Author's Note: Hey guys. I want to thank you so much for being patient with new chapters and with my other fic. I promise I am working diligently on both of them. :) Alas time can be in short supply when you work two jobs! I'm hoping to have an update to Everything is Not Okay by the end of the week and another chapter of this shortly after. Thanks again for all the reviews and follows. It helps to know everyone is enjoying reading!
The team found themselves back in the warehouse late that night after they'd ditched the cars and made sure they weren't being followed.
Dom located Letty getting some air in the abandoned lot out back, still clothed in the dress, even though she'd gotten rid of the earrings and heels. She looked up when he approached, giving him a little smile.
"It's crazy but… right now I really miss those days when all we did was race and jack a few trucks now and then," she said with a sigh. "How the hell did we get ourselves involved in all this shit with Cipher?"
It was a rhetorical question, really. By now they all knew why Cipher was after them. They knew they'd messed with her jobs, and that the elaborate revenge plot she'd tried to hit Dom with had blown up in her face too. Not only had he eventually escaped from her grip, he'd blown up her sub and sent Shaw to kill all her men and take away her plane.
Yeah, she had to be more than a little pissed. And they'd seen what she'd done last time.
"It's all my fault," Dom said, pulling his gaze away from her to look out at the city of Jakarta in the distance.
Letty didn't argue, just laid her head against his shoulder. "Whatever choices we've made along the way, all of us, this is where we've ended up," she said after a moment of quiet. "Can we complain? This business with Cipher aside…" She looked up at him, the silvery light of the moon reflecting off her dark eyes. "What she's doing to us is on her, Dom. You can't take the blame for that psychopath. Sure, we messed up her jobs, but she's the kind of woman who steals nightshade devices and nuclear codes because she wants to hold the world hostage."
He turned to face her, looking down at her. "Which means she won't hesitate to kill any of us," he said softly. "Especially you. She knows what you mean to me."
Leaning into him, Letty wrapped her arms around his waist. His hands came to lace together at her back and he dropped his head to press his nose into the crown of her hair. Breathed in the scent of her shampoo, under the smoke and booze that still lingered from their trip through the bar.
"I guess we're just going to have to figure out a way to stop her then," she answered, her voice muffled against his chest as he held her closer.
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Ramsey sat hunched over a computer screen, her hands pressed against her eyes, head dropped forward. "You know," she muttered. "It was incredibly rude of Shaw to return Dom's son and not my program. The God's Eye would make all of this a lot easier."
"Incredibly rude," Tej agreed with a laugh from where he sat, sprawled on one chair, his feet up on another.
She sighed, dropping her head down on the desk wearily, and laid there for a moment. "Actually…" she began. "Maybe we don't need to find Cipher at all."
"What do you mean?" Hobbs asked from where he was going through the files on Agent Singh.
"Well, think about it," Ramsey told him, lifting her head. "What is Cipher's goal?"
"I dunno… fucking up Dom's life," Tej suggested. "Causing him pain in a bid for revenge?"
"And how's she trying to do that?" she asked.
"Well she went after Letty and Marcus," Hobbs said. "Which seems like it would probably be a good way to upset him."
"She also went after you," Tej put in. "When you were with your daughter."
"Right, so obviously Cipher is looking for the most vulnerable people we care about, our children, and going after them."
"So out of the group of us," Ramsey asked. "Who do you think she's most likely to go after?"
The men were silent, shifting awkwardly for a moment as they grappled with saying what everyone knew they were thinking.
"Well," Tej began. "Obviously she gonna go for Letty again. Let's be real. We wouldn't be all that much leverage over Dom. Sure, we're family but you know, it's different."
Hobbs nodded in quiet agreement. "But she's safe as long as we're together."
"But maybe we shouldn't be together," Ramsey interrupted. "Maybe we need to use her as bait to draw Cipher out."
They fell silent again, Tej sitting up straighter in his chair as he stared over at Ramsey. "Let me get this…" he paused. "Did you really say we should use her as bait?"
"Yes." Ramsey nodded.
"That's insane. She will get caught by Cipher and then she'll have her little bargaining chip and make Dom her bitch and I do not want that. Not at all."
"Now hear me out," Ramsey said. "We need someone on the inside. Before, when Dom brought Cipher down it was because he knew where she was. He was on her base of operations. Odds are, now that she has her team, she'll retreat into hiding and play the long game with us. Keep sending more and more shit against us until she takes us out."
"Yeah but you're talking about sending Letty to that woman, alone?" Hobbs asked. "I don't think that's a good idea. At all."
"Cipher isn't going to kill her," Ramsey continued, looking earnest. "That was never her plan. Remember in LA she was trying to capture her and Marcus. Otherwise why blow up the truck before they get into it?"
