get all the cool toys and pretty people?" she asked, and Gabriel patted her on the head.

"Because Kevin is making us the dinosaurs, kiddo. Don't worry, we have these four all to ourselves all weekend, you'll see them again."

It didn't take much encouragement to get the four of them back out of the control room, and while Charlie called out a goodbye, Ruby continued to pretend they didn't exist, typing away on her keyboard silently. Castiel already didn't like her much; not only for the blatant rudeness, but also just because he had one of those bad feelings about her. He liked to believe he was a decent judge of people.

"So, what's your plan if something manages to get off the island?" Jo asked as they walked, and Gabriel scoffed.

"Please. There's only one dinosaur we have that's a strong enough swimmer to even worry about them making it to the mainland, and she's pretty damn big. We'd definitely notice her if she decided to jump bail."

"What is she?" Dean asked, and Gabriel smirked.

"That's for tomorrow's tour, Deano. Tomorrow you see all the big bads."

He stepped up to another set of double doors, but this one required another swipe of his card key to get through, and a strange smell of chemicals hit them as the doors slid open. The room beyond was white, almost unbearably bright, and the platform they stepped onto overlooked the whole laboratory. It was a labyrinth of glass rooms and large machines, and the scientists moved around like ghosts, dressed in white scrubs with white covers over their shoes, and the women with matching white hair covers.

"This is where we make baby dinosaurs," Gabriel said, taking the steps two at a time down to the lab floor. Castiel and the others followed, none asking questions yet; for his part, Castiel felt like he'd just stepped into some kind of sci-fi movie, with futuristic looking machines and scientists who only glanced up from their work for a moment, if at all. It was quiet except for the whirr and buzz of the machines and the soft swish of covered shoes moving across the floor.

One of the white figures, however, did take notice of them and came over to greet Gabriel with a hug. "Hey!" the young man said with a bright smile, holding a clipboard to his chest as he looked over the newcomers. "Gabriel, been a few days since you checked in!"

"You know lawyers," Gabriel said with an exaggerated eye roll, stepping out of the way. "Kevin, this is my brother Castiel, and our three Paleontologists, Dean, Sam, and Jo. This is Dr. Kevin Tran, the mastermind behind this whole concept."

Castiel raised an eyebrow; the kid couldn't be a day over 25, and he was running a laboratory that was breeding dinosaurs?

A buzzer suddenly went off behind Kevin and he turned, his smile widening. "Oh, you guys have perfect timing. Come here, quick," he said, motioning for them to follow him around two of the massive machines to a table that looked more like a giant, shallow bowl. A bright light burned hot over it, and in the bowl was a thick layer of hay and grass- and in the grass were seven giant eggs. Dinosaur eggs.

And one of them seemed to be moving.

"I couldn't have planned this better, right?" Gabriel said, elbowing Kevin before he pushed Dean and Sam toward the nest. Dean leaned forward with his hands on the edge, watching with wide eyes as the mechanical arm attached to the edge of the table swung around to grip the wiggling egg gently.

Castiel, for a moment, couldn't even focus on the egg; he could only focus on the childlike wonder on Dean's face. It was nearly contagious. The bright light of the heat lamp seemed to bring out the freckles scattered across his skin, and Castiel resisted the urge to just start counting them.

"It's hatching? Right now?" Sam asked, taking the gloves that Kevin was handing each of them. Castiel just shook his head; baby or not, he didn't plan on turning a dinosaur park into a petting zoo. He'd leave this to the scientists.

"Right now. You can help it, if you want. Takes them forever on their own sometimes," Gabriel said, and Dean focused back on the egg, where a slender crack had finally begun to form. He reached forward with surprisingly steady hands just as the crack widened and the creature pushed up, tiny nostrils barely visible through the crack in the egg.

"Oh my god," Jo whispered as Dean carefully pried up a piece of the egg, and the dinosaur's tiny head poked out the top. It made a soft, grating screech of a noise, almost like a strange bird, one small clawed hand clutching clumsily at the egg. Dean worked gently, probably holding his breath, prying away each piece of egg that the baby broke free. The dinosaur was coated in some kind of pink slime, the substance bubbling at its nostrils as it took short, labored breaths; it must have been hard work for the newborn to break out of its own egg.

"This is amazing. I can't…Dean, are you seeing this?" Sam asked breathlessly, and Kevin chuckled behind him.

"We didn't lose any of the seven in this batch yet. I'm really happy," he said, already marking things on his clipboard as he watched the baby dinosaur claw its way out of the egg.

"But how?" Castiel blurted out, curiosity getting the better of his patience. "Where did you find the genetic material for cloning?"

"It's all about where they died," Kevin explained, his enthusiasm for the subject obvious as he leaned back against the nearby counter. "Dinosaurs that died in the peat bogs were always better preserved than fossils found in normal sediments. And ancient peat bogs became what are, today, coal veins."

