Author's Note: Well holy crap guys... all it takes is apparently another Fast movie coming out to awaken me from hibernation. I actually had this fic planned out and as it was almost finished I decided to wrap it up for you. There will be an epilogue after this. Also, I might explain that I never finished this as my dog passed away shortly after I had posted the last chapter and then I just didn't come back to writing for years.
Never fear though, I do have a new fic planned after this. You all always manage to inspire me.
Chapter 6
Dom lead the way down the dim corridor until they came to a landing. One set of steps led upwards and another led down. The three men exchanged a glance.
"Tej, you and Rome head down," Dom said. "I'll go up. Check in if you find anything."
The others nodded in agreement and Dom turned to take the steps up, moving cautiously. It was highly unlikely that wherever the girls were being kept they would be unguarded. He shifted his grip on the shotgun he carried, mounting the top step slowly. Paused when he heard voices, the faint sounds of a fight beyond. His heartbeat sped at the pissed off cry he knew was Letty. He stepped into the hallway, shooting at the first guard in the way.
Caught off guard the man crumpled, while the other turned on Dom, firing off his pistol. Dom shot the gun out of his hand, then swung the shotgun with one hand, catching him in the face. Slammed him again with the butt of it before stepping over him towards the doorway up ahead.
He could see Letty grappling with a guy much bigger than her, though he could barely see her around the man. Dom moved forward to help her when suddenly the big guy came toppling down. His face was turning a very unhealthy shade of blue as he choked to death, trapped between Letty's denim-clad thighs.
Amused, and a little turned-on, Dom lowered his gun and met her gaze. "So…" he began, eyes sliding over her slowly. "I'm guessing you don't need a hand."
She smirked, tossing a loose bit of hair over her shoulder. "Shut up and help me up," she replied, holding out a hand to him. Dom took it and lifted her to her feet, pulling her in close to wrap his free arm around her. He ducked his head against her shoulder and held her for a moment, eyes fluttering shut slowly.
"Where are the others?" Letty asked, drawing back. "We need to get Ramsey."
He stepped away but kept his hand on her arm, unable to stop touching her. "They went down below," he said. "What about Cipher? I didn't see her…"
Letty moved past him into the hallway, eyes scanning as she leveled the gun she held. "She went out the back, prepped a chopper. Running away is my guess." She narrowed her eyes. "Can we stop her?"
Dom got the information to Little Nobody over the comms before following his wife down back towards the landing. "Maybe. We've got a whole ship out there, so it's possible."
"I saw it on the radar," she murmured, coming to a stop at the top of the stairs. "Pretty big ship. I'm guessing we have Mr. Nobody and his seemingly endless resources to thank."
He nodded. "Yep. Aircraft carrier. I don't even know where they got it. Friends in high places, I guess."
"Of course," she muttered, following him down the stairs. "Ramsey should be this way," she indicated with a point of the finger as they came to the bottom of the steps and they walked side-by-side down the corridor. Letty came to a stop by the sprawled figure of another one of Cipher's guards. "Well… looks like someone has been this way."
"Probably Roman and Tej," Dom said, stepping over the body.
Together they continued on. The sliding door to the cell was wedged open, another body in the way. They stepped over that one as well and into the room beyond. Ramsey was standing outside of the clear cell door with Tej and Roman. A couple more guards were arranged on the floor, perhaps dead, perhaps unconscious.
Ramsey looked up, fixing them with a grin. "See?" She told the guys. "I said they were on their way."
"Great," Roman muttered. "Does that mean we can get the hell off this boat now and find some solid land?"
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"There's nowhere for you to run this time," Hobbs said, facing off against Singh for the second time.
She smirked, reaching down to pull a large knife from the sheath at her waist. "Agent Hobbs, I definitely didn't run from you last time."
"Looked a lot like running to me," he replied, eying the weapon she held in her hand. The blade looked wicked, partially serrated on one side. The metal gleamed in the sunlight as she shifted it in her hand.
He saw it when she lifted the blade, coming at him, and he was ready, bringing his hands up to block, grapple. One hand closed around her wrist, wrenching her to the side. She moved with him, flicking her wrist. The blade grazed his shoulder. Hobbs ignored it, shoving her backwards. Singh's legs came under her, steadying herself as she brought the sword up.
Hobbs swung at her, aiming for her arms to try and get her to drop the weapon. Without one of his own he was at a disadvantage. But he did have size on her. She dodged, weaving out of the way and moving in low to try and strike at his core. But this time he was prepared for her. He hooked her around the waist, lifting her bodily and tossing her with all his strength. She slammed into the wall, the sword clattering from her hands and the breath ushering from her lungs.
