Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Fast & Furious.


By nine in the morning, two days after Owen's last call, Brian has most of the crew rounded up with a cup of coffee in hand to keep them going until they at least get some extra hours. He is about to tell them about Owen's call two days back but the phone in his pocket rings and he ignores some sighs as he reaches for it. Everyone was sick and tired of Owen's purposely bad timing.

Upon flipping the black model open, he is greeted by Vegh's urgent voice- "Get out of there now, Brian. Cops headed your way- NOW!"

Brian is already moving and so is his crew. Part of why they always worked so well lay in the fact that they knew how to read their leader's mannerisms so well, words weren't always needed. His eyes had immediately strayed to their loaded trucks and the crew hadn't hesitated such that they were ready to rumble in minutes.

Until Kumiko froze halfway out. She reached for her communicator headset and said, "Brian, there's still traces of us. I forgot to clean an oil stain and-"

"Leave it. Owen wants to cut it short anyways; go!"

"But, Brian!"

"I'm serious, Kumiko. Let's go."

Brian almost imagines her rebellious eyes betraying her when her hands order Lily ahead. Kumiko has always been headstrong since the day he met her and it hasn't changed a bit. In fact, it seems to have grown under Owen's careful stoking and Brian knows there will be a day when their crews clash due to this. It is almost inevitable but by then, he knows he and his team will be long gone.

For now, even with the 'apocalypse' in their foreseeable future, he prefers to be where he is. There is no stress in being an enforcer and backup to Owen's crazy machinations and the small frustrations he has are nothing compared to feeling the lives of his teammates in his hands. Owen has a lot of power and for now, Brian is willing to let it be.

The empty warehouse they left disappeared behind dozens of London's buildings. The streets were already busy, even the ones outside the city, and they encountered several traffic jams on their way but nothing that would prove detrimental to their escape. As far was Hobbs knew, Owen's crew moved as fast as lighting because of their spying and not due to the moving bases that were their trailers.

"Why do you let Owen boss you around, Brian?" Kumiko grumbled half-heatedly through their connections. He was in the back of his trailer, fixing some additions to the list of agreed jobs they would take for this year. At her question, he froze midway a budget calculation and sighed.

Half of the team- if they were awake, that is- were listening and he knew he had to answer to satisfy them all. Otherwise they would all doubt him at their most important job. "It's…complicated. But it mostly revolves around Owen."

"What do you mean?" Kumiko asked stonily from the other side.

"You know how he is…he wouldn't hesitate to kill us all just to show how much fun it would be to prove to us that he's got power over all of us. You know that." He said softly, tinkering absently with a small ornament Kumiko stuck on his desk over two years ago.

She did know. Everyone knew of this. How they couldn't understand why he did what he did was beyond him. Owen was satisfied if Brian put a blindfold to his actions- Owen needed to know there would be no rebellion within. By knowing that, Owen wouldn't send them all to their oblivion early on. Brian was buying time…time to think and plan then leave this all behind.

He had to bow down, yes he knew that, and in turn lose a little pride but this was all for his team. "That still doesn't explain anything…"

"Owen will kill all of us if we even turn our back on him, Kumiko. And he'll start with our weak links- our families back at Tokyo and our team members helping back home too. We were fools to even consider a treaty with Owen and…his group but we would have been doomed at the start anyways."

Everyone was quiet and Brian knew this would keep them quiet longer too so he deactivated his set and put his tracking system up. As long as they thought they understood, he would leave it be, even if they didn't.

And maybe he was using this as a weak excuse and justification to cover up the fact that he was just as confused as they all were. He was lacking in attitude and he felt as if he shouldn't be. And it was bothering him more than it should.

The ride is bumpier as it goes and he can only hope Owen already has most of his team already set up so that Brian can just fill in whatever is left. Brian reaches for his handgun that he always keeps in his belt then feels cold creeping up his spine when he realizes it is not there.

A hasty and hurried but thorough search reveals his SIG-Sauer P226R is not there and he is left with a belly full of butterflies. He left the damn thing back at the warehouse and he only has one word to sum it all up.

