Chapters 25-27 went up together. Be sure to jump back if you haven't read 25...
Scene XLVIII – Griffith Observatory
A large garbage truck lumbered up the hill towards the observatory parking lot. The truck was cut off by a set of orange cones, set up around the curve and out of view of the parking lot. A pair of official-looking men with irritated expressions stood in front of the barrier, one of them holding his hand up to indicate the truck should stop.
The driver of the truck looked confused, but obligingly stopped. After pressing the parking brake into place with his foot, he opened his door and hopped down, leaving the engine idling. "What's going on? I gotta grab the trash."
The two men carefully eyed the driver. The man who had signaled the truck to stop said, "There are some bigwigs going through the observatory right now. Nobody gets in for at least an hour."
"C'mon, I'm just collecting trash here. This is the last stop and I can call it a day. I don't want to sit here for an hour. Let me do my job so I can go home."
The other guard said, "Sorry, nobody gets in or out."
"Aw, man, you're killing me here."
Pfft. Pfft.
The two guards dropped to the ground, taken out by precision shots through a slit in the bed of the truck. Within twenty seconds, the bodies and the cones were stashed.
The driver retook his seat in the cab. As the truck lurched forward, he pressed a button and dialed a number on his cell. "First stop complete," he said. "Two taken." He hung up.
As the truck came around the final turn, a black SUV came racing up behind them. Both men in the garbage truck instinctively expected trouble; they kept a close eye on the occupants as the truck struggled through the parking lot.
Casey put his phone away as he and Sarah walked closer to the planetarium dome. "Break's over Bartowski," he said into the mike.
"I know, I know." Chuck sighed. All he wanted to do was sit there: the view was incredible, and the aftermath of the excitement left him feeling exhausted. "How do we stand?"
"Two agents down in the corridor. Plato down on the ground. Amafor escaped into the woods."
"Amafor escaped?" Walker asked.
Casey's look silenced any follow-up questions. His eyes bored into her as he added, "The clean-up crew just took out two guards in the front of the parking lot. That accounts for six."
Sarah said, "Plato said they had eight agents to our three."
Chuck pivoted around to look at the Hollywood sign. He wanted to take in as much of the view as he could before he was forced to climb down. "The only other group that checked in on the radio were in the security room," he noted. "The room's on the first floor, in the back corner."
"Makes sense," Sarah said. "They'd want to scrub the video and keep an eye on things."
"I'm on it," Casey said, a bit too hastily. "You keep things under control here. People tend to get squeamish if they see a dead body." He took off.
Sarah stared after him, clearly confused that he would run off alone with two agents unaccounted for. She was quickly distracted.
"Um, Sarah?" Chuck called down to her. "I think we've got a problem."
"What now?"
Chuck had pivoted again. Out in the parking lot, the black SUV pulled in next to their car. Out came a man and woman. The woman spread her arms in disbelief while checking the license plate.
Chuck shook his head in disbelief. He recognized the SUV and the body language. "Ellie and Awesome are in the parking lot."
Casey found the nearest stairwell. He raced down the steps as if his life depended on it.
It might. He needed to make sure that he controlled the video of his conversation with Morland; he wasn't sure what was on it. That meant getting to the monitoring station without Walker or Bartowski around.
Dashing across the exhibit floor, he paused only briefly when he reached the security room door to listen. He couldn't hear anything.
He shouldered open the door, gun drawn. Inside, he found the two men duct-taped to an office chair, one sitting in the other's lap, gags in both mouths. Two security guards had guns trained on the men.
"Who are you?" the black guard asked.
"Never mind that; who are you?"
"Call me Clarence."
"Well, Clarence, did you do this?"
The man laughed. "Not us. The other security guard did."
"What other security guard?"
Clarence's face became puzzled. "Didn't he find you? How else would you have known to come down here?"
A sinking sensation overtook Casey. He quickly moved over to the monitoring station and located the camera where he'd had the conversation with Morland. Working the controls, he tried to rewind the video.
He couldn't. It quickly became apparent why.
Somebody had taken the disc.
His face whitened. Somebody had the video of his conversation with Morland. That wasn't good, especially since he had no idea who it was.
He was suddenly in a very bad mood.
Something occurred to him: the terrace camera didn't show Chuck or Sarah.
His eyes jumped from monitor to monitor. He found Walker and Bartowski; he burst into a grin.
Casey suddenly had a way to vent his bad mood. "Clarence, you're in charge." He took off without another word.
Clarence just shook his head. At some point, somebody had better stop and explain to him what was going on.
Sarah was waiting for Chuck at the bottom of the ladder. "Why are Ellie and Awesome here?!" Sarah asked.
Chuck had thought about the puzzle during his descent. He had considered the blanks, placed "Hang-man" style on the clue sheet to help the scavenger hunt participants figure out the solution. "It's here," he said.
"What's here?"
