Chapter 9: Nightly Abduction

Scooter walked out on the front porch and sat down. "Boy, she thinks she's so smart. She's only older by one dumb grade and she knows everything?" The young Chan stood up and walked further onto the lawn.

"Uh, a little late for a stroll, isn't it?" a voice asked.

Scooter turned around and found his sister, Anne, sitting on an outdoor lounge chair. "Where are you off to, kiddo?" she asked.

"Why?" Scooter huffed. "Are you gonna start telling me I'm too young to go out by myself?"

"Uh, no," said Anne, "but I was gonna tag with you, if you don't mind."

"Well," Scooter thought, "I guess so."

Anne and Scooter walked off for a nightly stroll. Both, however, were completely unaware a shadowy figure was watching them from behind a nearby tree.

As they walked, Anne could tell something was bothering her little brother. "Judging by your earlier complaint, I'm gonna guess that Mimi was nagging you again."

"Yeah," Scooter sighed. "I'm tired of her always telling me what to do. It's the same thing every day. She thinks I can't do anything myself just because I'm the youngest. Aw, you wouldn't get it, though."

"I kinda do," Anne corrected her brother. "Alan and Tom keep thinking I can't do much just because I'm a girl. Humph! I can do anything a boy can do. You know, we're both kinda going through the same grief, just in a different way."

Scooter never realized this before. In a way, he and Anne do share the same dilemma.

"But…" Anne had more to say, "I really think Mimi means well. I admit she shouldn't be hassling you all the time and saying you're just a child when she's only older by a year, which, of course, doesn't say much when you're only seven, but it's probably just her weird…very weird…way of showing she cares."

Scooter started to wonder if Anne may be right, which brought him to ask, "Do you think that's why Alan makes fun of you all the time? 'Cause that's his weird way of showing he cares?"

Anne paused for a moment. She never thought that before. She then shrugged it off and kept walking. "Nah," she replied. "Alan just likes to annoy me."

Several blocks later, Anne was feeling a bit parched. "Hey, what do you say we stop at a gas station for a snack before heading back? A soda for me and an ice cream cone for you."

"Great!" said Scooter. "Uh, wait. What if…"

Anne knew what her youngest sibling was about to ask. "If Mimi has an issue about it, she can take it up with me. Now let's go."

"Oh, good!" Scooter smiled.

The two children walked further along and approached a 24-hour gas station. Anne soon noticed a green box truck parked within it. "Boy, that truck sure looks familiar."

As she and Scooter looked on, two men walked out of the gas service station after purchasing bags of potato chips. As they got into their truck, they both placed black hoods over their heads!

Scooter gasped in shock. "Black hoods! Wow! It's the kidnapp-" Anne covered her brother's mouth before his loud tone could give them away and ducked behind a utility pole close by.

Fortunately, the two Chans were not seen and the criminals sat down in their truck, eating their chips.

"Let's get'em!" Scooter insisted.

"Hold it, tiger," Anne held back her impulsive brother, "they're too big for us. We need reinforcements. Let's call the others on the Chan-Com."

"Right!" Scooter agreed.

But before either of the two could call their siblings, they were both grabbed by the back of their shirts and held up high by yet another black-hooded henchman!

"What do we have here?" he sinisterly cackled. "Two of the famous Charlie Chan's children. Best catch of the day." The bulky criminal continued to laugh maliciously as he approached his comrades in the green truck.

"Are those some of the Chan kids?!" the criminal in the driver's seat asked in excitement.

"Sure is!" the burly captor snickered. "Out for a nightly walk like the boss said. The big cheese will be most pleased with this catch. Open the back!"

The black-hooded man in the passenger seat leapt out and opened the back of the truck and Anne and Scooter were immediately tossed in.

"Oh, and one more thing…" said their captor. The large black-hooded kidnapper grabbed Anne's wrist and removed her Chan-Com, then did the same with Scooter.

"Chan-Coms, huh? Cute toys," he sneered, then crushed both communicators with a single hand. "But you won't need'em where you're goin'!"

The criminals again all laughed maliciously as they closed the truck, locking the helpless Chans inside.