"Those veins can be incredibly hard to access," Dean pointed out, the first time he'd spoken since he started helping the baby out of the egg.

"Yeah. Believe me, it's not easy. And we can't just go carving our way through to get to the fossils, either. We work with a deep ground penetrating radar system to find the fossils, and then we use specialized drills to dig small channels to where the fossil is," Kevin said, pausing at times, probably to make sure he was explaining this in layman's speech. "If we just dig it straight out and expose it to the elements, we take the risk of destroying the most valuable material before it even gets to the lab. So instead, we use those drill channels to inject a liquid nitrogen chemical mix directly into the fossil and the ground around it. The fossil is porous, so it's the best way of preserving it. After that, we dig and isolate the specimen and ground around it, and put it to soak in a liquid nitrogen chemical bath all the way here, to the lab. Between the coal vein and the lab, there's as little exposure of the specimen as possible. We've been able to save good amounts of the preserved genetic material that way, though it's obviously degraded."

The baby was halfway out of the egg now. It screeched again, tiny claws grasping at Dean's thumb as he pulled away the final pieces of egg, revealing a short tail. Kevin handed him a white rag, and Dean carefully began wiping the slime off the infant.

"If it's degraded, then how can you possibly develop an embryo from it?" Jo asked with a frown. "Cloning is still a delicate science as it is. I mean, with living animals, let alone extinct ones."

"The base DNA isn't actually that different from some modern animals. We've had great success using some frog and amphibian DNA to bridge the gaps and damaged parts. Even crocodile," Kevin said, pointing to one of the machines, where a woman stood going through what looked like endless lines of code.

"But how do you keep track of the ones born out in the park?" Castiel asked, getting that uneasy feeling again. He wanted to be excited, wanted to be thrilled hearing the process that was bringing these creatures to life again, but something was bothering him. Something other than the obvious dangers.

"There aren't any born out in the park. They're all chicks," Gabriel said. "Another stroke of genius from my little prodigy here."

Kevin chuckled. "Not really prodigy. All of them are initially female when formed; it actually takes an extra chemical added in at the right time to make them male. We simply deny them that."

"You can work with the chromosomes like that?" Sam asked as Dean lifted the mostly cleaned off baby dinosaur into his hands, cradling it carefully. The reptilian eyes were finally beginning to focus, watching Dean with a stare that was…almost intelligent. Like the dinosaur was already taking in its surroundings and thinking.

That was silly, though. It was minutes old, harmless. For now, anyway.

Castiel paused when he saw Dean's face. The paleontologist was frowning now, staring down at the creature in his hands not with wonder anymore, but with concern. Castiel took a step closer to him, standing by his shoulder. "Dean, are you alright?"

Dean licked his lips and looked up at Kevin, brow still furrowed. "What species is this?"

Kevin glanced at a different page on his clipboard. "This clutch is…Utahraptor."

"You…bred raptors?"

Kevin paused and lifted his gaze from the clipboard. "…Yes? Is that a problem?"

Jo and Sam were already taking the baby from Dean, stealing moments with it themselves, talking softly to each other about bone structure and the skin temperature. Castiel wasn't paying attention to them right now; he was paying attention to the way Dean almost looked angry now.

"Show me," Dean demanded, turning to Gabriel.

"That's not part of todays tour, we have dinner planned-"

"Show me."

That time the tone in Dean's voice got everyone's attention, and Gabriel looked a little surprised, then he shrugged. "Guess it can't hurt. The raptor enclosure is the closest paddock to the visitor's center anyway," he said, and Dean flinched at that information.

Kevin took the baby raptor over to the hatchling incubator and the scientists threw out their gloves, following a less-than-happy looking Gabriel up to the door. Sam and Castiel stuck close to Dean, both of them looking concerned, while Jo walked ahead to ask Gabriel more about the fossil preservation.

"Dean, what's up with you?" Sam asked in a hiss. "This is fucking amazing! Did you see that?!"

"Yeah, I saw it. It's a raptor," Dean said, his voice tight and expression tense. "Soon to be nine feet of claws and teeth and way too much brain for its own good."

"You've heard all about their security systems."

"It's a raptor, Sammy. Still don't like it."

"What's so different about a raptor?" Castiel asked, and Dean snorted, shaking his head.

"What's different is that with raptors, we know just enough about them to know that we don't know enough," Dean said. "They're apex predators. On their own, they already have all the tools to cause major damage. They're fast, strong, and those claws aren't just for show. All the evidence points to high intelligence. But what we haven't been able to figure out yet from the fossil record is the extent of their teamwork. Hunting in packs."

"There's no evidence of it, Dean-" Sam started, but Dean shot him a glare.

"There's no evidence against it, either. And if these things hunt in packs, if they work together, then I'm not sure I even trust these fences."

