Chapter 18: Rescue Suzie
The Chan Clan quickly arrived to the door that lead to the subway station, and next to the door was a keypad on the wall.
"I guess we gotta put in the code to open the door," Flip figured. "But what is it?"
"Perhaps we should head back to our mutual parent to see if he knows it," Tom suggested. "Or perhaps we could reset the code ourselves from here to gain entry to the old subway station."
Bored with her brother's suggestions, Anne merely pulled the handle on the door. "How about we just open it, genius?" she retorted.
"But how?" Tom puzzled. "Pop said a code was needed to open the exit doors around here."
"It's just a hunch," Henry theorized, "but it probably means Vito was already here and came through. We better hurry before he gets away!"
The Clan quickly ran through the door, went down a long stairway, and entered the top floor of the enormous old underground subway station.
"Boy, this place is humongous!" Stanley exclaimed.
"Yeah. Looks like we'll have to split up again," Henry instructed. "Everyone, check behind every door, look in every empty room you can find, and if you see Vito, scream."
As ordered, the Chan Clan went their separate ways. Each one checked a room in search of their adversary. Alas, there was no sign of him.
Suzie, figuring she'll have better luck on the second floor, walked down the stairs. Once she reached the bottom of the steps, she found herself near the subway tracks, and on the tracks were two handcars.
"Hmm," the third eldest Chan child thought out loud to herself, "maybe there was a third handcar and Vito used it to escape."
"Not quite," a sinister voice said.
Suzie turned around and found Tony Vito standing right behind her!
Forthwith, Vito grabbed the eldest Chan daughter and covered her mouth before she could scream for help. Even worse, the heinous man quickly became intrigued by Suzie's appearance.
"My," Tony Vito flirted, "you appear to have your mother's lovely face. I couldn't make her my wife, but I believe in four or five years, you'll do perfectly."
Tony attempted to leave with the captive Suzie on the handcar, but the moment he got within a foot of the subway tracks, Anne leapt onto his back and gripped him in a stranglehold.
"Let her alone, you rat!" the ambitious tomboy shouted as she continued her hold on the villain.
Unfortunately, the most muscular of the masked henchmen appeared from behind, grabbed Anne by the back of her shirt, and threw her against the stairs, breaking her left arm.
As Vito continued to the handcar with Suzie, the henchman approached the injured Anne with a chain, preparing to beat her with it.
"Well," the masked man sneered, "as you say in Chinese, 'Zài jiàn'."
The voice of Alan interrupted the thug's assault, "And as we say in America, 'Heads up'!"
A chair was thrown by the inventing genius from the top of the stairs and onto the masked hoodlum's head, knocking him unconscious.
As Alan came to his injured sister, Anne reluctantly thanked him, "Uh, nice save."
"What are big brothers for?" Alan smiled. "You okay, Anne?"
Tom came down the stairs, followed by Chu-Chu and the rest of the Chan Clan. "It appears her left upper limb has had a physical trauma caused by the brute's external force," the intelligent brother stated.
"Yeah, and I think that guy broke my arm, too," Anne said as Alan helped her to her feet. "But never mind me. Vito's getting away with Suzie!"
Everyone looked on in horror as Tony Vito, with one hand holding Suzie captive, escaped down the tracks on one of the handcars.
A determined Henry, however, was not willing to let that happen. "Over his dead body!" he said.
Rapidly, Henry got on the other handcar and chased after the family's nemesis. "Vito," the strong-willed Chan silently swore, "you took my mother away from me. I'm not letting you take my sister!"
Henry managed to tail Vito over three miles down the tracks. They eventually entered a large, old cave and came to a fork in the tracks. Tony went down the tracks on his left with Henry following in hot pursuit. Sadly, no one saw the worn-out sign on the dark cave wall that said, "Dead End. Do Not Enter."
The Chan Clan leader continued his chase, but Tony Vito was already too far ahead. Fearing he may lose track of Vito, Henry decided to come up with a new plan to save Suzie. He looked up and saw many stalagmites on the cavern wall. Fortunately, he still had the rope he used on Scooter earlier. Henry quickly slowed down his handcar and lassoed one of the stalagmites high above him.
"Time to make like Tarzan," he said to himself before shouting to his sister, "Suzie! Get ready to jump!" He then swung over to Tony's handcar.
Seeing her brother coming to her aid, Suzie, desperate to free herself, elbowed her captor hard in the stomach. As Vito held his stomach in agony, Suzie jumped into Henry's arm the very moment he reached her and they both swung back to safety.
Not paying attention to the tracks, the enraged Tony Vito vowed, "You Chans think you have won, but this isn't over! I'll be back and I will destroy the whole Chan family!"
While hanging from his rope with Suzie, Henry looked ahead and shouted, "Vito! Stop! The tracks are out!"
Vito turned and saw that the rest of the tracks were gone and he was headed for a cliff. The petrified villain attempted to stop his handcar, but was much too late. His handcar went over the cliff and Tony Vito fell to his demise.