“Seven!” Pops cried. “But my son Speed Racer is in the north. He’s in the big race. And he may need our help. Are you sure there isn’t an earlier plane?”
As Pops argued with the airline attendant, there was something going on in Pops’s car parked just outside.
The trunk came open and out popped two small heads.
It was Spritle and Chim Chim. They’d stowed away in Pops’s car!
Spritle and Chim Chim climbed quickly out of the trunk and ran around to the other side of the car to hide.
The airline attendant was not being very understanding with Pops. “But I can’t help you,” he said. “We just don’t have any more planes.”
“Oh no?” said Pops. “Then what’s that thing sitting out there, huh?”
He pointed out of the window at the runway. Sure enough, a propeller plane was parked there. Its motor was running, as if it was set to take off any minute.
“Don’t tell me that’s a bird!” Pops cried.
“No, sir, but that’s a privately owned plane. I can’t sell you a ticket for it. It’s owned by Cruncher Block. It’s supposed to be taking off any minute.”
“Is that so?” Pops said.
At exactly that moment, a big man in a flashy white suit walked through the airline terminal, flanked on both sides by his bodyguards.
Pops watched the man head for the waiting plane.
Cruncher Block didn’t even see Pops. His mind was still on the No-Limit World Race and the Mammoth Car that was secretly carrying his gold. To his bodyguards, he said, “My special Motorcycle Mayhem Team failed to stop the Mach 5. But once we fly up there, I’ll personally see that the job’s done permanently. By me! Boys, the only person you can trust to see that a job’s done right is yourself.”
Spritle, still hiding on the airstrip, heard this loud and clear.
“Uh-oh,” he whispered to Chim Chim. “We’ve got to stop that guy.”
Cruncher Block took his sweet time climbing the steps of his plane. He was a big guy, and, if you asked him, there were a lot of steps.
Soon enough, he made it to his seat. He told the pilot to get the plane in the air. With that, the propellers started spinning. The plane took off into the night-and they were heading for Speed!
Cruncher Block smiled to himself in satisfaction. He had no idea that he and his men weren’t alone on the plane. Hiding just behind the big seat where Cruncher Block had planted himself were Spritle and Chim Chim.
Oblivious, Cruncher Block chuckled. “I always get hungry when I’m about to get more money,” he bellowed. Then he turned to one of his assistants. “Get me a sandwich, would ya?”
His assistant brought out a good-size sandwich, but before Cruncher Block could get his meaty hands on it, two very small hands poked up from between the seats and grabbed the sandwich off the tray.
“You pig!” Cruncher Block bellowed at his assistant. “You ate my snack yourself!”
His assistant yelped, afraid to speak up.
The plane sped through the night, heading north to catch up to the race.
7
HOT PURSUIT
Even though it was nighttime, there was no time to stop driving. Speed wasn’t stopping, and neither was the Mammoth Car.
The Mammoth Car drove up the mountain roads in the darkness, still in the lead. It came to a steep series of hills with many twists and turns and slowed down a little.
Trixie couldn’t help but notice. “Look, Speed!” she cried. “The Mammoth Car looks like it’s slowing down!”
“It must be too big and heavy for these mountain roads,” Speed said. “Maybe now we’ll get a chance to catch up to it.”
Seeing his shot, Speed stepped down hard on the gas pedal.
The Mach 5 sped up the mountain roads, taking the steep climb and the swift curves with ease. Sure enough, they reached the tail of the Mammoth Car in no time. Speed maneuvered the Mach 5 around the Mammoth Car, gaining on it tire by mammoth tire. Within seconds, he had reached the first compartment of the Mammoth Car, the section that housed the Mammoth Car’s driver.
The driver spotted the Mach 5 from his window. He hadn’t even noticed the Mach 5 gaining on him until it was too late. He had to do something to get the Mach 5 out of this race, or Cruncher Block would be furious!
The Mammoth Car’s driver turned the wheel and rammed the enormous weight of the Mammoth Car straight into the passenger side of the Mach 5. The impact sent the Mach 5 skidding off toward the side of the road. The Mach 5 bounced against the guardrail and boomeranged back at the Mammoth Car. It hit one of the Mammoth Car’s giant tires, bouncing back at the guardrail again.
