In less than an hour, Finn, Holley, Mater, and Mary had arrived in Paris, France. Once in the city, Finn led the way as the quartet manoeuvred through the city.
In Paris, there were hundreds of cars around the large arch roundabout known as the 'Arc de Triomphe'. Finn and Holley entered the roundabout easily, but Mater had a little bit of trouble entering the humungous roundabout. He eventually made it through after a little of patience and help from Mary. A little bit later, the quartet passed by a painter painting the Notre Dame. He seems to be a very good artist. Mater even chased some small pigeon planes around the Louvre Museum, a big building with a pyramid made by glass. Also, they came across a mime. Mater was a little freaked out by it, so he and Mary followed after the two spies, as they passed by the Eiffel Tower.
Finn finally led everyone to a somewhat shadier part of the city, traveling down some back alleyways while giving instructions.
"Once we're inside, stay close." Finn instructed to them all. "Don't bother checking VIN numbers for criminal records. They're all dodgy here."
"No VIN scans, got it." Holley nodded.
"Don't talk to anyone, don't look at anyone, and absolutely, positively no idling." Finn added. "Are we clear?"
"Yes. No idling. Yes, sir." Holley agreed.
"I understand, Finn." Mary acknowledged back to him.
Finn turned around. "Mater?"
"Yeah Finn?" Mater asked from behind a garbage bin.
"We're not here to go shopping." Finn said as they rounded the corner into the black market.
"Shoppin'?" Mater asked. "What do you mean? Why woul I...?" He paused when he saw the market. "Dad gum!" Mater hurriedly drove after the others, but he couldn't help staring at everything around him. "They got everything here. No! Look at them hoods! I could use a hood. Sorry, fellers. I gotta go!"
Various shop owners, with their merchandise laid out on blankets and towels, shouted their wares. Driving into the building nearby, even more vendors sat crammed together with their merchandise strewn about their areas.
Finn rounded the corner, but he froze and suddenly reversed again. He parked himself just around the corner, Holley and Mary staring at him worriedly. Finn angled his mirror to see a Reliant Regal three-wheeler, with a double-headlight structure. His license plate is PCS NO1R, an abbreviation for the French "pièces noires". He is in dark blue, with three wheels and chrome ornaments. He has a grey bumper, along with a small amount of rust on his body.
"There you are." Finn murmured.
"We found him?" Mary whispered.
"Man, there is some great bargains here!" Mater said rather loudly as he came up.
"Mater, get back!" Finn hissed.
Mater quickly obeyed, but not fast enough it would seem. Finn heard the squealing of tyres, and he shot out from around the corner to give chase after the blue three-wheeler. Holley, and Mater followed Finn, Mary racing on after them at speed.
The three-wheel car rammed into a pole, causing a pile of debris to fall right in their path, but Finn shot off a sheet of metal like a ramp, flying over the blockage and continuing after the three-wheeled car. Holley and Mater took a sharp left turn to go around the debris. Mary shifted up a gear, and launched off the debris ramp as well, gaining some serious air time, landing on the ground hard, sparks flying off her underside, but she kept on going.
The three-wheel car looked back to see Finn and Mary in his side-view mirrors, so he sped up with the thought that he got away. Suddenly, Holley appeared in the blue car's path. The car tried to turn hard left, but he ended up taking a tumble, flying right over Holley, before finally crashing into someone's tire stall. Holley rolled over, deployed a taser from her hubcap, shooting the three-wheeled car with it and shocking him.
Finn suddenly shot past and jerked the lines off. "Have you lost your mind?" He growled.
Holley blinked in surprise. "But I thought—" Holley started.
"Mater!" Finn called to the tow truck as he came up to the three-wheeled. "This chap needs a tow. Hook him up."
"Well, sure thing!" Mater nodded, hooking his tow cable under the dark blue car's bumper. Everyone followed Finn deeper into the marketplace, ignoring the three-wheeled car's indignant shouts.
Finn found a garage nearby and rolled inside, snapping in French at the car already in the garage. The car took off at once, allowing the spies, Mary and Mater to enter. Mater waited until Finn shut the door to the garage to give us privacy before letting the three-wheeled car down.
The dark blue vehicle spun around to Finn. "Electroshock?! Are you kidding me?" He shouted a bit in his French accent.
"Easy, Tomber (Tom-bay)." Finn said calmly. "This is Shiftwell's first field assignment. She didn't know you were my informant."
"Informant?" Holley repeated.
"A rookie, huh?" Tomber turned to sneer at Holley. "I never liked new car smell." Holley was silent, casting a glare.
"Who might this gentleman be, Finn?" Mary asked, trying to get on topic.
"Tomber was serving 20-to-life in a Moroccan impound the first time I saved him." Finn explained, smiling at the memory. "If I recall correctly."
Tomber smirked. "Speaking of recalls, you're getting up there in mileage, aren't you Finn?" He joked.
"So, you're an old friend of his?" Mary took a guess.
Holley rolled her eyes. "All right, we get it. You both know each other, you're both old." She activated her holographic computer, pulling up the picture. "So, here you go, informant. Inform us."
