When Elizabeth woke, the sheets were down around her knees, along with her pants. At some point she'd tossed and turned, kicked them off so as to stop sweating. It was warmer in here than her own room, stuffier with the front window shut and the curtain closed. The AC helped a little, but even it couldn't properly combat the humidity.

She climbed out of bed and staggered towards the bathroom. The door was closed, blocking out the exterior lights, and nothing shone through the gap beneath it.

"Hobbs? You in there?"

Silence.

Maybe he'd gone for a run — it had to be close to six o'clock, surely — or left to check things with base security. She eased the door open and slipped inside, eyes going straight to the shower on her right. It was empty. Good.

Elizabeth turned the cold tap on then peeled off her shirt, let her pants fall to the floor. A burst of warm water came through the pipes before it finally ran cold. Cupping her hands, she splashed her face and neck before plunging her head into the spray. Rivulets ran down her back, soaking into her bra and underwear, and streamed off her chin.

There was no better way to wake up than stepping into an icy shower. The chill, the inevitable shiver down her spine as her body rapidly cooled — it was the only relief she'd found in Cuba, short of driving to the beach and jumping in the ocean.

"No footage at all?"

Hobbs' voice came from outside. Good. It seemed he was back. She wanted to ask if he had any packets of tea in the cupboard. Just up and searching through his kitchen felt a little rude.

"None." A second voice. Male. American. Familiar. "Wouldn't you know it but all the camera feeds went down just minutes earlier."

Reisner.

Oh shit. If he came inside, he was liable to see her standing there in the bathroom with almost no clothes on. And that guy was the last one she wanted to explain her unwarranted presence to.

"It's a little convenient," said Luke. "You think Shaw can still be trusted?"

At that, Elizabeth straightened herself out and scowled. Was he really in a position to be asking that? If she'd wanted to shut him up permanently, she'd had plenty of opportunity to do it last night when he was asleep. Throat exposed, bare chest there for all to see - a knife through his rib cage would've stopped Hobbs in his tracks, regardless of how fast he reached for that revolver.

"I don't know." Little Nobody again. "But the threat we need to focus on is Cipher. The Shaws can be handled later."

Handled? She turned to face the motel room and glared at the figure standing in front of Hobbs. With one arm braced against the door jamb, the Fed almost completely blocked her line of sight, but she could make out Reisner's face. I'll handle you first.

"Alright. If anything else comes up, let me know."

"Sure thing, Hobbs."

Once the front door was closed, Elizabeth turned the shower off and picked her clothes up off the floor, making for the bed. "He couldn't handle us," she said, gesturing at the door with her shirt, "if his life depended on it."

"Ahem." Luke cleared his throat as he sat himself on the bed and removed his boots. "You want to, uh..."

"What?"

"Clothes."

"Oh, please," Elizabeth scoffed. What was it with men and acting like prudes whenever a woman dared to expose her underwear? "Don't pretend like you haven't seen a bra before."

"Will you just—"

"Alright," she sighed. Elizabeth seated herself atop the bedsheets and slipped her clothes on, leaving a damp spot where water dripped from her hair. "No need to get your knickers in a knot."

"Uh-huh. You've had your fun, Shaw. Now it's time for you to climb out of my bathroom and into yours."

"About that..." There was a little hint of glee in her voice when Elizabeth said, "I'll have to use the front door."

Luke groaned into his hand. She was yanking his chain, wasn't she? If anyone saw her coming out of his room, damp from a shower and with no shoes on, they wouldn't let him live it down. "Your window is locked, isn't it?"

Now that she knew someone was lurking around, security was absolutely paramount. There was no sense in leaving herself exposed, or putting herself at further risk of a visit from their guest. "Unlike you, I take my personal safety rather seriously."

Him? Shaw should've been thanking him for allowing her to stay instead of waking her up and throwing her out on her ass. Or putting a bullet in her the second he heard that bathroom door squeal. "Well, I wasn't expecting Goldilocks to break in and help herself to my bed."

Again, she stood, and made her way to the front door. Elizabeth eased it open only to pause and glance over her shoulder at him. "See you around, Fed."

Then she was outside, pulling it closed behind her. Thank God. If Shaw had lingered any longer, there was every chance she might have started asking for breakfast, or to really use his shower.

"Before I forget—" Elizabeth poked her head back in the room "—you might want to consider getting a curtain. You can see just about everything from back there."

All things considered, it was an ideal line of sight. Perfect for monitoring the rest of the room. Unlike his, however, her own bathroom faced the kitchenette, completely blocking any view of the front door. If only she'd had the opportunity to claim Hobbs' room before he did.

"I'll be sure to let the managers know that," Luke said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Goodbye, Miss Shaw."

"How the hell did they get on base without security noticing?" Deckard asked. He crossed his arms, scowled at the normal security feeds showing on the array of monitors, then turned his head towards Dom who stood beside him. "You wouldn't happen to know if Cipher had any spec-ops soldiers working for her, would you?"

"Apart from your brother?"

"Yes."