The Mach 5 was out of control!
Speed thought quickly. He pressed a button on the steering column, shooting the Mach 5 off the ground entirely to avoid a crash. The Mach 5 landed on a bed of rocks off the side of the road. Now he was out of harm’s way, and the Mammoth Car couldn’t knock him off the mountain. Speed activated the belt tires, and this time they took hold right away. He steered through the rocks, never slowing.
But the Mammoth Car was not about to give up on getting Speed out of this race.
The driver of the Mammoth Car took a swift turn, barreling straight through the guardrail and leaping off the cliff and onto the rocks. He’d taken the Mammoth Car off the road to follow the Mach 5.
The Mammoth Car crashed through the rocky terrain, heading down the steep mountain with its bright headlights glaring.
“They’re after us! ” Trixie cried.
Speed took a look behind them. With the lights on in the night, the front of the Mammoth Car looked like the face of a monster. Speed kept going.
He turned onto a road, but the Mammoth Car followed.
Speed looked ahead toward a dark patch of woods. He pressed a button on the steering column, and rotary saws shot out of the front end of the Mach 5, ready to clear a straight path through the forest.
Speed didn’t hesitate. He turned off the road into the dark mass of trees. The rotary saws cut down any obstacles in his way. He kept driving.
“I think we’ll be safe now,” Trixie said. “The path we made will be too narrow for them to follow. ”
Then Trixie caught sight of the bright lights belonging to the Mammoth Car. It had its own saws, and it was cutting an enormous path for itself through the woods. Trees fell left and right, as if the entire forest was collapsing.
Speed took a quick look in the rearview mirror. “Here comes the Mammoth Car again! ” he yelled. “I’ve got to find some way to stop it.”
Speed thought for a moment. Then he spun the Mach 5 around and headed right for the Mammoth Car.
“I’m going to try to rip up those tires,” Speed told Trixie. Speed drove the Mach 5 right up to the gigantic tires and aimed the Mach 5’s rotary saws at it. There was a sharp rip as the saws tore through a rubber tire. The tire flew off the axle and into the trees.
But the Mammoth Car had dozens of other tires, and still it kept going.
Speed did a swift U-turn and came at the Mammoth Car again, the rotary saws out. He cut open another tire, but the Mammoth Car butted him and knocked him in the other direction.
Then the Mammoth Car activated its plow and hurled a mountain of dirt at the Mach 5. Seeing it coming, Speed pressed a button on the steering column, and the Mach 5 jumped up several feet in the air. The mountain of dirt covered the ground where he’d been, but it didn’t touch the Mach 5.
Speed had escaped being buried in the mountain of dirt, but he still hadn’t escaped the Mammoth Car. It was heading straight for him again, and the high jump had knocked the Mach 5 off balance, stalling it out.
The Mammoth Car started circling around the Mach 5. It circled and circled, so long and with so many segments that soon the Mach 5 was stuck in the center of a whirling red blur.
There was no way out.
The Mammoth Car kept driving in circles. The Mach 5 was trapped with nowhere to go.
“I’ll try t
o get us out of this,” Speed said. He hit a button that caused the Mach 5 to leap up and over the Mammoth Car. But the leap was too high and too wide, and before they knew it the Mach 5 had landed with a great splash in a nearby lake.
“Aaaah!” Speed and Trixie cried as the Mach 5 sunk into the lake. The Mach 5 was a car that could do many things... but could it pull Speed and Trixie from the depths of this lake? And, if so, would they be able to escape the Mammoth Car?
8
MESSAGE FROM THE BOTTOM
The driver of the Mammoth Car stood next to Lake Icy-Chill and looked out across it with great satisfaction. He’d seen the Mach 5 dive into the lake. He’d seen it plunge down to the bottom. And now many minutes had passed, and he had not seen it come back out.
The air bubbles had cleared. It looked as though there was no way the Mach 5 was getting out of its watery grave.