"I get it," Tej said slowly. "She wants to use Letty to get to Dom, or just to hurt him. Either way, it's not effective if he's not around."
"So we have Letty go out and look… like bait," Hobbs said. "And then what?"
"That's where the beauty of the plan comes in," Ramsey said, folding her hands together in front of her. "It's also why I have to go with her."
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"You know I really don't like this idea at all," Dom said, watching Letty lace up her boots at the edge of the cot she'd snatched only a few hours sleep on.
"You've said as much several times," she replied with more patience than she felt, then pushed herself to her feet, crossing towards him. "It's a good plan. It will work. And Ramsey is right. She's not going to kill me. She's had opportunity to do that already."
He cupped his hands over her shoulders and then smoothed them down her arms to lace their fingers together. "I hate that you're going into danger without me," he mumbled and she sighed in return, squeezing his hands gently.
"At least I'm letting you know about it first," she pointed out, smiling at his chagrined look. "I'll be okay. I spent that whole year with Shaw and I managed just fine."
He dipped his head, pressing a kiss against her brow. "I know you did. But I don't like that you had to do that, either."
She lingered there, standing so close she could feel the heat of his body, but not really close enough to be touching other than their intertwined hands. She brushed her thumbs over his wrists, flexing her fingers between his before slowly taking one step back, disentangling herself from his hold. When she looked up at his face she could tell he was desperate to ask her not to go, to just grab her and bundle her away somewhere where she might be safe. But they both knew that as long as Cipher was out there they wouldn't be safe, so he didn't say anything.
She moved in closer, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and he leaned in. When his arms came around her his hold was just a little too tight. But she didn't complain. She pressed her lips against his jaw, then he turned his head and caught her up in a slow kiss. It deepened, his hands coming up to tangle in her hair. Underneath the surety that she'd be safe was the small thread of fear that she wouldn't. That this might not work. That this could be the last time they were together.
Letty drew back, their breath falling ragged between them. "I'll see you soon," she promised, then turned to walk out of the room.
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Ramsey watched Letty shift the car into a faster speed as they pulled onto the highway heading towards the coast. The plan was simple enough. Cipher knew they were in Jakarta. She'd be looking for them. All they had to do was be seen.
"You don't think Cipher is going to find it suspicious that we're just driving around like this?" Letty asked her.
"Maybe. But from what we know about her I don't think that will stop her from taking the opportunity to grab us. She's very sure of herself."
"Being so sure of herself wasn't very beneficial to her last time," Letty replied, switching lanes to move around the slower traffic.
"And this time she'll be more careful," Ramsey replied. "She will definitely search us for anything that could be a tracking device. Probably take away our jewelry, so it's a good thing you left your ring with Dom."
Letty ran her thumb over the bare spot on her left finger when she said that. She hadn't really been wearing it all that long but it already felt strange to be missing it. "Yeah well, so I actually get it back."
Out of the corner of her eye Ramsey could see that something had changed about the traffic pattern. At some point Letty had switched into the middle lane. Now on either side of her the cars were slowing down, driving too close together. Penning them in, almost. Letty was forced to shift into a lower gear, frowning when the car in front of her lowered its speed too.
"I think she's found us," she muttered. "Let's not make it too easy. She'll never buy it." She shot Ramsey a glance. "Buckled up?" Then she shifted up again, ramming into the bumper of the car in front of her. It honked, pressing on it's brakes, but Letty knew her car had better horsepower, and she sped up more, until the car spun out of the way, wheeling into the left lane and crashing into some of the other vehicles.
She swerved around a Jeep and sedan that was signaling to pull over. About a dozen cars followed suit and Ramsey craned her head to look back. "These aren't like her zombie cars," she said. "There are people in them."
"Probably our friendly neighborhood kidnappers," Letty told her, cutting off a motorcyclist to take the next exit off the highway. "We have to get away from too much traffic," she said.
Ramsey looked down at her GPS. "We're heading for the docks. There shouldn't be too much traffic this time of day."
"Great," Letty said, eyes focused on the side mirror where she could see that the twelve cars were still in pursuit. "We're going to need the space."
She wove around the slower traffic, riding up on the shoulder to get around other vehicles and bypassed the stop sign altogether, turning right into traffic and cutting off a pickup whose driver laid on the horn. She ignored it, and the successive honks of all the other cars cutting him off as well, taking a turn down one of the smaller roads that looked fairly deserted.
There were a couple of cars parked along one side, but no one was currently on it, so Letty accelerated, the car jolting up over a bump in the road and jetting forward before landing heavily.
"Watch out!" Ramsey clutched at her seatbelt, but Letty was already turning the wheel, the car squealing to a stop.
