"Hello. Hello. This is Frederick Watson." Johnny was thrilled by the sound of his father's voice over the telephone.
"Hello, Mr. Watson," Ed said in the fake voice. "We've found your boy and here he is." Ed handed Johnny the telephone, his hand over the mouthpiece again. "Remember!" he said in a threatening voice.
"Hello, dad!" Johnny said into the telephone. "I'm safe all right."
"Thank God!" his father's voice replied.
"I was rescued by these men and outside of making me wash dishes and sleep on the floor, they've treated me fine. I'm—"
Ed took the telephone away from him in mid-sentence.
"But where are you, Johnny?" Johnny could still hear his father's voice.
"Right now," Ed said into the telephone, "Johnny's up in a 'copter. You needn't try to get a direction finder on us. Rescuing this boy cost us a lot and we gotta be sure you'll pay us for it."
"I offered a reward." Mr. Watson's voice was anxious.
"It ain't enough," Ed said. "We lost a tank and a 'copter getting him. He was surrounded by rhinosaurs. We have the boy. You've got a live marva. I figure it should be a trade. You bring the marva to the old tank road by the river, and we'll bring the boy. Bring one tank, driven by one man. That's all. Be there forty-eight hours from now. Do as I say and the boy will be delivered on schedule."