“That does it,” the driver said to his crew. “Let’s go.”
They all climbed back into the Mammoth Car. One of the crew members called Cruncher Block on the radio. “We just sent the Mach 5 down to the bottom of Lake Icy-Chill,” he reported to their boss.
With that, they drove out of the forest and back toward the road that would lead them to the finish line of the No-Limit World Race.
But maybe they had spoken too soon.
Because as soon as the Mammoth Car was out of sight, a narrow rod shot up from the center of the lake. It swiveled around, casting its eye on the surrounding area.
Down at the bottom of the lake, safe inside the Mach 5’s closed cockpit, Speed and Trixie were waiting and watching. The long rod was the Mach 5’s periscope, and they were using it to make sure the coast was clear.
“The Mammoth Car is gone,” Speed said. “Now it’ll be safe to get out of here. Let’s go!”
He pressed a button on the steering column to close the periscope.
Then he gunned the engine and sped the Mach 5 through the lake’s sandy bottom. With all the technological advances designed in the Mach 5, of course there would be no problem with it driving through water!
The Mach 5 burst out of the lake and sped through the forest back toward the road. As Speed drove, Trixie took out a small voice recorder and made this message:
“This is Trixie in the Mach 5, calling Inspector Detector. Speed and I have found out that the Mammoth Car is not just a racer. They tried to sink us at the bottom of a lake! They’re trying to stop us from finding out some very important secrets about the car. We’ll stay in the race for as long as we can, but please investigate the Mammoth Car as soon as possible!”
Speed cut in to add, “We think it may be carrying the fifty million dollars in gold bars stolen from the National Bank!”
“I can’t think of anything else to add, can you?” Trixie asked Speed.
“We’ve told him all we know,” Speed said.
Satisfied with the message, Trixie inserted the miniature audio tape into the homing robot. It was banged up from its previous run-in with the Mammoth Car, but it was still usable. Speed hit the button that sent the homing robot, message safely inside, out into the sky. The coordinates that were set would lead the homing robot straight to Inspector Detector, who would be waiting at the checkpoint.
Trixie looked up into the night sky. “That message is important,” she said. “I sure hope it makes it.”
9
CRUNCHER BLOCK’S NIGHTMARE
High overhead, Cruncher Block’s plane soared through the deep night. He had his pilot follow the road that was being used for the No-Limit World Race, to try to catch up to the Mammoth Car so he could keep an eye on it.
“Hey, look at that, boss,” his assistant said.
“Shut up,” Cruncher Block yelled. “I know the scenery’s gorgeous. I don’t want to hear about it.”
“But I’m not looking at the scenery, boss, I’m looking at the Mach 5.”
Cruncher Block forced his way over to the window. “You’re dreaming,” he said. But then he saw it with his own two eyes. Sure enough, the Mach 5 was on the road below.
“That’s no dream,” his assistant said. “That’s a nightmare.”
“I thought they sunk that little car at the bottom of a lake,” Cruncher Block said.
“They did, but that’s the Mach 5, all right,” his assistant said.
“I don’t believe it,” Cruncher Block yelled. “Fly closer!”
His pilot heeded the command and dove the plane toward the Mach 5.
Speed and Trixie saw something come straight at them from the sky. They swerved and ducked on reflex.
“That pilot should learn to fly better,” Speed said.
“I think they did it on purpose,” Trixie said.
Up in the plane, Cruncher Block stomped toward the cockpit. “I wanna talk to the Mammoth Car,” he told the copilot. He grabbed the radio.
“Now listen, you stoneheads,” he yelled into the radio. “I told you to get rid of those two nosy kids. Can’t you do a simple job like that? What went wrong, huh?”
“Nothin’ went wrong,” one of the members of the Mammoth Car said from down below. “We knocked those kids into the lake, just like we told you.”
“Oh yeah?” Cruncher Block yelled into the radio.
The crewman on the other end flinched.
“Look behind ya!” Cruncher raged. “And don’t you tell me that’s a ghost!”
The crewman looked out the window to get a good look.
