Cars 2 (7 page)

A
s Mater moved through the elegant, high-ceilinged casino, he was overwhelmed by the palatial gaming room. “Wow,” he said. “This place looks like it's made of gold!”

The Hugos on either side of Mater gave him funny looks. Their friend Ivan had seen this place before.

“That's because it is!” Holley said to Mater over his radio. “Be careful what you say.”

“Why's that?” Mater spoke into his headset. He kept forgetting that everyone around him was listening, too!

Alexander Hugo stared at Mater. “You're acting strange today, Ivan.”

Holley had also equipped Mater with a digital device to identify the cars he met. It quickly produced a readout that only Mater could see.

“Alexander Hugo, aka Chop Shop.” Mater began reading out loud. “Hey, you got a lot of
aka'
s, Alex. But I guess that tracks, seeing as how you're wanted in France, Germany, and the Czech Republic.”

“Mater!”
Holley screamed as her face appeared on Mater's monitor.
“Stop it!”
She knew Mater was about to blow his cover. She simply could not figure out why the American agent behaved so outrageously sometimes.

Alexander looked over at Mater.

“Keep your voice down. You're gonna get me arrested,” he whispered. Then Alexander said to the other Hugos, “Don't mess with Ivan today. He's testy.”

Finn and Holley stared at each other in disbelief.

“Ohhh, that was a close one,” Finn commented.

Mater towed Victor into a private room. The Lemons were already seated around a large table. Holley's monitor scanned the room. Immediately, her computer began scrolling information on the Lemons.

“Maybe now we can find out who's behind all this,” she said, then settled in to listen as the Lemons began a heated discussion. They seemed to be waiting to meet their mysterious leader.

Inside, Mater continued to observe.

“Is the Big Boss here yet?” Victor asked.

“No, not yet,” a Trunkov replied impatiently.

WHAM!
A door swung open. The room went silent as the Lemons stared at the door and waited.

And suddenly…Professor Z appeared!

Everyone looked disappointed. All the Lemons knew Professor Z. They wanted to meet his boss, the Big Boss, who was their true leader.

“When is he coming?” Victor, the Hugo Lemonhead, demanded.

Professor Z smiled slyly.

“He's already here,” he announced.

A bank of monitors that lined the back wall suddenly crackled to life. An image appeared. It was an image of an engine.

Mater stifled a gasp. He recognized it as the engine that belonged to the car that was leading the whole operation. It was that Lemon engine with the Whitworth bolts!

It was a live feed. The voice of the Big Boss was electronically distorted so that he couldn't be identified. Everyone in the room stared at his engine—a bad Lemon engine that was being repaired—as its owner spoke to the Lemons.

“Welcome, everyone,” the voice announced over the video feed. “I wish I could be with you on this very special day. But with my clutch assembly broken, you know how it is.”

The Lemons all nodded. Every single Lemon knew what it was like to live a life disrupted by constant repairs. They had wanted to see the Big Boss, but they understood his situation.

Outside, Finn desperately asked Holley to unscramble the voice of this mysterious leader. They had to find out his identity!

“Trying,” Holley muttered as she worked. “I can't. It's too sophisticated.”

Inside the casino, the disguised voice of the mysterious, evil leader continued: “We're here to celebrate. Today, all of your hard work pays off. The world turned their backs on cars like us. They stopped manufacturing us, stopped making our parts. The only thing they haven't stopped doing is laughing at us!”

The mastermind behind this terrible plot continued to rally his fellow Lemons: “They've called us terrible names: jalopy, rust bucket, heap, clunker, junker…
Lemon!
”

The cars grumbled in agreement.

The voice continued, “But what they consider taunts just give us strength, because today, my friends, that all ends.”

BOOM!
Mater jumped as the video monitors showed the racer Carla Velosa on the course with smoke pouring from her engine.

“They laughed at us!” the distorted voice continued. “Now it's our turn to laugh back! They called us Lemon! Embrace it!”

BOOM!
Another racer's engine blew up.

Outside, Finn and Holley were desperately trying to figure out what was going on.

“I'm detecting high levels of electromagnetic radiation!” Holley reported. Working swiftly, she traced it until she zeroed in on the point of origin. Focusing with her binoculars, she saw Grem and Acer with the fake WGP camera aimed at the racecourse.

“Finn! It's the camera!” she cried.

“Where?” Finn shouted.

“On the tower!”

Finn took off at top speed, racing along the winding cliff roads toward the WGP camera. He needed to stop Grem and Acer fast, before more racers were injured.

Mater continued to listen to the mysterious car who was the mastermind behind this explosive operation.

