In the Valley of the Shadow, Chapter 12: "Starlight Express"
CAST (in order of appearance):
Amtrak engineer Jackie McDougal – Tommy Flanagan
Alpha – Alan Tudyk
Chuck Bartowski – Zachary Levi
John Casey – Adam Baldwin
Echo/"Sarah Walker" – Eliza Dushku
Jill Roberts – Jordana Brewster
Laurence Dominic – Reed Diamond
Adelle DeWitt – Olivia Williams
Topher Brink – Fran Kranz
Juliet/Sarah Walker – Yvonne Strahovski
Mike – Ryan Hurst
Sierra – Dichen Lachman
Victor – Enver Gjokaj
November – Miracle Laurie
Charlie – Olivia Munn
Sunday, April 12th, 2009
12:14 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Amtrak Coast Starlight Train #14
Van Nuys, California
As usual, the Coast Starlight train was running late. More than an hour and a half behind, in this case – in thirteen minutes, the train was supposed to be in Santa Barbara.
"Not a chance in hell THAT's gonna happen," Jackie McDougal muttered under his breath as he brought the train up to ten miles an hour. This was bound to piss off the folks on Van Nuys Blvd., but they'd have to live with it. If he went any faster than 25 miles per hour through the San Fernando Valley, Amtrak would have his head on a platter and his balls on a fork.
The train's speed came up to fifteen as he crossed Kester Avenue – and then, Jackie saw a VERY disturbing sight. "OH SHIT."
There was a Los Angeles County Metro Transit Authority articulating bus parked on Sepulveda Boulevard, right on the tracks, less than half a mile away. "Oh, fuck me!" Jackie whispered as he pulled the train's throttle all the way back and stood on the brakes. "Fuck!"
The problem was, even though the train was only going fifteen miles per hour, it was still thousands of tons of steel and passengers, and even an emergency stop would still generally take a train better than half a mile to bring it to a stop. As the Metro Rapid bus – Must be the 751, Jackie thought distractedly – grew in the train's windshield, he closed his eyes and said a little prayer to the God he had stopped believing in twenty years before, after the IRA had blessed him with a "Glasgow smile".
Jackie gritted his teeth and waited for the imminent crash – but there was none. "What?" His eyes flew open, to see the bus no more than ten feet away from him – and the train's speedometer reading zero. "Oh, thank CHRIST," Jackie breathed – and then his eyes went wide again.
The unmistakable ratcheting sound of a shotgun filled the cabin, and he slowly turned to see the barrel of a shotgun pointed at his face. "This is not my day," he muttered.
"Nice piece of work," the blonde intruder said. "Not often you can see a man stop a train from hitting a bus, not that quick."
"Thanks, I think," Jackie replied. "There's no money on board. Nothing here you'd want."
The intruder sighed and shook his head. "Money, money, money. Why do people always think it's about money?"
Pointing the shotgun at the right hand panel of the windshield, he fired. "Sometimes it's just about blowing shit away!" he cackled as the glass panel disintegrated. "What's your name?"
"Jackie," he croaked out. "Jackie McDougal."
"A pleasure, Jackie," the man replied. "Name's Alpha. Now, do me a favor, put both your hands on the throttle?"
12:14 PM
The Rossum Westwood building
Chuck Bartowski was at a loss. He kept trying to come up with a strategy where he could rescue both Sarah and Jill, but he was failing. Utterly.
The two people standing in front of him weren't helping any. Especially since they were both in agreement that he needed to go after Jill.
"Roberts is the logical choice, Bartowski," Casey told him. "She's a bio-geneticist, and we can't afford for her to fall into Fulcrum's hands full-time."
"Casey's right," Sar- ECHO! – added. "Juliet is expendable. Jill isn't."
Chuck looked at Echo in disbelief. "Sarah, that's YOUR BODY!" he practically shouted. "How can you say it's expendable?"
Echo shrugged. "Clearly, it's not important what body I'm in, as it's pretty apparent I can still be me," she replied. "Also, I'm a CIA agent. I know going in what the risks are."
"But…" Chuck's face fell, defeat weighing heavy on his shoulders. "But, Sarah, what am I supposed to do if you die?"
Echo smiled and shook her head. "I'm not going to, Chuck. I'll be fine. That's why you need to go after Jill."
Chuck looked into Echo's eyes, and saw Sarah looking back at him. He looked over at Casey, and the older man nodded.
"Alright," Chuck said, in a voice barely above a whisper, as his gaze fell to the floor. "Let's go get Jill."
