I watched below as the suburbs gave way to green countryside. On a normal day, I would be reveling in this kind of view of the world, but all I felt inside was panic that I might not make it in time. I looked down at my watch. I wasn’t quite sure when dad’s two hour window would close, but by my calculations, I had just under twenty minutes.

“Can this thing go any faster?” I said into my headset.

“Sorry, Michael. This is a good as it gets, but we should be coming up on the drop off within five minutes.”

I had to cut off a heavy sigh. I knew Tyler was doing the best he could. I just didn’t have much time to start with. I knew this might not work, but I had to try, and Tyler had been all too eager to fire up the company helicopter when I called him declaring a family emergency.

“Thanks for doing this,” I said.

“No problem. Anything for the boss man. You say he’s in trouble. How could I say no to that?”

I knew Tyler was curious as to exactly what trouble my dad was in, but I tried to keep it as vague as I could, but still making it clear we had to move fast and that time was of the essence.

I was impressed that after my call to Tyler, he was able to meet me on the rooftop of the New Horizon’s building in less than twenty minutes, and we had set off at top speed toward our target. It probably helped that he spent his non-flight time wandering the halls of New Horizons chatting people up. He didn’t really have much of life outside of the company. This little trip was probably the highlight of his whole year.

It didn’t take me long to figure out where dad had arranged the meeting with the Ethia ship. I figured he would pick a place he knew well enough to give the coordinates without too much thought, but also a place that put a decent size buffer between them and Mom, Em, and me. It also was less than two hours away from our home in downtown Manhattan.

I confirmed my theory through the Find My Phone app on my iPhone, which made me realize just how rattled my dad was. He wouldn’t normally have made such a rookie mistake to leave his phone on, knowing one of us might follow him.

“So what’s the boss man doing all the way out here on a weekday?” Tyler asked, clearly no longer able to keep his curiosity to himself.

I had been trying to think up a story that would satisfy my pilot without giving anything major away since I first called Tyler on the phone. I was trying to keep it simple and as close to the truth as possible.

I steadied my resolve and plunged headfirst into the lie I had been weaving together in my head. “Dad is meeting some people out near the farm. Someone contacted him demanding a ransom payment. Apparently, they got their hands on some of our deep tech.”

I heard Tyler curse over the headset. That was the response I was hoping for. Deep tech as those at New Horizons called it was the golden goose of the company that everyone knew existed, but only a handful at the company actually knew what it was about. While the lion share of the employees and resources were devoted to developing and manufacturing mainstream items like smartphones, computers, tablets and other accessories, a small handful were assigned to the secret stuff, the kind of things we did for the government that made sure we stayed ahead of the game in technology.

This was New Horizons true commitment to humanity as we blazed the trail of technology for futures generations to come. And now I understood how we had become so good at staying ahead, dad had an inside edge. He’d been funneling alien technology and ideas piece by piece through the company for years, and most likely, was the source of the deep tech.

This “edge” had created a vicious battlefield in the tech industry as other companies tried to compete and did everything they could to rob New Horizons of their lead. So this sort of scenario was definitely believable and was a good explanation of why I hadn’t called the police in yet. When you were dealing with that kind of high stakes, you took care of your own business, and only called in outside help when absolutely necessary, and sometimes not even then.

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I continued my tale, which at this point veered wildly off into the trenches of untruth, but it couldn’t be helped. I had to stick with the most likely scenarios, and this seemed the most plausible.

“After dad left, Delaney got a hold of me. He said the stolen information is a fake. He got confirmation through a few of his sources. Dad’s paying a ransom for nothing. John and I both tried to call, but dad’s not answering his phone. Could be the dead zones. You know how bad it can be outside the city. Anyways, this was the only thing I could think to do to stop the exchange in time.”

“Greedy bastards. What is this world coming to?” Tyler growled over the headset.

“I know, right?” I breathed a sigh of relief that Tyler’s curiosity was put to rest, at least for now.

I knew the truth was going to come out eventually. Probably sooner than later, and I was sure there would be substantial consequences for dad, for mom, probably for Em and myself, and especially for New Horizons, but that was a problem I couldn’t focus on right now.

All I could think about was getting there in time to keep dad from giving himself up to the Ethians. But I also knew that getting to the meeting place was only half the problem, the other half was convincing dad not to do it. Thankfully, I had an ace in the hole for that problem too. It now rested against my lower back tucked in the waist of my pants.

“Target is coming up. Get ready for drop off,” Tyler informed me.

I looked ahead and saw the clear field I had asked Tyler to drop me off at. It wasn’t that large. Just enough for the helicopter to come in low to the ground and for me to jump out. That’s all I needed.

“You sure this is close enough?”

“It will have to be.” I knew we were still nearly a mile from the meeting area, but if dad knew I was coming, then the next part of my plan would never work. “Any closer and I loose any chance of surprise.”

“Yeah, but you want to disrupt the ransom, so wouldn’t dropping in on the meeting area be a better idea?” His voice full of question.

I shook my head as I tried to reassure him with more of the lie I was cooking up on the fly. “John says that this might not be just about a bad exchange. He thinks this might be an attempt to get dad out here on his own.”

“For what reason?”

“I’d rather not speculate,” I said in a voice with just the right amount of edge to it, knowing full well that Tyler’s imagination would do all the speculating needed.

There was a moment of silence before Tyler’s voice came over the headset with more than a hint of nervousness. “Copy that.” Another moment passed before he asked in a tentative voice. “Should I radio the cops?”

I was waiting for this question. I knew it would come at some point. “No, not yet, that’s why I need to get in there without anyone seeing me. You can bet whoever is ransoming the information will see the helicopter coming in for sure. If I can get close enough to dad on the sly and let him know what’s going on, maybe I can get him out of there before they show up.”

I looked over to the pilot. He seemed to be contemplating the information. I held my breath, hoping this guy was still buying what I was selling. It was another moment before Tyler spoke.

“Maybe I should wait for you and the boss man in the field?”

“I’ve got this Tyler. Just drop me off and head back to the office. I will send you a text as soon as I have dad.”

“Are you sure?” He didn’t look convinced of my reassurances, and to be honest, I didn’t feel completely convinced either, but I had to do this. I couldn’t let my dad just leave, not like this, not when there was something I could do about it.

“I’m sure. Thanks for doing this. You are a lifesaver, Tyler, but once you drop me off, I need you to pretend this never happened. If we need anything else, we will let you know. And I will text you, when dad and I are out safe.”

“What if you don’t text?”

“I will.”

“Roger that.”

We were coming into the landing zone. Tyler slowed the helicopter and began to lower down to the ground. I started unbuckling the harness. Once free, I discretely slid the item at my back out of the waistband and held it by my right thigh out of sight of Tyler. A few moments later, the helicopter lowered enough to let me jump the rest of the way. I slipped off the headset, gave Tyler a thumbs up, and stepped out of the helicopter.

The wind from the rotors whipped at me from every direction, but I ignored it as I hunched over and ran for the tree line. A moment later, I heard the roar of the engines as the helicopter ascended back into the air, but I ignored it as I ran as fast as I could. I had glanced at my watch just before jumping out the helicopter. Only fifteen minutes remained. I picked up speed and ran like my life depended on it, but it wasn’t my life that was on the line, and that thought made me run even faster.