"Fuck."


Dominic Toretto sits up from random tinkering on his car to watch Roman compare Owen's team and theirs. It is amusing and highly entertaining until Roman takes one look at the blonde woman, skips her without mention, and continues his earlier train of thought- albeit a bit rattled.

Dom feels a bit of sympathy for the man but before he can express it in a shortly worded comment, Hobbs' mighty military jeep is roaring its way into the garage/base they've made themselves cozy at. Giselle, Han and Roman stop what they are doing in expectation but Dom and Tej continue their tinkering albeit a bit distractedly.

"Lock it up," Hobbs orders, "First of all- this is the worst damn city in the world to commit a crime in; they got cameras all over the place." A small rectangular piece of black plastic flies into Tej's hands and Hobbs finishes it with a short, "Track it down."

Dom watches absently as a ton of camera views flash in Tej's computer screens and contents himself to hearing what Hobbs as managed to gather. "Second of all; we've just had confirmation. They've emptied out the location of the next component they need."

Dom shrugged, "And where is it?"

Hicks smiled pleasantly, "There are over 200 bases in all of Europe alone."

"But the list is only good for the next ninety-six hours. They've got a window and so do we…" Hobbs continued.

Dom nodded. He could work with that now. "Ok, let's break it down. We've met them; what do we know?" He asked his crew. And to be truthful, he'd asked that question to himself a lot of times but maybe other heads gifted in other talents would see what he had missed.

Giselle, Mia, and Letty were perched beside the crazy contraptions Tej had snagged himself earlier in the runs last week. Han was busy crumpling a bag of chips and reaching for more but they were all listening with rapt attention and they were ready to contribute their thoughts wherever they could.

"We know they gotta be running custom engines." Tej said, shaking his head at the reminder of the take down they suffered at Owen's team.

"Yeah, that didn't sound like a normal engine." Giselle agreed.

Mia nodded, "And that flip car- even if you hit it, it still kept on going."

"Hydraulics." Roman assured.

"Then that means a few tuning shops might have track on Owen's trail." Mia added, "The trouble is finding out which ones to go to."

"Regular tuning shops are out of the equation…we're gonna have to dig deeper than that." Dom groused, planting his hands on the desk to prop himself up, "Roman, Giselle, Han- you're up. Focus on the outskirts of the city."

The trip immediately readied and as they were leaving, Hicks followed them out to assist. "I'll go with you."

Once they left, Hobbs turned to the rest, "Third- we've had confirmation on one of their bases. Had a couple of agents check the area out and received this." Hobbs reached for a packet in his back pocket and handed it to Dom. Mia peeked from her older brother's shoulder to see what it was and was surprised to see a handgun.

"What's this?" Dom asked, turning the bagged object over and over in his hands.

"We found it in an empty warehouse- scans show it was O'Conner's. Whatever he was thinking or whatever he was doing; he was too distracted to pick up his weapon. They also left several gasoline spills but that's another story completely." Hobbs explained, "And given that handguns are illegal in the UK, you can see how this is an important lead to finding Owen."

"Or finding Brian." Dom tilted his head to look at Mia and Letty with a confident smirk, "Let's go find us some pawn shops."


"Brian." Owen called, voice fuzzy over the connection but Brian still heard him and responded accordingly.

"Yeah?"

"Head on over to the shop. Accompany Jah, and Ivory to the mechanic. You know what to do."

Translation: Kill him because he spilled the beans. Brian sighed, "Roger. I'll be there in ten."

He'd made another temporary set near Owen's base; just a few minutes away but near a racing scene. Ironically, the cops never checked for them near the racing scenes presumably because they thought Owen or Brian wouldn't have humor enough to do this.

Not only was Brian close to something he loved doing (maybe he could see Mia again) but he was close to Owen should the man need something. Of course, if they did indeed get caught, the chances of escaping would be lowered dramatically.

Oh well.

"Jake, keep an eye on the Torettos. Owen says the mechanic is compromised already. Check the others too."