12:14 PM
Outside the Gas Company Building
555 W. 5th St., Los Angeles
Jill had tried to be strong. She had TRIED, dammit. But she just couldn't do it any longer. In forty-five minutes, she was going to be dead. There was no way that Chuck was going to come after her. Not if Sarah's life was in danger, ESPECIALLY if Sarah's brain had been wiped and she couldn't protect herself.
And so, unbidden, she started to cry. She did her best to keep it quiet, but not quiet enough to keep her captor from hearing her.
"Oh, for the love of God," Laurence Dominic muttered. "What the hell are you crying about?"
Jill looked up at him through red-rimmed eyes and sniffed. "Because you're going to kill me," she whispered.
Dominic snorted. "I'm not ACTUALLY going to kill you, Roberts!" he replied, astonishment in his voice. "You're FAR too valuable to Fulcrum."
What?!
Jill stared at him. "Then what – what did Alpha mean when he said that whichever one Chuck didn't go to was going to be killed?"
Dominic shrugged. "It was a gambit," he replied. "We're just doing that to get Bartowski to break up his team, weaken himself. That way, whichever one he goes for, Fulcrum captures him there, and we kill the rest." He paused, lost in thought for a moment. "Here's the thing, though," he continued. "I don't trust Alpha to capture Bartowski and bring him in. I need you to get him to come after you."
"You've got to be kidding me," Jill uttered, a look of disbelief sweeping across her face. "Why would I voluntarily pull Chuck into your trap?"
The sound of the slide on a Ruger SR9 being pulled back filled the car. "Because if you don't," Dominic said calmly, as he raised the gun to Jill's face, "you WILL be playing a harp and wearing a halo." Then he paused to consider his words, and smiled evilly. "Or more likely, you'll be face down in the seventh level, getting cornholed by the devil."
But Jill didn't hear any of that last part. In fact, she had stopped listening after the word halo.
12:18 PM
Van Nuys
The bus had been moved out of the way. Jackie McDougal's hands were now lashed to the throttle of the train. "Now, have you seen Speed?" Alpha asked him.
McDougal turned a gimlet eye on Alpha. "You mean, that Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock on a bus movie?"
"That's the one," Alpha replied with a smile.
"It was naff," McDougal replied with a grunt. "Utter crap."
Alpha winced. "Iconic American movie, sir," he shot back. "And you get to experience your own version today."
McDougal narrowed his eyes. "What the fuck does that mean?"
"Look behind you," Alpha replied. McDougal craned his neck around –
"Sweet Mary, mother of Jesus."
"It's only a ten pound block of plastic explosive," Alpha said, "but that'll be more than enough to kill you, take out the locomotive, and send the train plowing off into whatever part of suburban hell happens to be unlucky enough to have us passing through at the moment." He paused, and smiled. "Just don't go below forty miles an hour, and we'll be fine."
McDougal's eyes widened. "Forty miles an hour?!" he gasped. "Are you out of your fucking mind?!"
"Only on my better days," Alpha answered. "And today's one of my better days."
"Forty miles an hour through the Valley is insanity!" McDougal insisted. "Do you have any idea how badly this could turn out?!"
Alpha started laughing. It started out as a quiet laugh, but before long, he was up to a full roar that originated in his belly.
"Oh, good God, yes," he finally said, when he had recovered sufficiently to speak. "That's the plan."
12:25 PM
Rossum Building
Chuck was still staring despondently at the floor, having not moved since he had made the decision to retrieve Jill, when the phone rang. "Hello?" he heard Adelle say quietly in the background.
"Chuck."
He turned around, to face Adelle. She held the phone out to him. "It's Dominic, for you."
Chuck crossed the room, and Adelle hit the speakerphone button. "Hello?"
"So, Bartowski, made your decision yet?"
Chuck sighed. "Perhaps," he replied, trying to not overplay his hand.
Dominic laughed at the other end. "No perhaps about it," he replied. "And here's why."
Chuck heard noise in the background, as if the phone was being handed off, and then he heard Jill's voice. "Chuck?"
"Jill… I'm so sorry…"
"Chuck, please… you have to come and get me." The fear in her voice was almost palpable, and Chuck bowed his head. "I'm so scared… don't leave me here."
And with those words, Chuck's head snapped up, and his eyes went wide. "Okay, Jill," he replied, keeping his voice level, even as a smile started to spread across his face. "I'll be there as soon as I can, okay? Where are you?"