He took two steps forward, kicking the blade away, but she recovered quickly, pushing herself to her feet before he could close the rest of the distance between them. She ducked under the blow he aimed in her direction, making for the abandoned weapon, the advantage she needed when matched with a much larger opponent. Hobbs went for her, snagging the end of her long braid to yank her back. She cried out, but didn't resist, ducking back under his grip as he released her, attempting to grapple arms and legs to keep her still and incapacitate her. She was fast and slippery, jabbing down hard with her elbow on the inside of his thigh. Hissing out a curse he ignored the pain, curling one massive arm around her shoulders and wrenching her back.
She squirmed, hands coming up to dig her fingernails into his skin but Hobbs ignored that too, lifting her bodily so that her legs flailed in the air, giving her no leverage.
"You're caught, Ms Singh, I suggest you surrender and cooperate," he breathed as she finally stopped struggling. He pinned her against a nearby wall and wrenched her arms behind her to cuff. "I'm sure they'll offer you a deal if you can tell us just where Cipher is running off to."
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Cipher wouldn't have bet odds that she'd have to make a hasty retreat once again, but she always liked to be prepared. Have a contingency plan for your contingency plan. And don't rely on your underlings, because everyone could be bought.
That's why she was the only one to make it to the rear deck of the ship where a sleek black helicopter was waiting. She'd already activated it from her personal device, and the blades whirled loudly as she double-timed it across the deck to the landing pad, expecting that Nobody's shadowy organization would be on to her before she knew it.
She levered herself up into the pilot's seat and buckled in, flipping switches and settling the headset over her ears. She had it keyed into their communications and she could hear Dominic Toretto's voice putting out the alert that she was on the retreat.
Cursing him she pulled down on the joystick and the copter lifted into the air. She switched on the radar and scanned the area, lifting up until the boats below became smaller and smaller. She could see people on the deck of the carrier scurrying around like ants. They saw her, and knew where she was, but it would take a minute to get those jets in the air, and she planned to be long gone by then.
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"I don't know where she is going," Nelani said, giving Little Nobody a blank stare across the table. Agent Hobbs stood near the door of the small interrogation room. "So asking me again is a waste of time." She angled her gaze towards Hobbs this time. "By now don't you know enough about Cipher to know that she doesn't trust anyone?"
He frowned, but nodded briefly, glancing at the other agent, or whatever he was, with a shrug.
"Well… we will appreciate any other information you can give us about her plans, Ms. Singh," Little Nobody said. "One of my men will be in to take your statement in just a few minutes."
He stood, following Hobbs out of the small room.
"So… we've lost her again?" he said, when the door closed behind them.
"Not so fast," Ramsey spoke up from down the hall. She had just come out of being looked over by the medics. "I might have the answer to that."
"What have you got?" Hobbs asked.
"I need access to a computer, and we'll want to debrief the rest of the team," she said.
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They all gathered in one of the meeting rooms that the bigwigs on the carrier would use, Ramsey set up at a laptop at one end of the table. She typed in some information, bringing up a screen on the projector against the wall.
"Cipher doesn't share her information with her people because she doesn't trust them," she said. "But she has to build herself programs to make sure that the computer can help her execute the commands she wants."
"And you've found a program that can help us find her?" Tej asked.
"Yes. She had to write herself an exit strategy in order to escape," Ramsey went on, typing some more. "And with contingencies. The program she made is sophisticated enough to tell the helicopter she used to take her to a specific location in case she was injured or incapable of flying herself."
"And she just left that information around to be found?" Roman asked. "Couldn't that be a trap?"
"No," Ramsey explained with a frown. "She didn't just 'leave it around' to be found."
"Ramsey had to break all sorts of security and firewalls to get to the information to begin with," Tej told him. "Cipher was trying to hide this program."
"Damn girl, you good," Rome told Ramsey and she rolled her eyes, but smiled a little bit too.
"Anyway, I extrapolated the data and…" she brought up a map. "She set the destination as being Samoa. Given that she came out of port off Fiji there's not likely to be many other places she could reach via helicopter."
"I'll call our allies there and have them put a stop on all travel out of the counter," Little Nobody said, standing up. "She won't have anywhere to go."
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Cipher set the chopper down at the private landing pad on the villa she had bought under an assumed name. She had been listening on all frequencies, tapping all her sources, but Nobody's team had gone radio silent. It set her on edge.
Ideally she'd like to be out of this place on the earliest possible flight, but she knows they can figure out she can't have gone far in the copter. Maybe it would be a good idea to lay low for a while.
