4
A SINISTER OFFER
Speed’s mom had dinner waiting for Pops and Speed when they got home. She was happy to see them, as always, but the news that Pops had quit his job worried her.
Speed’s little brother, Spritle, was more worried about dessert. His pet chimpanzee, Chim Chim, was eating all of the cookies!
“Save some for me! ” Spritle said.
“Eek!” said Chim Chim. He reached out and grabbed another cookie off the plate.
Mom Racer made cups of tea for Pops and Speed. But Pops was too worried to enjoy it. He paced back and forth across the kitchen.
“Somebody tried to steal the plans, so that must mean they’re valuable, right?” he wondered.
Mom had other things on her mind. “Yes, but now that you’ve quit your job, you won’t know what to do with yourself,” she said with a twinkle in her eyes. Her eyes were as green as the dress she wore. “I know how you like to keep busy. How about remodeling my kitchen, rebuilding the garage, and planting some shrubbery?”
“Hey, I’ve got a groovy idea, Pops,” Speed said. “I’ll help you with everything.”
“Okay, but first I’m going to work on remodeling the Mach 5 myself,” Pops said. “I’ll prove to the suits down at the factory that these plans are genius.”
“But where will you get the money for the parts you need to rebuild the car?” Mom asked.
Pops frowned. “Where am I going to get that money?”
Spritle turned up the radio in the next room. He and Chim Chim began to dance. But Pops was feeling too worried about the money he needed to have fun.
“Quiet!” he bellowed.
“Waaaaah!” Spritle started to cry. Then Mom came out of the kitchen.
“Here, Spritle, I just baked a new batch of cookies,” she said. She held the cookie plate out to him.
Spritle stopped crying. He reached out to grab a cookie, but Chim Chim ran up and snatched the plate right out of Mom’s hands.
“Waaaah!” Spritle started to bawl again.
Pops groaned.
Everyone left the dinner table wondering how Pops was going to find the money to build his engine. Speed thought about Pops’s problem all night long. When he went to bed, he stared out of the window at the starry sky.
Speed’s biggest dream was to become a pro racer. But right now, his dad’s dream was more important.
“I won’t be a professional racer,” he said to himself. “Instead I’ll go to work. I’ll earn enough money so Pops will be able to rebuild the Mach 5.”
Across town, the same stars shone down on Mr. Van Ruffle’s house. The chief engineer was yelling at a bunch of goons—the bikers who had ambushed Speed and Pops earlier that day! They were all bruised and bandaged from their encounter with the Racers.
“You stoneheads! Don’t tell me you’re sorry!” Van Ruffle fumed. He had hired them to steal the plans from Pops Racer, and they had failed him.
“But we are sorry, Mr. Van Ruffle,” said one of the goons. “Speed’s strong and he got help from someone in a helicopter.”
“Don’t give me excuses! ” Van Ruffle yelled.
A man in a trench coat stepped out of the shadows. He wore dark sunglasses, and a thin mustache covered his even thinner lips.
“I figured those guys would botch the job, and they did,” the stranger said. “Give me five thousand clams and I’ll get the plans.”
“Five thousand dollars? You, sir, must be kidding!” Van Ruffle said.
“Oh, no,” said the man calmly. “Ace Ducey doesn’t kid. If you want those plans, it’ll cost you five thousand clams. If you don’t want them, forget it.”
Van Ruffle gritted his teeth. Five thousand dollars was a lot of money. But he knew that Pops Racer really was a genius. He had only pretended to think the plans were a bad idea so he could steal them for himself. In the right hands, those plans could be worth millions.
“All right, it’s a deal,” he said.
Ace Ducey grinned sinisterly. “You’ll have the plans for the Mach 5 before you can say ‘Ace Ducey’,” he promised.