"Stop being overdramatic. I'm sure they planned for the worst."

Castiel almost laughed. "Gabriel plans for exactly what he knows will happen. Nothing more, nothing less. And he doesn't like to think of what the worst might be," he pointed out as they stepped outside again. Gabriel led the way behind the visitor's center on a narrow dirt footpath, winding through trees and brush for about half a mile until they saw tall concrete walls through the trees.

"This is a temporary enclosure. We're building something bigger and better for them as we speak," Gabriel said, walking past the steel gates set into the concrete to the other side of the enclosure, where there was a set of stairs. At the top of the stairs there was a bearded man with a rather large rifle slung over his shoulder, wearing khaki clothes and a low brimmed hat. He didn't particularly look happy to see them.

"Bobby! How are you?" Gabriel said, but Bobby seemed to be having none of his shit. He grunted and nodded toward the four following Gabriel.

"Bringin' the tourists around to see the raptors? How damn thick is your head, boy?" he said, his voice gruff and low, and holding no fear of his employer. Gabriel, in turn, completely ignored the disrespect.

"That's Castiel, my brother. These three are the paleontologists here for the inspection, Sam, Dean, and Jo. This is Bobby, our most experienced game warden," he said as they reached the top of the stairs. From this vantage point they could see through the electric fences that topped the concrete walls, down into the exhibit; but right now, all Castiel could see was plants. For nine foot tall raptors, they seemed rather good at hiding and staying quiet.

"Paleontologists, huh?" Bobby said, seeming to deem that worthy of at least a little respect, and a handshake. "S'pose you know what you're gettin' into here, then."

"Didn't know there were raptors," Dean pointed out, looking down into the paddock. "How smart are they?"

"Dolphin smart, at least," Bobby answered without hesitation, one hand never leaving the strap of his gun. "Problem solving intelligence. This is the third paddock we've had 'em in. First one they kept attacking the fences."

Jo frowned. "But the fences are electric."

Bobby nodded. "Yep. They never attacked the same place twice. They were testin' every inch of that fence, lookin' for a weakness. And if someone walked too close they walked away with one limb less, pretty often."

Castiel turned an accusing stare on Gabriel. Gabriel had insisted only two deaths; and maybe it was his own fault for not being more specific, but he figured it would be a given that he would want to know the rate of limb-loss-by-dinosaur as well. Gabriel just shrugged.

"And that's why we moved them to a new pen. For safety," the CEO insisted. "They're smart, but we're smarter."

"So they hunt as a pack, then," Dean said to Bobby, ignoring Gabriel's desperate words to calm them. Bobby nodded.

"As a pack, with a matriarch. The big girl," he said, staring down into the trees. "Used to have nine raptors. Big one came along, killed all but two of the others and took control. Don't take 'em long to grow; lethal by eight months, full grown by two years. With the growth hormones our lab rats feed 'em, they hit full height by a year old."

There was a click, and then the sound of a motor, and a crane slowly lifted over the fence at one end of the paddock- and hanging in the tarp on the end of the crane was a cow. A living, full sized black and white cow.

Bobby had pulled his gun free from his shoulder and now held it in both hands, chambering a round with a determined look on his face. "Feedin' time."

Sam eyed the gun uneasily, but he and Castiel moved to the wall with Jo and Dean, leaning to look down into the exhibit. The crane began to lower the oblivious cow, its ears and tail twitching as it lowered to the ground, only half hidden by the trees.

The motor stopped, and Castiel held his breath until he finally heard movement below. It was almost too fast to follow; one raptor burst from the bushes, kicking up a foot and slicing the massive killing claw on his foot down the front of the cow's chest. It split flesh and muscle as easily as butter, and the cow lurched forward just as another raptor darted to its side and kicked violently.

The cows steaming guts spilled free to the dirt along with shreds of the bright blue tarp, and Castiel fought the urge to gag as that seemed to kick off the feeding frenzy. Three more raptors darted in, burying their snouts in the gaping holes in the cow's hide, clawed feet slipping in the spilled guts as they tore into the still struggling animal.

It took nearly a minute longer for the cow to finally stop moving. It only took about two more for there to be nothing left but a skeleton and ragged chunks of flesh. The raptors were ravenous, leaving nothing in their wake that was edible, and the sound of teeth grinding against bone sending chills down Castiel's spine.

He shouldn't have watched, but he couldn't look away. The way the raptors moved around each other and systematically tore the animal apart was like a macabre dance, aside from the occasional snarl when one raptor encroached on another one's bite of food.

He felt ill, and he wasn't surprised when Jo stumbled away and braced one hand on her knee, the other covering her mouth. He caught Dean's eye, and somehow without saying a word, they managed to understand exactly what the other thought: these creatures shouldn't have been brought back.

Gabriel clapped his hands together and laughed nervously. "So, uh…who's hungry?"