She collected her suitcase from the back of the helicopter and walked from the landing pad across the villa's roof towards the staircase that will take her into the main part of the house. It felt quiet, the only sound her heels clicking on the wooden floors. She stopped in one of the bedrooms to leave her luggage and went down to the kitchen where a box was waiting with a new phone.
She took it out and wiped the base program, used a data spike to upload her personal one, and left the phone to update and charge while she looked through the rest of the house. Off the kitchen was the garage and she stepped inside, turning on the light to see the sleek black Ferrari she had arranged to have waiting for her.
All looked well, until she noticed that the headlights were on.
Frowning, she stayed in the doorway, eyes narrowed as she scanned the garage. It was empty but for the car and a row of shelving against one wall that couldn't hide anything big enough to be a person.
Still, she backed into the kitchen and closed the door, going to the study to retrieve a pistol and some ammo. Then she searched the garage thoroughly, even checking beneath the Ferrari. She didn't find anyone.
Frowning, she was about to head back into the villa when the car engine roared to life. She stared as it revved over and over, slowly backing away into the house, only to be met by someone, gun pressed to her temple.
"Drop the weapon," a familiar, gruff voice said.
She raised her hands, releasing the pistol so it clattered to the floor.
"Agent Hobbs," she breathed. "I didn't expect you to be ahead of me. How did you do it?"
"Let's just say jets fly a little faster than helicopters," he told her, kicking the gun away.
Little Nobody was behind him with a couple of other armed soldier types and one of them got the pistol while the other came up to cuff her. The whole time she was held at gunpoint.
"And the car? That seems a little above your skill set."
"Yeah," he agreed, holstering his weapon and taking ahold of her once she was cuffed. "We've got people for that."
She didn't resist when he and the others marched her out the front door where more armed men and women - the local police, were waiting. She was put into an armored vehicle and taken away. There was no escaping right now. But one day, there would be.
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The house at 1327 always seemed to feel the same, even though it had been through changes. Hell, it had been blown to bits. But even if it was a brand new house (that just looked pretty similar) and a brand new garage that had been built in place of the old one, it still felt like home.
It wasn't just the music drifting from the outdoor speakers or the line of flashy cars in the driveway. It wasn't just the familiar smell of smoked meat on the barbeque or even the ice chest full of coronas.
It was the people. The family that was all tied together through more than blood. It was Mia laughing as she carried a bowl of pasta salad out the back door. It was Brian and Roman chasing Jack around with water pistols. Tej and Ramsey arguing the best PC specs over beers and Dom manning the grill.
Letty was guiding the newest, honorary member of their family into the fray, offering him a beer, which he declined in favor of helping little Marcus walk around the yard. She certainly had lucked out with Uber passenger Ray. It seemed the little guy was going to get an honorary grandpa out of the man. She wouldn't mind having another babysitter on call.
"So where exactly do they lock cyber criminals up anyway?" he asked as Marcus got involved in playing with some of his toy cars.
"They wouldn't tell us," Ramsey said. "And even on the dark web there's not much more than speculation."
"Hobbs did say we would be alerted if she ever escaped," Tej put in. "Of course, knowing that doesn't really put me at ease."
"I suppose there's always a danger she could," Dom said, flipping over the chicken and closing the lid on the grill. "But if she does. We'll be ready."
"Doesn't it get exhausting?" Ray wondered. "Just hearing some of the stories from Samantha back at the base was mind-blowing. How are you all even still alive?"
"I guess we're just hard to kill," Letty remarked.
"Some more than others," Mia put in, smirking at her sister-in-law. "Besides," she said, turning to NAME, "these guys thrive on this stuff. I think they'd be bored if life got too settled for too long."
"A bit of an addiction to adrenaline rush, eh?"
"Maybe more than a bit," Dom laughed.
"Wait you mean you guys actually *enjoy* that shit," Roman called. "I'm always afraid I'm about to die!"
"That's part of the fun, Rome," Brian teased. "And you're definitely the loudest, scaredest member of the team, for sure."
"Damn, Bri. Why the hell you keep inviting me along then?"
"Well, you drive like a madman and you're damn good at it," Brian said, clapping his friend on the shoulder. "As for me, I wouldn't complain too much about a little less excitement. Especially now that we've got kids to think about."
"Exactly," Mia said pointedly, looking at her brother.
"It wasn't my idea for Cipher to come back and start shit," he said. "I won't go looking for trouble, but if it comes for my family, I won't back down."
"I'll drink to that," Tej put in, lifting his beer.
Everyone else lifted their own in a cheers, and the conversation soon drifted back to cars, with Tej dropping the info about an upcoming street race he thought might be tempting. Oh, some things would never change.