"Nice try, Bartowski," Dominic's mocking voice came from the other end. "Have DeWitt trace the call. She should be able to find the cell phone… eventually."
With a click, the call was cut off. "YES!" Chuck roared, punching the air. "Let's go get Sarah!"
Casey and Echo both looked at him like he'd lost his mind. "Uh… Bartowski… what?!" Casey asked.
"Jill's fine!" Chuck replied. "Dominic's not gonna kill her – he's probably just using her to get to me!"
Echo shook her head. "Wait a second," she said. "How could you possibly know that?"
"Jill used one of my codes, Sarah!" Chuck answered excitedly. "Back when we were both at Stanford, we used to play Halo in these big LAN parties –"
"Oh, Lord, nerd-speak," Casey grumbled.
"- and we had these secret codes that we could use on open frequencies to communicate with each other without letting the enemy know anything."
Echo raised an eyebrow. "Go on."
"One of those was 'I'm so scared, don't leave me here'," Chuck said. "That meant, 'I'm fine, go do what you have to do, I'll take care of myself.' Jill's fine!"
"Okay," Echo replied. "Assuming you're right –"
"I AM right," Chuck shot back defensively. "Jill wouldn't use one of our codes unless she wanted me to understand it that way."
"Alright," Echo said, raising her hands in acceptance. "So you're right. That still doesn't explain how we find… uh, me."
"Dollhouse architecture!" Topher said, speaking up for the first time, without looking up from tending to Carrie Rozelle's wounds. "Track the GPS we've installed."
"Surely Alpha will have disabled that," Adelle dissented. "The first thing he did upon leaving here was disable his own."
Topher frowned. "True," he replied. "We can try to track through her bio-signature…"
Chuck's phone rang, interrupting Topher's train of thought. Pulling the phone off of his belt, Chuck looked at the display. Morgan Grimes, it said. Sighing, Chuck answered the phone. "Now really isn't a good time, Morg-"
"DUDE! ARE YOU NEAR A TV?!"
"Uh… no…"
"Dude! There's an Amtrak train rampaging through the Valley at like ninety miles an hour! It's already taken out half a dozen cars, and the LAPD's afraid it's gonna derail when it hits the curve at Canoga Avenue!"
Chuck nearly dropped his phone. "Uh… Morgan, lemme call you back."
Without waiting from an answer from his bearded friend, Chuck cut off the call. "I think I know where Alpha is!" he said, a note of disbelief in his voice. "There's an Amtrak train being driven through the Valley at high speed."
Casey nodded. "Makes sense," he said. "Trains can go at pretty good speeds, they're almost impossible to stop using conventional means, and as long as he's in the Valley, we can't do something like bomb the train without pretty serious collateral damage in suburbia."
"Not to mention the several hundred passengers on the train," Adelle said dryly.
"The only question is, how do we raise an assault on the train?" Echo asked.
Topher Brink laughed, and stood up. "That's easy."
12:35 PM
Coast Starlight Train #14
Chatsworth, CA
Alpha breathed a sigh of relief and let go of his white-knuckle grip on the armrest as the train pulled through the Canoga Avenue curve. It had been slightly frightening, even for him, but it had made it.
The real problem was about five minutes away, but Alpha planned to be off the train by then.
"Where are we going?" Juliet asked, for about the fifteenth time since they had boarded the train.
Alpha gritted his teeth. "Hell, most likely," he growled across the dining car.
Juliet cocked her head. "Then I'm glad you let all the people off," she said. "They don't deserve to go to hell."
"They are irrelevant," Alpha replied, rolling his eyes. "I don't need them to lure Bartowski. I just need you."
"Bartowski," Juliet echoed. "Chuck Bartowski. I know him. I love him."
Alpha sighed and shook his head. "Shut up, bitch. Nobody asked you."
That was when Alpha heard it – the faint beat of rotor blades. He grinned. "Ride's here."
The Blackhawk helicopter touched down on top of the dining car. "THIS IS THE ONLY CAR WITH HEAT SIGNATURES IN IT!" Mike shouted over the rotor wash.
Echo put her hand on Mike's shoulder. "THANKS, MIKE!" she shouted back. "GET OUT OF HERE! WE'LL SIGNAL YOU WHEN WE NEED YOU!"
Mike turned to her, a concerned look on his face. "YOU'VE ONLY GOT ABOUT FIVE MINUTES BEFORE THIS TRACK HITS A HAIRPIN CURVE! THERE'S NO WAY A TRAIN CAN TAKE THAT CURVE AT THIS SPEED!"