Now cars were in front of them and behind. Letty's dark eyes flickered around for some sort of alternate route, spotting an alley between two buildings. It looked just barely wide enough for the car, but she yanked the wheel, heading for it. Before she could turn down, another car came through, blocking the way and she cursed, hitting the brakes. She drummed her fingers across the wheel.
"We could run into them, push them out of the way?" Ramsey suggested.
"I'm not sure there's a point," Letty muttered. The cars ahead of them were two deep now. "Cipher routed us."
"So what now?"
"We get out and run," Letty told her, reaching for the gun in the glove compartment. "We're not going to make this easy for her."
"Split up?" Ramsey asked, reaching for the handle of her door.
"No. Stick together." Letty wrenched open her door, ducking low as she skirted around the back, meeting Ramsey. They darted towards the closest building, her ushering Ramsey ahead of her. She heard the sound of a shot impacting somewhere behind her, but it didn't sound like a bullet.
They made for the car in the alley, jumping up on the hood to run over it. Narrow as it was, the men inside the car couldn't open their doors. They rolled down the windows, one reaching out to snag Ramsey by the ankle. Letty kicked him in the face until he released her, grabbing ahold of her friend's arm to help her the rest of the way over the car.
There was the clattering of boots as other men gave chase, climbing up after them. Letty turned to shoot, hitting one in the chest. It staggered him but he wore body armor. She aimed for the leg of another and hit, dropping him. Something whizzed past her head and she pressed herself against the wall of the building. Another shot caught Ramsey in the back and the other woman cried out, staggering, fell forward. Letty could see what looked like a dart sticking out of her. Cursing under her breath she yanked it out and pulled Ramsey to her feet.
"Come on," she half-dragged her into a doorway, shot off the lock and went inside.
"Tranquilizer…" Ramsey's voice was slurred already and Letty knew she was screwed. She leaned her against the wall and positioned herself with a view of the door. It was flung open and Letty fired, hitting the first man in the head. He went down like a sack of potatoes. Letty fired again. Someone lobbed a smoke grenade into the building. She dived away, but smoke started filling the small, dark space. Coughing, she kept low to the ground, checking the bullets in her clip. Two left.
There was some shuffling around and Letty knew they were in the room. Her eyes watered. The smoke was blinding and choking her. She could make out dark shapes but feared hitting Ramsey if she fired blindly.
"You should just come out," a woman's voice spoke. "You put up a nice fight. Two of my men are dead." A laugh. "Well, they knew the risks."
Bootsteps on the wooden floor were coming closer. Letty tried to find some air, something she could breathe without choking. She raised the gun with shaky hands, fired as a dark figure loomed above her. The man cursed and stumbled back, calling her something nasty in a language she didn't understand.
"A fighter, aren't you?" the woman's voice was back. "I like that. I get it. Much more satisfying than a target that just rolls over and begs for it's life. Though, I suppose you know we're not here to kill you."
A heeled boot came out of the smoke, kicking the gun from Letty's hand with enough force that she was sure something was fractured. She clenched her teeth against the hiss of pain, but said nothing. Truthfully, her throat felt so raw from the smoke she doubted she could, and she was feeling light-headed now. She sagged back against the wall she'd taken cover behind, eyelids drooping.
A woman stepped out of the smoke above her. She looked hazy to Letty, with long dark hair, slightly familiar looking, despite the breather mask she wore. "Grab them and get them back to the cars," she ordered someone. "Then contact Cipher. Let her know we've got her package."
It was the last thing she heard before blackness fell over her.
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It took hours to get to wherever they were being taken. By plane, helicopter, though she couldn't be sure. They'd kept them blindfolded when they'd finally awoken. Eventually they'd stopped moving, though there was that unsteady feeling like they were still moving, and the blindfolds had been removed.
The cell was not glamorous by any standards, a simple small square room with some bunks. A quick glance revealed a single door at the back which led to a tiny closet-like room with a toilet. Very generous, indeed.
The guards removed their cuffs, then left them there, sliding the bulletproof glass door closed behind them. Letty rubbed at her wrists, looking around the small space. She spotted a video camera on the outside of the cell and glared at it, before turning back to Ramsey.
"You okay?" she asked her friend, who nodded, stretching her arms over her head.
"I think I'm going to have a wicked bruise where that tranq hit me, if I don't already."
They both turned at the sounds of approaching footsteps as Cipher entered the room. She stood on the other side of the glass, observing them silently. Letty stared back, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I have to admit," Cipher began. "You put up quite the fight. A lot more difficult to grab than that cop Dom knocked up."
She said it just to push her buttons, Letty knew, but she still grit her teeth in irritation, gaze narrowing on the woman.
Cipher laughed softly apparently amused. "You could say she was concerned about her child but somehow you managed to keep the kiddo out of my hands. Though… I do get Ramsey instead." She tilted her head, gaze sliding back to Letty. "How much do you think Dom is panicking right about now? Knowing I have you. After all, I know how important you are to him, Letty."