Externally, Dom kept his face as blank as possible. Internally, he was smiling. Deckard had taken one more step towards acknowledging the concept of culpability. "No. Cipher kept everything compartmentalised. Rhodes was the only one of her goons I met."

Well there went that theory. It would've been too easy if Dom had just pointed them in the right direction. Nothing about this mission was in their favour, and Deckard had a feeling it never would be. Any other time, he might have called this breach in security an opportunity. Then he craned his neck to look over his shoulder. "…Does something about this whole thing feel odd to you?"

Hobbs leaned against the doorjamb just several feet behind Deckard, arms crossed over his chest. "The part where they avoided the security system," he asked, "or the fact we don't know if they left the base?"

The real problem was they didn't know if their intruder were a member of base security or some asshole who'd gotten the luck of the draw. Hobbs had never liked the idea of looking over his shoulder, of fearing that someone was out to get him; but over the past few hours, Luke had become unable to shake the feeling that someone had eyes on him. That one misstep would bring the entire operation down on their heads.

Now, due to the precarious position they found themselves in, the options he might have taken — running, hunting, dangling the Shaws like bait on a hook — were being removed from the table. Cipher had put them in check without so much as firing a single bullet, and all thanks to…her.

If he cut Elizabeth loose, threw her to the wolves, who knew what kind of damage Shaw could do. Yet if he locked her up and threw away the key, it'd be tantamount to admitting he had no faith in his team. Pulling her out days ago mightn't have caused problems, but Letty would sure as shit notice her absence now. The last thing he wanted was her in his face, demanding a truth he'd actively chosen to conceal.

Unless he was right, and their late night visitor was still on base, monitoring them. Watching for the slightest hint of betrayal, in which case pissing Letty off was the only option he had. Luke groaned into his hands as he rubbed them over his face, resting his head back against the jamb. He wasn't some tactical mastermind — not the kind he needed to be when dealing with a cyberterrorist, anyway. Following someone through the Brazilian favelas and using Elena as an intercept was one thing. This? This goddamn nightmare was something else entirely that no amount of DSS training could've prepared him for.

"Don't think too hard, Hobbs," Deckard said smugly. "That head of yours might grow bigger if you do."

The snark went ignored. Luke pushed himself off the jamb and stood in the doorway, both hands coming to rest atop his head with his fingers laced. "Schrödinger. Until you open the box, the cat's both alive and dead, right?"

"Uh-huh." But what did quantum mechanics have to do with their current situation? There was no escaping the fact they were on the back foot. Cipher had put them in a corner and Deckard couldn't see a way out that didn't involve compromising themselves. "Spit it out, Hobbs."

"There are no cameras in the warehouse," said Hobbs. "Only microphones, and the glass windows are all tinted."

A smile crossed Dom's face. He looked at Hobbs once then nodded. Now he knew what the Fed was getting at. If the cars picked them up from within the warehouse, neither Cipher nor her new hire could be certain that they'd left at all. Provided they disappeared in the middle of the night, quietly and without much fuss, then Cipher would have to tip her hand if she wanted to know where they'd gone. "The problem is our cars. If we leave, they'll have to stay behind."

They weren't the only thing that would, Luke thought. The box couldn't be closed if the cat was out and walking around. No matter how foul a taste it'd leave in his mouth, if he had to drag Shaw kicking and screaming into a prison cell, then that was exactly what he'd do.

"I'll arrange for new ones to be delivered from the Toy Shop. In the meantime, pack your bags."

"You can't be serious, Hobbs," Deckard said. The look on his face was incredulous. "If that bastard's on base, he'll see the convoy leave. You're playing chicken with a psychopath. You understand that, don't you?"

"If you've got a problem following orders, Major, feel free to sit this one out." Understandably, he'd be in a cell too while he did. "I don't need you questioning my—"

The venomous glare Deckard gave him would've made a lesser man shit his pants, but Luke stepped aside without so much as twitching when he went to leave the room. Shaw could argue all he wanted, but the situation was clear. They had an opportunity to cut the head off the snake before its fangs were bared. Better to take that chance than wait for it to turn around and bite them.

Once Shaw was gone, Dom asked, "You really want to do this, cop?"

Hobbs looked Dom in the eye and said as earnestly as possible, "Do you really want to wait for her to strike first? Last time, she took Elena and Marcus."

He didn't bother to follow through on the rest of his train of thought. The stakes were higher now — Sam, Mia, Elena, the kids…Hattie — but the odds of a happy ending were also that much lower. There'd be no surprise for Cipher, no soldiers kicking her door down and rescuing their family, if everything went south while they sat on their hands.

"No." Dom followed in Shaw's wake, moving past Hobbs into the corridor. "I'm tired of sitting around with my hands tied."

"We'll leave tonight once it's dark."

A nod as Toretto walked around the corner was his only acknowledgement of Hobbs' words. After a moment, Luke focused his attention on the monitor array and helped himself to a seat. There had to be something they'd missed. Some indication that Shaw was telling the truth and wasn't in fact leading Cipher straight to them.