"The scavenger hunt trophy. It's here somewhere. The solution is three words. The first is 'Griffith', and the second is 'Observatory'. It fits: the letters we've found, the number of letters in the words, everything."
"So where is it?"
"I don't know. The last word must give the specific location, but it's only three letters long, and I haven't figured out what the letters are. We can't even be sure that we have them."
"OK, so what's a three-letter word having to do with the sky? 'Sun'?"
He frowned. "No, that could be too many places at an observatory. Maybe…" His eyes lit up. "It was right there!"
"It was right where?"
"Come with me," he ordered, taking off back across the terrace. She sprinted after him, quickly catching up and matching his pace.
Chuck excitedly explained along the way. "The Gottlieb Transit corridor shows how the sun and the moon and the stars are tied to the calendar."
"So the answer is 'sun'."
"Nope." He paused as the pair leapt down the short four-step staircase. "The line down the middle of the corridor is supposed to represent a meridian. There's a lens that focuses the light of the sun along the line, which would be really cool if it wasn't so cloudy out."
The two descended a short set of steps, then turned and went down the longer set where Sarah had beaten the two Fulcrum agents.
When they hit the floor of the corridor, she prompted, "So?"
As they ran, he said, "So, look at what's at the other end."
She stared ahead. "All I see is a sculpture."
"That's right," he said as the two pulled up, "it's a sculpture of an 'arc'."
It was, in fact, a 13-foot high, 18-foot long bronze-faced arc mounted in the concrete. Inscriptions along the arc indicated dates, seasonal indicators, even constellations.
Sarah ran her fingers along the markings. "So, what, do we look at today's date? Or is there another clue?"
"You're thinking too hard." He knelt down, reaching down into the long, wide groove beneath the arc and carefully picking up an object covered in grey cloth nearly the color of the concrete. A piece of paper underneath rustled as he removed the object.
It was the stone trophy, with "D.A.S.H." etched on the top and the names of past winners inscribed on the side.
She looked down at the trophy in his hand, and then burst out laughing. He joined in, his face erupting into a joyful smile.
Their laughter grew; Sarah jumped into Chuck's arms and threw her arms around his neck, holding him tight. And although neither one of them could have explained exactly how it happened, they suddenly and naturally found themselves kissing each other – a happy and joyful kiss celebrating the moment and being together.
They separated, staring at each other with huge, stupid grins on their faces.
"I knew it!"
Both of them turned with a start. Casey was standing fifteen paces away, pointing his finger at the two of them. A victorious smile covered his face. "I knew you two were fraternizing behind my back!" He took several steps towards them, his glee apparent.
Chuck's face was borderline stunned, but Sarah reacted instantly. "Casey, would you get out of here?!" she demanded with an anxious look around.
Casey's eyes narrowed in confusion. "What?!"
Sarah pointed at the trophy. "Remember the scavenger hunt? This place is about to be crawling with Devon and Ellie and Morgan and a lot of other people you know. How the heck are we going to explain you being here?!"
The NSA agent had a confused look on his face. "The scavenger hunt? So, what, that kiss was…"
"…part of our cover, Casey," Sarah finished for him.
Chuck recovered quickly. "Wow, have I really gotten good enough at this stuff to fool you?"
Casey's face scrunched. "Well, no, but…"
"I'll take that as a compliment, Casey, but would you get out of here before–"
"Chuck! Sarah!" a female voice called out.
The three turned. Devon and Ellie were running down the stairs. They ran down the corridor to meet the group.
"Now look what you've done," Chuck muttered.
Casey shot back an evil look.
Devon and Ellie pulled up, a look of dismay on their faces. "Darn it, Chuckster," Devon said, "we had over an hour head start on you this morning!"
Ellie chimed in, "Yeah, how the heck did you beat us?"
Chuck grinned. "What can I say? I had a terrific partner." He shared the grin with Sarah, who beamed back at him.
Devon's eyes narrowed. "Wait. What is John doing here? He didn't help you, did he?"
The four looked over at Casey. He hesitated a touch too long before responding. "No, I didn't help them at all. I just happened to be here. I … love the observatory." The last part was delivered through slightly gritted teeth; only Sarah and Chuck picked up on it.
Devon's face lit up with delight. "Me, too, bro. We'll have to come here some time. Hey – I hear next week, the Big Dipper will be ascending towards Uranus."
Chuck could almost hear Casey's internalized groan. "I'm busy," the NSA agent replied.
"It lasts a whole week. Each night there's a show that last two hours."
"Definitely busy."
"All right. But c'mon, be honest: John didn't help you guys? What are the odds of two groups of people randomly being in the same place like this?"
Chuck gazed back behind Ellie and Devon. Two NSA support team members clad in gray jumpsuits were coming down the stairs, preparing to smuggle the bodies of the Fulcrum agents, dead or alive, away from the observatory.
He looked Devon square in the eye and said, "You know, Devon, you might be surprised."