Letty rolled her eyes. Dom might be freaking out, even though it had been the plan in the first place for her to get captured. But at the end of the day he knew she could handle herself. Cipher had to know it too, no matter what she said. Maybe that was why she was trying to rattle her. "Can we just get on with it?" Letty asked. "Or did you just come to gloat?"
Cipher smiled tightly and it wasn't even a little bit kind. At Letty's side Ramsey seemed to be looking around for something. She touched her wrists, then her earlobes.
"I'm afraid all your jewelry has been confiscated," Cipher said. "I don't need you using some tracker to call your friends."
Ramsey looked angry. "What did you do? Strip search us while we were unconscious?"
Cipher snorted. "Don't get pissy. It was all very professional."
No one bothered to correct her, that it was still a violation. She didn't care.
"In any case," she went on. "I just came down to say hello. I suggest you get comfortable. Even if you could get out, there's nowhere for you to go."
"Cause we're in the middle of the ocean?" Ramsey asked.
"Very smart." Cipher laughed. "I suppose I shouldn't underestimate your team. Not all of you are brainless gear heads."
"None of us are," Ramsey retorted. "You're not going to get away with this."
Cipher smiled. "Hmm… but I already have." She turned to walk away. "Oh, and don't forget… I'm watching." She indicated the camera, tossing a grin over her shoulder before she left the room. A pair of guards took up position by the door she'd disappeared through.
Ramsey looked over at them, then let out a groan. "I don't feel so well…" She fled towards the bathroom in the back.
The two guards shifted uncomfortably at the sound of the retching.
Letty drifted back to look in on her. "You okay?" She disappeared into the tiny room when Ramsey began blubbering about being afraid.
Out of sight of the guards and Cipher's camera, the hacker kept up her acting as the two women went to work. Letty sat on the lid of the toilet and worked off one boot. Under the sole, taped into the hollow of one heel was a small plastic baggie with a pair of tiny computer chips and a miniature soldering iron.
Ramsey unrolled a small, flexible circuit board and took the other items from Letty, wedging against the wall to work on the task of putting them together. Shoving her foot into her boot, Letty looked up at the sound of knocking on the glass.
"Ladies?" One of the guards voices filtered through, muffled. "What's going on?"
Ramsey made a loud retching sound, coughing.
"She's sick! What the hell do you think?" Letty snapped, sticking her head out to cast the man a glare. "You gonna come hold her hair back instead?"
He seemed unmoved. "You come out of there," he told her.
Letty looked at Ramsey, who was motioning to her and mouthing something. She narrowed her eyes, reaching back to unhook her bra, then slipped both arms through the straps before pulling it out one side of her top. She tossed it to her friend, who caught it with a thumbs up, and ripped open the underwire to get at some of the other bits they'd smuggled in. Apparently the strip search hadn't been that thorough.
She ducked out of the bathroom, casting a dirty look towards the guard who stared back impassively.
It wasn't much longer before the toilet flushed and Ramsey emerged from the bathroom, eyes red and watery, makeup streaked. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, glancing at the guard. "I don't suppose you have a toothbrush…"
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Ramsey's plan had required all of them working together, even though they would be apart. So the boys had put in a contact to Mr. Nobody, and with his help they'd extrapolated the most likely area where Cipher's boat would be heading in order to take the girls from Jakarta out to what they were guessing was her new mobile base.
There was only so far a ship could travel in the amount of time it had been, which meant it wouldn't be that close to Indonesia. Mr. Nobody's intel suggested the girls had been flown out by plane, which meant they had to get the ship close enough to land to arrange a transfer of some sort. And to be frank, there wasn't a whole lot of real estate between Hawaii and Indonesia that fit the bill.
He'd arranged for them to meet up with a naval ship in Fiji, a carrier that didn't seem to be flying anyone's flag in particular. Little Nobody had been on board to greet them, to their surprise, and told them he was taking over field operations for their mission on behalf of his boss.
They'd loaded their cars on board, where the vehicles now sat on deck alongside get fighters and helicopters, before setting up below decks in what the crew referred to as the garage. It was a large space with all sorts of tools. Parts of a fighter were laid out on the ground, clearly in the midst of repairs. There were various weapons and other vehicles about.
The crew had cleared out a workspace for them and Tej went about setting up his laptop and connecting to the system.
"So do we have an exact location?" Little Nobody asked.
"Not yet," Tej told him. "The girls have to get it to us. Ramsey will broadcast it so we just have to be in range. I suggest heading North," he looked over at him. "Odds are she'd make land as soon as she could after departing Hawaii."
"There's not a lot between here and there. But we'll head that way. I want you monitoring this. As soon as that message comes in, I want to know."