Cars 2(8)

A tiny spurt of water tickled him. Mater giggled.

Then Mater screamed! The water flow had increased, shooting up into his undercarriage. The water was freezing! Gadgets from every direction began poking and prodding him. Mater desperately pressed knobs and buttons, adjusting water velocity, temperature, and brushes. A lot of things were working, all right, but none of them was doing what Mater wanted! He just wanted to leave!

Outside Mater’s stall, Rod Redline, the American agent, was getting ready to pass off the information he had for Finn. He removed his disguise and looked at himself in the mirror.

“Okay, McMissile,” he muttered under his breath. “I’m here. It’s time to make the drop.”

Swiftly, Rod sent out a coded signal to Finn.

Immediately Holley picked it up. “The American has activated his tracking beacon,” she radioed Finn, waiting for further instructions from him.

“Roger that,” Finn replied. Then the seasoned British agent told Holley, “Okay, move in.”

As Holley rolled toward the men’s room, Mater slammed buttons and thrashed about, struggling to get out of the stall.

Just outside, Grem and Acer had discovered Rod. The American agent had been cornered and barely stood a chance against Professor Z’s two thugs. They fought as Mater thrashed around inside the stall.

Finally, Mater crashed through the stall door, smashing into the thugs.

Mater had no idea that he had just interrupted a brawl. Rod was already pretty badly beaten. Professor Z’s two cars were determined to recover his top-secret information.

Huffing and puffing, Mater stared at Grem and Acer. He towed cars like these all the time back home in Radiator Springs!

“Hey! A Gremlin and a Pacer! No offense to your makes and models, but you guys break down harder than—” Mater stopped short. He felt a tickle as Rod slipped a small device into his undercarriage.

“What the…?” Mater said as he turned and saw Rod for the first time. “Whoa. You okay?” Mater asked the battered American agent.

“I’m fine,” Rod responded, knowing that Grem and Acer wouldn’t get the information he’d been carrying. It would soon be out the door with this dented old tow truck. The device he’d slipped into Mater’s undercarriage contained information that would lead Agent McMissile to the head of Professor Z’s evil operation.

“Hey, tow truck?” Grem said, trying to get Mater’s attention. “We’d like to get to our private business here, if you don’t mind.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry,” Mater answered. “Don’t let me get in the way of your private business.” He was about to leave, then turned back and added, “Oh! A little advice: When you hear her giggle, press that green button. It’s to adjust the temperature.”

“Got it,” Acer answered.

“All right, then,” Mater said, and rolled out of the bathroom.

With Mater gone, Grem and Acer turned their attention back to Rod.

Outside the men’s room door, Holley picked up the signal coming from the device on Mater. The rusty, dented tow truck was hardly keeping a low profile.

“This can’t be him,” she said into her radio. No secret agent she’d ever heard of would act like this!

Mater was shaking a rear tire as he approached the dance floor. “Look out, ladies,” he said. “Mater’s fittin’ to get funky.”

“Is he American?” Finn radioed back.

Holley sighed. “Very.”

“Then it’s him,” Finn told her.

Holley quickly drifted over to Mater and whispered the coded message: “A Volkswagen Karmann Ghia has no radiator.”

“Of course it doesn’t,” Mater replied. “That’s because it’s air-cooled.”

If there was anyone who knew all about cars, it was Mater. He was a tow truck, after all. He loved to help other cars. When they broke down, he tried to fix them or tow them. It was his nature.

In the world of espionage, though, Mater had just delivered a secret code to identify himself as an international spy! Naturally, Holley and Finn assumed he was the American agent.

“I’m from the Tokyo office,” Holley began to tell him. But Mater wasn’t done giving her all the facts on air-cooled engines. She was, after all, a very pretty car, and he was hoping to impress her.

He rattled on about all sorts of makes, models, and years in car history before Holley finally interrupted.

“Listen,” she said, “we should find somewhere more private. Impossible to know which areas here are compromised. When can I see you again?”

“Well, let’s see,” Mater answered happily. He couldn’t believe she was asking him out on a date! “Tomorrow I’ll be out there at the races.”