"The California Zephyr? Doesn't that go to San Francisco?" Don looked surprised that his team the call.
"Yeah, but the hijackers re-routed it to Los Angeles."
Don groaned, "What do they want? How many people on the train?"
"They haven't made any demands yet. 200 passengers, 50 employees. The engineer's been shot and one of the hijacker's is driving the train," David said grimly. "There's a downhill section of the track outside of Los Angeles County which is treacherous."
"Colby, call Charlie, see if he can help us find a place where we can stop the train. Find out what would happen if they lose control of the train in that downhill section. David, see what you can find out about the train and the route. Maybe we can get on that train somehow."
"And overpower the hijackers?" Colby was incredulous. "We'd need a full assault team to do that!"
"Get on it then, Colby!" Don was exasperated.
Colby glanced at David, who shrugged.
-----
"Don, I've got the train configuration," David said. "The baggage car is behind the engine car. There are 3 Vista Dome cars, then a buffet lounge car, followed by 2 sleeper cars, the dining car, and another 2 sleeper cars. I'm thinking that the passengers will have been rounded into the buffet car and the dining car. Plus the hijacker driving the train in the engine car. We could drop into the baggage car, and the sleeper cars before and after the buffet and the dining cars."
Don nodded, "Any idea where we should do this?"
"Charlie said we should do that at Emeryville," Colby said, "before the downgrade begins."
"Alright, get the team in place. Let's do it!"
-----
Colby dropped onto the baggage car, and slid his way down into it. He moved quietly to the engine car and saw the wounded engineer struggling to hang on despite the gunshot wound. He motioned to the engineer to stay quiet. Silently, he moved into the engine car, and taking him by surprise, overpowered the hijacker. With the engineer's help, he took control of the train.
The rest of the assault team, made short work of the disorganized hijackers, who never saw them coming.
Don, David, and Colby, cheered and high-fived each other at the success of the assault.
"Men and their toys," Olivia said sarcastically from the door. A chorus of feminine laughter accompanied the comment that had the men getting up sheepishly from behind the model trains. She laughed at the embarrassment on David's face.
"Did my big, bad G-man arrest the hijackers for me to prosecute?" Robin purred to Don. He rolled his eyes at her, but grinned a little sheepishly.
"My conquering hero," Hannah said, laughing up at Colby, who scooped her up into his arms, swinging her around in triumph. She burst into giggles. "Now can we have dinner?"
-----
Author's Note:
The configuration of the train as described in this story belongs to the California Zephyr (also called "Silver Lady" and "Silver Streak") that ran between 1949 and 1970. It was operated by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad from Chicago to Denver, Colorado, the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad between Denver and Salt Lake City, Utah, and the Western Pacific Railroad from Salt Lake City to San Francisco.
The current California Zephyr is operated by Amtrak. It started back up in 1983, running a similar route, but with modern railcars.