“This was to be alternative fuel's moment in the sun. But after today, everyone will race back to gasoline. And we, the owners of the largest untapped oil reserve in the world, will become the most powerful cars in the world! They will need us. And they will finally respect us!”

Mater gasped as the roomful of Lemons burst out into cheers.

F
inn zigzagged up the steep cliff until he reached a large crevasse. He could see Grem and Acer on the opposite side, holding the WGP camera. Finn hit the gas and leaped toward the two Lemons.

That was when Finn felt himself freeze in midair. A helicopter had captured him with a large magnet.

Grem and Acer started laughing at Finn.

“We figured you might stop by,” Acer shouted to Finn. The two Lemons gleefully turned back to the camera and aimed it at Number 4, Max Schnell. This time it was Grem's turn to zap the racer.

Down on the racecourse, plumes of smoke suddenly billowed from Number 4. The car swerved out of control and crashed into another racer, sending them both tumbling. The crowd gasped when another car—Shu Todoroki—spun out as his engine exploded in black smoke. Grem and Acer chuckled as they watched the car skid to the railing, taking two others with it. The race was becoming a monster pileup.

Up ahead at the finish line, Lightning and Francesco were still battling it out for the win. They had no idea what was happening on the track behind them. Each was focused on winning!

“Ka-chow!”
Lightning shouted as he narrowly crossed the finish line first. He was about to thoroughly enjoy beating Francesco when he saw the smoke rising from the multiple car wreck.

“Oh, no,” Lightning said to himself.

It wasn't long before Sir Miles Axlerod had to face the media. The reporters all demanded to know whether the last race, in London, would be run on Allinol. Was it causing the race cars to crash?

Axlerod seemed completely defeated.

“I cannot in good conscience risk the lives of any more race cars,” he told the anxious reporters. “The final race will not be run on Allinol.”

Inside the casino, the Lemons were still cheering when Lightning suddenly appeared on the screen.

The room went quiet as Lightning announced that he would still use Allinol in the last race.

“My friend Fillmore says the fuel's safe,” he told reporters. “And that's good enough for me.”

Mater held his breath as he watched Lightning add: “I didn't stand by a friend of mine recently. I'm not making the same mistake twice.”

The sound of a ringing phone suddenly cut through the silent casino. Professor Z quickly answered it. It was the Big Boss.

“Yes, sir. Of course,” he said into the phone.

He turned to the Lemons and announced what the Big Boss had said: “Allinol must be finished for good. Lightning McQueen cannot win the last race.” The Lemons
had
to stop Lightning.

Mater's eyes grew wide. Professor Z was going to ask Grem and Acer to take aim at Lightning next!

“No!” Mater said. He turned to leave and banged his hood on a chandelier. An electric jolt passed through him—just enough to cause his holographic disguise to disappear. The Lemons stared in shock as Mater turned into his rusty old tow truck self.

“The American spy!” Professor Z said. The Lemons immediately drew their weapons.

“Dadgum!” Mater said into his radio.

“Gaitlin gun. Request acknowledged,” Mater's computer answered.

Mater was shocked to see guns roll out of both of his side doors.

“Shoot. I didn't mean—” Mater tried to say as he suddenly sprayed the ceiling with bullets.

Mater was thrown back by the force of one of his guns. “Whoa! Wait!” he hollered. “I didn't mean
that
kind of shoot!”

“Correction acknowledged,” the computer replied. “Deploying parachute.”

With a whoosh, a large parachute shot out from Mater's undercarriage. In seconds, he was dragged out onto the casino's balcony.

“Whoa!” Mater cried as the chute filled with air and hoisted him into the sky.

Mater drifted over the town of Porto Corsa until he spotted a motorboat speeding through the water below. He dropped his tow hook and hitched a ride toward the race site. There was no time to lose. He had to get to Lightning and warn him.

Mater could see Lightning onstage, talking to the reporters, as he dropped into the crowd.

“Lemme through!” Mater shouted as he tried to make his way to the stage.

“Back up, sir,” a security guard told Mater, who was frantic with worry.

Mater kept pushing through the crowd.

“We have a lunatic at gate nine,” the guard said into his walkie-talkie.

“No, listen!” Mater sputtered. “I—I was disguised as a tow truck with some Lemons, and they got this ray-gun plot!”

“Repeat. Lunatic at gate nine,” the guard said.

Mater could still see Lightning onstage. He used all his tow truck weight to keep pushing through the throngs of cars. “Comin' through. Life-or-death situation here,” he said as he tried to move forward. But no one seemed to believe him.

A
s additional security closed in on Mater, he yelled, “Lightning McQueen, if you're out there,
they're gonna kill you!
”

Lightning suddenly looked up. He saw a tow hook moving through the crowd.

