Johnny and Tim pulled into the Zorrin Sanctuary car park.

‘Good job knocking out your dad with a stun blast,’ Tim said. ‘How’d you do it?’

‘That wasn’t planned – I accidently knocked the backseat ejector button on the dashboard and the roof didn’t pull back. He’s out cold from another big whack to the noggin.’

‘The Viper has an ejector seat?’ Tim cried. ‘You must be joking?’

‘Depending on how you look at it, Dad got off lightly,’ Johnny smiled, exiting the super-vehicle. ‘I’ll get the boffins to fix that glitch right away.’

Opposite the car park a group of bandana-wearing hippies danced around a large conifer tree while singing, ‘Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Cyril, happy birthday to you.’

‘They’re holding a birthday party for a tree?’ Tim asked.

‘Yep – those hippies never fail to surprise me,’ Johnny replied. ‘Who knows what else goes on at a peace meeting? They’re meant to be protesting at the army base later on and I just hope that event doesn’t turn explosive.’

‘Humph . . .’ Mr Dangerfield stirred as Johnny and Tim propped him up then walked him awkwardly towards the gathering.

‘Huh? Where am I?’ he muttered woozily.

‘Ah, you’re at a tree’s birthday party,’ Johnny said calmly.

‘Really?’ Mr Dangerfield’s face lit up. ‘Oh, how cool. I love trees, and birthdays. They’re groovy!’

What? Tim mouthed to his friend, staring at the huge tree.

Johnny smiled. ‘Well, I guess we have “regular dad” back with us again for the moment.’

‘So, he’s not a Yuri-nator – he’s just on a weird-dad trip?’ Tim murmured.

‘Tim, if I knew the answer to that question I’d feel a whole lot safer,’ Johnny sighed.

His father stood up straight and walked towards the tree-hugging group. ‘Sorry I’m late for the party. I don’t know what came over me. Time just moseyed on by.’

A second later a shrill alarm sounded from inside the Viper. The two boys scurried back to the invisible car. Johnny swung open the door. A red light pulsed in the middle of the dashboard.

‘What alarm’s that for?’ Tim asked.

Johnny leapt in and fired up the powerful engine. ‘That’s an urgent contact call-out from our school library – I’m needed there right away.’

‘You have the school library hooked up to your car? Why? To check on overdue books or something?’

‘No, bro, the secret MI6 base is located in our school library.’

‘There’s an MI6 base in our school library?’ Tim cheered. ‘This is awesome – you never told me that!’

‘You never asked . . .’

As Tim leaped into the passenger seat, Johnny hopped out and waved goodbye to his father.

‘Where are you going?’ Mr Dangerfield called out.

‘To buy Cyril a present – it would be rude if we didn’t. We’ll be back soon.’

‘Cool beans,’ Mr Dangerfield replied dreamily. ‘Trees love presents. Just remember to avoid buying ones that require assembly. Trees don’t have small nimble fingers like humans do.’

‘Point taken,’ Johnny said, sliding back into the diver’s seat.

The teen spy closed his door and circled the car around to head back towards the motorway. Tim looked in the rear-view mirror and saw his friend’s dad rattling his tambourine and skipping around the conifer tree.

‘Is it safe to leave him there? I mean, so much could go wrong.’

‘Cross your fingers for the hippies,’ Johnny cried. ‘Let’s hope for their sake that he doesn’t flip out and shock everybody by revealing himself as a crazy outdoors Yuri-nator!’