Johnny and Tim sped down the motorway in their invisible Viper with Johnny’s unconscious father in the back seat.

‘Johnny, this is a lot to digest in a few short hours – the world is about to be attacked by an army of sinister Yuri-nators and your dad has totally flipped out, meaning that he might actually be one of them?’ Tim cried.

‘I know, it’s heavy,’ Johnny said. ‘And to top it off, Mum is demanding to know where Dad disappeared to last night.’

‘What did you tell her?’

‘I left a note saying he was meditating in our tree house before his Peace Retreat. I skipped the bit about him knocking himself unconscious last night after karate-kicking a beeping smoke alarm, and also the bit about us putting him in the back seat of my invisible spy car all night.’

Tim looked round. ‘So when will he wake up?’

‘I have no idea.’

Tim focused on his iPad. ‘Oh, look, an urgent MI6 security update! If you suspect someone’s a killer Yuri-nator, you should study their eyes – they’ll glow golden whenever they’re about to harm you.’

‘Dad’s eyes never glowed golden last night, did they?’ Johnny asked.

‘I’m not sure,’ Tim said. ‘I was too freaked out to notice.’

‘If they didn’t, surely that’s a good sign?’ Johnny said.

Tim glanced further down the screen.

‘Not necessarily. It also says that some new undercover versions of Yuri-nators have been programmed to hunt down humans, but not attack them. Their eyes don’t change colour. Once their target is identified and cornered they call in the killer cyborgs to exterminate them.’

Johnny sighed. ‘Not the sort of information I wanted to begin my day with.’

‘Um, maybe your dad has a weird medical problem? Has your mum noticed him acting strange recently?’

Johnny looked at his friend. ‘My dad acting strange? Does a man who wears a jumper made out of daisy chains qualify as normal? Does someone who builds matchbox playgrounds for bored earthworms qualify as normal?’

‘Good point,’ Tim replied. ‘Okay, well, our only option right now is to get him as far away from your house as possible so we are the only ones who see him like this.’

Johnny nodded in agreement. ‘Yep, a Peace Retreat at a hippy commune in the woods with no wi-fi or running water is about as far away as we can possibly get today.’

‘How will the hippies cope if he wakes up like Rambo with a sore head?’ Tim asked.

Johnny flashed him the ‘V’ sign with two fingers. ‘Peace, love and tolerance, bro – isn’t that what hippies are always talking about? I’m sure they’ll find a place in their marshmallowy hearts to forgive and accept him.’

A second later Johnny heard sirens. He looked in his rear-view mirror to see flashing lights making a beeline for his car.

‘We’ve got cops on our tail,’ he murmured to Tim.

‘What the . . . ’ Tim cried.

‘I’m driving an invisible car – how can they even see me to know I’ve done anything wrong?’ Johnny groaned.

‘Um, I don’t want to sound paranoid, but is it possible that Yuri-nators have x-ray vision?’ Tim asked, scrolling through the MI6 information.

‘Are you saying they’re not really cops and they can see us?’ Johnny said.

‘Floor it, just in case,’ Tim said, gripping his seat.

Johnny zigzagged left and right through the heavy traffic but the flashing lights matched his every darting move.

‘Faster,’ Tim howled.

Johnny spotted a gap ahead and put his foot to the floor, zipping between two large lorries.

Tim looked over his shoulder to see the flashing lights filling the entire back windscreen. ‘Oh man, they’re sticking to us like glue!’

‘Not for much longer.’ Johnny roared past the lorries, swerved off the road, and headed straight for the lake. He activated the inflatable aqua tyres and – SWOOSH! – the Viper rocketed across the top of the water. ‘They won’t follow us out here, not unless they’ve got water wings.’

‘Cool,’ Tim beamed.

The two friends breathed a sigh of relief as the flashing lights drove off into the distance.

‘Did you get their ID?’ Johnny asked as he manoeuvred across the choppy water.

Tim tracked the departing vehicle through his spy binoculars. ‘Yep, got it.’

He dropped his binoculars down. ‘Johnny, panic’s over, they weren’t Yuri-nator cops . . .’

‘No? Who were they?’

‘Ambulance drivers.’

‘Oops,’ Johnny said, looking sheepish. ‘That would explain their flashing lights and excessively fast driving.’

‘Yeah, sorry about the false alarm,’ Tim apologised. He clicked the MI6 file shut. ‘For the record, Yuri-nators do have x-ray vision.’

‘Duly noted,’ Johnny said coolly.

He turned them off the lake and onto the road and – BOOM BOOM! – deflated his tyres to normal road size.

Moments later, Johnny’s dad sat bolt upright in the rear seat.

‘Mission status update? Give me intel!’ he boomed. He frowned at Johnny’s face in the mirror. ‘Wait a minute – you two are double agents!’ He rolled his fingers into the barrel of a gun again. ‘Pull this vehicle over immediately, or there will be trouble.’

Tim looked at Johnny and his face screwed up. ‘Your dad is acting nutso again.’

Johnny grimaced and put his foot down.

‘Brace yourself, Tim – I think we have a situation with a probable backseat Yuri-nator that’s about to turn messy.’