“Mater!” he called out. Lightning drove off the stage and pushed through the throng. He kept tracking the tow hook, only to find it wasn't Mater at all. It was the Lemon driver, Ivan.

“Sorry,” Lightning said, filled with confusion and disappointment. He could have sworn he had heard his buddy Mater.

As Lightning was led back to the stage, Ivan breathed a sigh of relief. He had done his job by distracting Lightning while Professor Z's Lemons hijacked Mater! Now Mater was in the back of a transport vehicle. Nobody objected to seeing the lunatic tow truck being hauled away.

“Let me go!” Mater yelled. Professor Z just smiled.

“You really care about that race car. Fascinating,” he said as he slammed the doors of the transport. Professor Z released a sleeping gas into the small space where Mater was trapped. “Pity you didn't warn him about it in time.”

Mater's eyes slowly closed, and he tipped over like a fallen tree. He dreamed about everything that had happened over the past days: how Finn had called him an idiot, how he had called in to
The Mel Dorado Show
and said that Lightning was the fastest car in the world, how he had embarrassed Lightning at the WGP racers' party—and how he had caused Lightning to lose the first race of the World Grand Prix. Maybe Mater
was
an idiot, just as Finn had said.

Bong! Bong! Bong!

Mater's eyes suddenly snapped open. He was awake but couldn't get his bearings. He was hanging upside down, and his whole body was aching. Now all he could hear was a very loud
click-click-click.

Mater looked around and saw nothing but enormous, churning gears. And then he figured it out: he was inside the workings of a huge clock. He spotted Finn and Holley strapped bumper to bumper nearby. Professor Z and the Lemons had caught all three of them.

“Holley! Finn!” Mater cried out. “Where are we?”

“We're in London, Mater.”

Mater had heard of a famous old clock in London. Now he was trapped inside it. As the clock's gears—and the cars' life spans—ticked away, Mater told Finn and Holley, “This is all my fault.”

“Don't be a fool,” Finn replied.

“But I am,” Mater said. “Remember? You said so.”

“No,” Finn said, then tried to explain. “I was complimenting you on what a good spy you were.”

“But I'm not a spy,” Mater said. “Been trying to tell you that this whole time. I'm just a rusty tow truck.”

Holley realized that Mater was telling the truth. “Finn, he's not joking,” she said.

But Finn didn't need to be told. “I know,” he replied. He had finally realized that Mater was no secret agent. He really was just a regular truck.

“You were right, Finn,” Mater said sadly. “I'm just a fool. And what's happened to Lightning is all my fault.”

Finn was about to object when the doors of the clock tower opened. Grem and Acer rolled in. They pulled a sheet away from a window. The WGP camera was set up and aimed toward the streets of London.

“Professor Z wanted you to have a front-row seat for the death of Lightning McQueen,” Grem said to Mater.

“He's still alive?” Mater asked hopefully.

“Not for much longer,” Acer replied as he focused the camera on the street below—a street that was part of the racecourse where Lightning McQueen would soon be driving.

Down in Lightning McQueen's pit, the whole Radiator Springs gang was gathered. They had all traveled to London. Sally, Flo, Ramone, and Sarge were there. Even Red, the town's fire truck, had shown up. They had all come for the same reason: to find and help their friend Mater. All they knew was that he had never made it home to Radiator Springs.

“Sarge is in touch with the British military,” Ramone told Lightning, hoping it would ease his mind. Lightning was seriously worried about his best friend, especially after thinking he had seen him at the track—and then lost him. Little did Lightning know that his own life was in danger, and that Mater was equally worried about him!

“You just need to focus,” Sally told Lightning. But he couldn't bring himself to do it.

He was about to drop out of the race when Sir Miles Axlerod approached the pit.

“I just wanted to come down here and thank you,” Sir Miles said to Lightning. “After Italy, I was finished. And then you gave me one last shot. And I probably shouldn't be saying this at all, but I hope you win today. You show the world that they've been wrong about Allinol.”

Lightning looked at his friends. He couldn't drop out of the race now.

“It's what Mater would have wanted,” Sally said to Lightning.

It was true. Mater would want him to race. Moments later, a very determined Lightning zoomed to the starting line. It was the only thing he could think to do for Mater. The race was on!

From up in the clock tower, Grem grinned as he heard the roar of engines.

The race had begun, and the cars in the lead were getting closer and closer to the giant clock. Soon they would race right by Professor Z's two thugs and their deadly “camera.”

“Here they come!” Grem suddenly shouted. He turned up the juice on the WGP camera—to its highest level—and aimed it at Lightning.