Echo looked at him. "WE'LL BE FINE."
With that, she turned and exited the helicopter, followed by John Casey, Chuck Bartowski, Sierra, Victor, November, and Charlie. The four actives had all been imprinted as commandos, with every possible bit of counter-insurgency knowledge Topher could pack into their heads. Mike, their imprinted super-pilot, pulled the Blackhawk up and away from the train.
"ALRIGHT!" Echo shouted to the group crouched on the roof of the train. "HERE'S THE PLAN! CASEY, YOU AND CHARLIE GO FORWARD TO THE LOCOMOTIVE. SIERRA, YOU AND VICTOR GO BACK, MAKE SURE THAT THERE'S NOBODY STILL ONBOARD. NOVEMBER, YOU'LL STAY HERE WITH ME AND CHUCK. WE'LL ENTER THROUGH THE DINING CAR."
With a nod, John Casey took off, staying low, running the length of the train, Charlie right behind him. When he reached the locomotive, he gingerly lowered himself down to the deck, and pulled the door open.
"Sweet Jesus and thank the Lord!" a Scottish-accented voice greeted him. "You've gotta get me the hell out of here!"
Casey looked inside at the man tied to the throttle. "What's going on here?"
"Crazy bastard, calls himself Alpha, lashed me to this thing, told me if I go below forty miles per hour, the bomb goes off!"
Casey looked to his right. "Crap," he uttered, looking at the block of explosive. "Charlie, can you take care of that?"
The active looked at the bomb. "No way," she said. "He's got it wired like a Vegas casino. It would take me fifteen minutes just to figure out where to start."
"We sure as hell don't have that long!" the engineer interrupted. "In four minutes, this train is going off the track, for damn sure!"
Charlie turned around and looked at Casey. "What do we do?" she asked, concern written on her face.
"We untie him and get the hell off this train," Casey replied. "The rest will have to fend for themselves."
Echo and November had crept to the sides of the dining car. Lashing themselves to anchors on the roof, they were going to smash out the side windows and swing in. As they prepared to do so, Chuck saw one, then two, then three figures tuck and roll off the locomotive up front.
"Damn," he muttered as he saw the now-quickly receding figure of John Casey stand up and dust himself off. "That probably hurt."
"Here we go, Chuck!" Echo shouted. Looking over at November, she silently counted, One, two, three…
The two women reached down with axes and smashed out the windows directly below them, then rolled themselves off the sides of the train, and through the windows. As Chuck heard alarmed shouting come from below, he began to gingerly pull himself down and through – and then, rocketed himself quickly into the car with a yelp as a bullet whizzed past his ear.
Looking up, Chuck saw Alpha engaged in a fistfight with both Echo and November. "Chuck, take cover!" Echo shouted.
But Chuck saw Juliet, sitting on the other end of the car. Staying down and as far away from Alpha as he could, Chuck took off running – only to be tripped up by Alpha as he ran past.
"Hello, Mr. Bartowski!" Alpha exclaimed. "Oh, the Ring is going to be pleased when I bring –"
But he was cut off by a punch to the face from November. What the hell is the Ring? Chuck thought to himself. With Alpha distracted, though, he had to concentrate on one thing – getting to Juliet. Picking himself up, he started moving again.
"Hi," he said breathlessly, plopping down on the floor next to Juliet.
"Hello," she replied. "You're Chuck."
"Yeah," Chuck replied. "Listen, do you trust me?"
She smiled. "With my life."
"Good," Chuck said. "Get up in that seat, buckle yourself in, and hold on."
And at 12:41 PM, Amtrak Coast Starlight Train #14 hit the curve in the 21500 block of Rinaldi Street, just south of the site of the 2008 MetroLink collision. Unable to negotiate the curve at forty miles per hour, the locomotive lost its grip on the tracks and derailed. Its speed immediately dropped precipitously.
At thirty-nine miles per hour, the sensor on the bomb recognized that the train had dropped below forty miles an hour. It exploded, jerking the locomotive to the right and ripping it away from the rest of the train. The locomotive fell to its side, skidding across the scrub plain to the north of the tracks, and finally plowing into a hillside.
The rest of the train began to derail, its momentum carrying it off the tracks behind the locomotive. All in all, four of the ten cars on the train followed the locomotive off the tracks, piling up in a jumbled heap of twisted metal just across the tracks from St. Paul's Christian Academy.
The fourth car on the train was the dining car.