Mater grinned. He didn’t understand Finn’s phrase. “Tow Mater,” he said. “Average intelligence.”
“Who are you with?” Finn asked. “FBI? CIA?”
“Let’s just say I’m Triple-A-affiliated,” Mater said.
Finn eyed Mater for a moment. Then Mater took a karate stance. “Don’t wanna brag or nothin’, but I’ve got me a black fan belt. You wanna see some moves I made up?”
As Mater clumsily kicked and chopped at the air,
Finn noticed Grem and Acer right outside the lounge. “There he is!” Grem shouted, pointing at Mater. Quickly, Finn cut a perfect circle in the window that overlooked the tarmac. Then he hooked Mater. “Hang on!”
Finn leaped straight through the glass, taking Mater with him. The fallen piece of glass created a smooth ramp to the airport runway. Finn pulled Mater down hard when they reached the tarmac and zipped him away from the terminal building.
“Whoa!” a delighted Mater shouted at the top of his lungs. “This is first-class service! You don’t even have to go through the terminal!”
But Acer and Grem were right behind them. “Drive forward,” Finn told Mater sharply. “Whatever you do, don’t stop.”
Finn skidded around so that now Mater was towing him. Finn faced Grem, ready for the attack. Before he hit the tarmac, Grem managed to fire a rocket. Finn intercepted it with a rocket of his own.
Ka-blam!
“Everything okay back there?” Mater asked.
Just then, Siddeley, a British spy jet, appeared overhead, engines roaring.
“Finn,” the jet radioed, “It’s Sid. I’m on approach.”
“Roger that,” Finn replied.
Up ahead, Acer appeared on the tarmac. He was dragging a long row of luggage carts. Mater and Finn were going to run right into the baggage train!
Siddeley the jet swept down and blew the luggage carts apart.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh!” Mater howled as the luggage exploded. “I knew I should’ve done carry-on!”
And in one swift move, Finn drove toward the jet, pulling Mater after him.
“Thanks, old boy!” Finn said to Siddeley.
“You got it, mate!” Siddeley replied. He pulled his rear cargo door down for Mater and Finn to board. Holley was waiting inside.
Mater smiled. “Hey! Doggone it, look! It’s my imaginary girlfriend!”
At that same moment, in his suite at a Tokyo hotel, Lightning McQueen was looking at the goodbye note Mater had left behind. Guido, Luigi, Sarge, and Fillmore were at Lightning’s side as he tried to read Mater’s handwriting:
I don’t want to be the cause of you losing any more races. I want you to prove to the world what I already know—that you are the greatest race car in the whole wide world. Your best friend, Mater.
Lightning handed the note to Luigi and turned away for a moment.
“I didn’t really want him to leave,” Lightning said to himself with mixed emotions. “Well, at least I know he’s at home and he’ll be okay.”
But Mater wasn’t on a commercial jet heading for home. High above them, Mater was gaining altitude on board Siddeley, the high-speed, high-tech, tough-as-nails British spy jet.
“Hey, do you guys know if this is a nonstop to Radiator Springs?” Mater asked Finn and Holley.
Holley used her electronic scanner on Mater and located the device the American agent had planted on him. A robotic arm shot out of her computer and yanked the device from under Mater’s rear bumper.
“Yow!” Mater shouted. “I gotta go to a doctor. I keep getting these sharp pains in my undercarriage!”
Then Mater remembered his manners. “Lemme introduce you two. This here is Finn McSomething-orother. He’s a first-class airport watchamacallit. And Finn, this here’s my date.” Mater turned to Holley. “I never did get your name.”
Holley hardly looked up from her work as she replied, “Shiftwell. Holley Shiftwell.”
Mater turned back to Finn to finish the introductions. “It’s Shiftwell. Holley—”
Suddenly, Holley drew up an image on her computer monitor.
“Finally,” Finn said, eager to see the information from the American agent’s recording device. “Time to see who’s behind all this.”
The computer suddenly projected a holographic image between Mater and Holley. It showed the details of a car engine.
“What is this, Mater?” Finn asked.
Mater looked at the image and shrugged. “That? That’s easy. That’s one of the worst engines ever made. It’s an old aluminum V-8 engine with a Lucas electrical system and Whitworth bolts!” Mater explained that Whitworth bolts were a pain to get off. Every good mechanic knew that.