The way she'd come into his room, risked a dislocated shoulder, told Luke he could trust that she hadn't made things up, but the validity of the only other witness was dubious at best. As much as Luke wanted to believe Owen, and her, he'd come to learn a great deal about the Shaws. First and foremost, he knew that only a fool would be stupid enough to accept them at face value.

"Alright," Luke muttered, sliding the computer mouse towards him, "let's see what else you picked up last night."

A set of wireless headphones were perched on a stand. He slipped them on, adjusted the volume and found a folder with the correct date. Dozens of recordings sat within it, sorted by time. It'd been late last night when Shaw broke into his room, but the incident couldn't have happened more than forty, fifty minutes before then.

Although Reisner had said the cameras were taken out, the warehouse's parabolic mics were on an entirely different subnetwork. Unless the base's power was shut down, they'd still be triggered once someone stepped inside the building.

He began speeding through earlier files, starting at 23:00 and continuing on. Footsteps, dishes clinking — Shaw in the kitchen? — and someone hitting a punching bag. All ambient noise in the face of things. Dishes again when he checked the next file. Footsteps. Someone still working out.

Footsteps again, dishes, weights, then...

"You aren't subtle, are you?"

The voice wasn't loud, but the proximity of the microphones helped. American male, just as Shaw had said.

"You know who I am."

"It's why I'm here."

"And you know what I'm capable of?"

Luke scoffed and shook his head. In that vein, their visitor was right. Shaw didn't know the meaning of subtlety. The conversation continued on like that, back and forth, till it came to an abrupt end. No witty banter, no acknowledgment of the apparent knife Shaw had wielded, just…

"Whatever you think you're playing at, Miss Shaw, I wouldn't."

Shit. Did Cipher know she was coming for the money? That Luke had turned a blind eye to her antics and whatever ensued? It'd been a spur of the moment decision, and now that deal with the devil was indeed biting him in the ass.

There was every possibility that last night's event had nothing to do with Shaw and her plan, that Cipher really had noticed them via satellite imagery, yet it didn't matter. Luke was no longer willing to take that chance. From here on in, there'd be no more deals. No more bullshit.

Risking the team's lives on a hunch had been a stupid idea in the first place, but all that was over with now. The original plan was back in play: strike before Cipher could so much as blink.

Luke stood and closed the audio file, returned the headphones to their stand then finally left the room. He'd speak to security tonight, organise Shaw's removal from the base and subsequent placement elsewhere. If necessary, he'd drop her down a hole where not even Hattie could find her.

The window of opportunity would be tight, but Hobbs felt certain they'd pull it off. He trusted Nobody's men to get the job done and do it right. There was no sense giving her the chance to resist.

I'm sorry, Deckard. His boots hit the warehouse floor and Luke proceeded up the centre aisle, towards the table the team were gathered around. All bar Elizabeth were there, and the two Shaws looked annoyed. But they both need to be stopped.

"Alright," Dom began. "You want to explain the plan, Hobbs?"

Luke shrugged. "I think I'll let you do the talking this time, Toretto."

Letty looked at Dom and raised her eyebrows. They were here to do a job, not practise their manners. "Why don't you both just explain the plan instead of wasting our time?"

Right. Hobbs nodded and said, "we're leaving tonight in a two car convoy."

"Why?"

"There was a security breach," Dom expained. "Cipher left us a message."

He could see the anger in Letty's eyes, the frustration. Something had happened and he hadn't told her. Keeping her out of the loop wasn't an intentional choice but it might as well have been in her eyes. After Mexico, after Cipher, she deserved the truth no matter how uncomfortable it was.

"Someone broke into the warehouse last night. Before they did, the cameras were taken down," Luke said. "We've got no visuals, no nothing."

"So we're running with our tails between our legs," Brian interrupted. "Or is there a strategy to this?"

Luke didn't justify the accusation with a response. They were regrouping. Being smart. "Ramsey, how close are you to finding the truck?"

"The data is old," she said. "But it tends to stay on the same highway for months so accounting for speed, direction, fuel consumption…" Every variable had been listed, every byte of data tracked and recorded by Cipher's system. "It should be somewhere in Nevada. It'll take a few more hours but I might be able to narrow the location down to a fifty mile radius. From there, we could use God's Eye."

"Do it."

"Oh, shit." Roman's eyes lit up at the realisation. The grin on his face said it all: things were finally getting interesting. "So you want to hit Cipher tonight."

"Tomorrow." Hobbs wasn't about to let them drive on little to no sleep. "There's a base in Nevada where we'll pick up your new wheels."

They all made it sound so simple. Go here, do this, go there, do that. Had Hobbs and Dom forgotten the submarine? New York? One misstep would land them all in early graves. Letty frowned and fixed her gaze on Hobbs. "How do you propose we get to Nevada without Cipher noticing?"

"We go to another warehouse and change cars there."

"You're daft if you think this will work, Hobbs."

Well he didn't hear Deckard suggesting anything better, or a plan that didn't involve risking their necks so as to lure Cipher out. She already had the advantage, no matter how he looked at it, so all they could do was try and level the playing field.

"If it does, we have her servers," Luke said, with a hint of finality to his voice. He was tired of arguing over plans. "If it doesn't, we'll have gotten her attention."