Tomber took a look of the photograph. "Beuck! That is the worst motor ever made." Tomber looked to the rest of the picture and his eyes widened. "Wait. That oil filter. Those wheel bearings."
"Do those parts look famliar, Tomber?" Finn asked.
"They should." Tomber nodded. "I sold them."
"To whom?" Holley asked.
"No idea." Tomber admitted. "He's my best customer, but he always does his business over the phone. I was always wondering why he needs so many parts. Now I know."
"Well, a lemon needs parts." Mater noted, to which Tomber nodded in agreement. "Ain't nothin' truer than that."
"I agree." Mary nodded.
"Lemon?" Finn asked, confused.
"You know, cars that don't ever work right." Mater explained. "Lemons is a tow truck's bread and butter. Like 'em Gremlins and Pacers we run into at the party and the race and the airport."
"Yeah. Those cars are lemons." Mary nodded.
Something suddenly clicked in Finn's head. "Holley, pull up the pictures from the oil platform." He ordered. She did as she was told, and brought up the images of the oil rig. "I want to know what other types of cars were out there."
Holley obeyed, now scanning the pictures that Finn's camera took of the oil rig. "Right. Let's see. Um, there were Hugos and Trunkovs."
"Mater, Mary, are these cars considered lemons?" Finn asked.
"Is the Popemobile Catholic?" Mater asked, confirming it.
"Yes, they are." Mary clarified.
Holley blinked in realisation. "Finn, everyone involved in this plot is one of history's biggest loser cars." She informed.
"And they're all taking their oders from the car behind this engine." Finn added in, looking to the picture of the engine.
"Ah, this explains it!" Tomber said suddenly.
"What, Tomber?" Finn asked.
"Gremlin, Pacer, Hugo, and Trunkov never get together, but they are having a secret meeting in two days." Tomber explained.
"Where's this meeting taking place?" Finn asked.
"Porto Corsa, Italy." Tomber replied.
"That's where the next race of the World Grand Prix is being held!" Mary was shocked at this.
"Mary is right!" Mater added.
"Then there's a good chance our mystery engine will be there, too." Finn guessed.
"Your chances are more than good." Tomber confirmed to them. "I just sent him a new clutch assembly yesterday. To Porto Corsa."
"Holley, contact Stephenson and have him meet us at Gare de Lyon." Finn ordered with a grin. "Good work." He told Tomber.
Tomber, Mater, and Mary nodded to one another. They all worked well as a team.
~*~*~
A little later, Finn, Holley, Mater, and Mary had headed off to Gare de Lyon, and got onto Stephenson, a black/chrome 2005 VFT KL-2 high-speed train, and they sped down the tracks towards Porto Corsa.
In the main coach, Finn, Holley, Mater, and Mary were looking at a video from a surveillance camera at an intersection in Porto Corsa. There were lots of lemon cars where moving in one direction, some with escorts while others were without.
"Boy, I'll tell you what, that three-wheeled feller had to be right about a big meetin'." Mater noted as we watched a couple well-guarded lemon models drive down the street, surrounded by black painted versions of the cars. "You never see this many lemons in one town. 'Less there's a swap meet, or somethin'. Hey, how'd you get all them pictures?" He asked to Holley.
"Well, I remotely programmed Porto Corsa's red light cameras to do recognitions scans." Holley explained, sounding proud.
"Wow." Mater breathed. "Not only is you the purtiest car I ever met, but you the smartest too."
"Thank you." Holley said. "I think."
"That's a familar sight." Mater noted as we turned our attention to the cameras again. "A Hugo bein' towed. But he looks absolutley perfect!"
"Of course." Finn realized. "They must be the heads of the lemon families."
"Makes sense." Mary agreed with Finn.
"If I was rich and broke down every day, I'd hire me to tow me around all the time too." Mater mused.
"We've got to infiltrate that meeting." Finn decided. "It's the only way to find out who's behind all this."
Holley looked to Mater and smiled. "Hang on a minute. Hold still." She suddenly snappd a picture of Mater, the flash nearly blinding him, and she inserted the picture into the computer. With a few quick edits, Holley was able to take Mater's face and put it over the tow trucks in the picture.
Finn grinned. "Good job, Miss Shiftwell."
"Thank you, Finn." Holley said proudly.
"The rest of us will standby in case Mater needs backup." Finn told Mary.
"Wait a second." Mary stopped, then she looked to Holley. "Holley, can you show an image of a waitress from Porto Corsa?" She asked.
Holley started to type up on search engines, and brought up a small pink Smart car waitress with a pink hat on her head. She scanned the colour of the car, getting the colour right and matching.
"Okay." Mary then looked to Holley. "Now, take a picture of me, and change my colour to match that of the waitress."
Holley did so, then uploaded the image into the computer. A second later, Mary's image was up on the screen, now in place of the smart car, now sporting the colour pink and the hat.
"Ah..." Finn now understood what Mary's idea was.
"Boy, I sure wish our friends could see us now." Mater said to Mary.