That’s when he saw it: the sleek white race car following behind the Mammoth Car, just as before. Just like it had never sunk to the bottom of the lake!
“Aaaah! ” the crewman yelped. “It’s the Mach 5! But how’d they get out of that lake?”
Cruncher Block didn’t have time to speculate. And he didn’t care. What mattered was getting his Mammoth Car—and his gold-across the finish line and out of the country.
“Now listen carefully,” he told his crewman over the radio. “The Mammoth Car will be stopping at our secret fueling point any minute. Our men are waiting for you, and they’ll refuel the car. But they’ll also take care of the Mach 5. So make sure that it follows you there.”
The driver couldn’t help but butt in on the conversation. “But they could learn our secret!” he cried to Cruncher Block.
“Do as I say,” Cruncher Block yelled back.
Then Cruncher’s plane rose up out of sight as it flew away.
Taking orders, the Mammoth Car’s driver turned off the road, hoping the Mach 5 would follow.
Inside the Mach 5, Trixie turned to Speed. “I wonder where the Mammoth Car is headed,” she said.
“If we follow them, maybe we can find out what they’re up to,” Speed said. He took the same turn, following the Mammoth Car off the road.
Unknown to Speed—and unknown to Cruncher Block and the Mammoth Car—Racer X took the same turn and followed them all.
10
SECRET HIDEOUT
Speed drove the Mach 5 along a dirt road lined with boulders following the Mammoth Car. But the Mammoth Car had a head start, and Speed had lost sight of it. A mountainous wall of rock climbed high into the sky, hiding the early morning sun. At the end of the long dirt road was an abandoned mine. Old, broken-down machinery littered the area. A dark entrance to the mine gaped open in front of Speed. Nobody was around for miles. And the Mammoth Car was nowhere to be seen.
“Hmm,” Speed said to Trixie. “I don’t see anybody here. This place seems deserted.”
“Uh-huh,” Trixie said. She looked out the window, looking for some sign of the Mammoth Car.
Suddenly, she spotted something. “A plane!” she cried.
Sure enough, a small charter plane was parked beside the entrance to the mine. It seemed to be empty. Little did Trixie know that this was the same plane that had just been carrying Cruncher Block and his men.
Speed pulled the Mach 5 closer to the small plane. “That’s funny,” he said. “Let’s take a look.”
Speed and
Trixie got out of the car and took a few steps toward the plane. That’s when they noticed the shadows in the dirt. They weren’t alone after all! A group of men stood nearby; their long shadows looked gigantic in the sunlight. They started advancing on Speed and Trixie.
“Run!” Speed cried. He grabbed Trixie’s hand and they took off. The closest place to hide was the entrance to the abandoned mine shaft. They rushed inside.
But the men didn’t follow them into the mine.
One of the men raised his hand to stop the others from going in. “No need to go in! They’re trapped in there! ” he yelled to the others. He gave the man near the mining cart tracks a thumbs-up. “Let ‘er roll! he commanded.
At that signal, the man released the brake on the mining cart. It was heavy, full of coal and steel poles that stuck out every which way. With great speed, it began to roll down the track...straight into the mine shaft where Speed and Trixie were hiding!
Inside the mine, the mining cart raced down the track, its long steel poles grinding into the walls of the mine shaft and causing some of the supports in the walls to break.
Speed and Trixie cried out in alarm and jumped up out of the way before it could run them over. But when they came down, they landed on top of the mining cart itself, which was racing deeper and deeper down the tracks and into the lower reaches of the mine. There was no way to stop the cart, and there was nowhere else to jump. The narrow mine shaft led down through the dark tunnels until all of a sudden...
There was a bright light! The mining cart had reached the end of the tracks, revealing a hidden cave where the Mammoth Car was parked. It must have driven in through another entrance. The bright lights were the Mammoth Car’s enormous headlights.
There was no way to keep the mining cart from stopping violently. It flung Speed and Trixie off into the dirt of the cave in front of the Mammoth Car. They were knocked unconscious.
The Race Against the Mammoth Car Page 3