"Already on it, boss." Jake threw back cheekily, spooning ice cream into his beer.

"Tell Kumiko to focus on the escape plan. No distractions." Brian ordered.

"You got it."

"I'll see you then."


And indeed, in ten minutes he was already there. Owen wasn't in sight so Brian theorized that he and Vegh were running last minute modifications to the plan. He didn't know where, though but he wasn't that curious.

"Where we goin'?" Brian wondered, pocketing a little number of a handgun in the waistband of his jeans. There was no way he was headed into a frenzy without a weapon in his hands and some buried instinct told him he always had to have a weapon with him. Maybe it was because he had been a cop…

"Few streets from here, Brian. Don't interfere if we don't need it- just keep a lookout. We got enough problems trying to feed Hobbs the right information for you to mess it up."

Brian knew too much of Owen's team to feel offended or insulted so he just dipped his head in agreement. Besides, he was much too comfortable in the backseat of this jeep. So when they did arrive to a dingy little shop a few blocks away from their base, he just climbed out and slowly made his way to the entrance.

Owen was right, he noticed, the mechanic was compromised. And he didn't exactly blame him- anybody facing such efficient team like Toretto's would snap too. Unless you were the right person or the wrong one depending on what the situation was.

There was a pretty big group of people already. Two females and two men; guess Toretto really didn't trust any of them to not strike at his team member's backs. Huh. Well, not that they didn't deserve it. Brian absently wondered why Toretto's team had gotten involved because last time he checked, he was sure the legendary team had retired.

As much as someone can retire from that kind of lifestyle with the law working 24/7 to make sure they all landed behind bars. On second thought, maybe they were working to clean that record. Owen was a nice little gift enough to clean about ten people's worth of crimes. With the strings attached- namely Owen's team and his team- there was about a few billion pardons from Tokyo, London, and even the United States waiting for Toretto and his crew.

So embroiled into his thoughts he was that he was pretty much protected from the few stray bullets that hit the end of the jeep. But those were good enough to push away all distraction and he took out the Makarov PM that he found around. It was times like these that he missed his little SIG-Sauer which he admittedly got from a pawn shop when he came here. It just matched his last one…

'Don't interfere…uh-huh…what if they are all dead?' A sweeping cursory glance revealed Jah and Ivory at opposite ends of the shop. Brian rushed inside, aware that he was vastly outnumbered here. He kept hidden and quiet until the agent turned around. There was something familiar about her but before he could start comparing, the woman smirked and aimed at him, unloading about three shots before she started running towards him.

He skirted around the rack of tires and had a glimpse of Ivorytrying to escape on a motorcycle before he was shot down by the thin woman Giselle. Feeling a momentary well of loss, he shot towards the window where the woman had shot and was rewarded by the breaking of glass but nothing more. The agent swooped in and Brian rolled out of the way, throwing a few rounds at the woman who seemed to find cover at the last minute to avoid all that.

Jah disappeared behind a gate and Brian figured that if he wanted to live, he might as well follow and fast, before the agent and the two other men got a gain on them. "Shit." Brian cursed when he discovered the agent with red hair to be gone. He was very distracted today.

Without wasting a second, he ran to the shadowed gate, unloading the last of his rounds at Toretto's crew before throwing it away with a disdainful sniff. To his surprise and relief, the way led to one of the many subways in London.

Composing himself and brushing away the thin sheen of sweat over his forehead, he attempted to blend in unlike Jah, who was running like a madman to the opposite side. Then he saw that the two men had caught up and he hurried his steps. The agent had actually joined in the men's attempts to subdue Jah but at the last minute, the dark-skinned one turned and managed to see him. Eyes widened and Brian swung around, making a note to himself that if he actually managed to beat this dude, he was going to run a few laps to gain back a bit of stamina.

Momentarily remembering the files strewn on the table, he tried to wrack his brain for the name of the man following him. Ronald…Romald…Roman! Roman Pierce. Now that he had a name to connect to the face, Brian focused on trying to remember the skills highlighted in the man's non-ending crime records. If he knew the skills of this man, he could see if he could do something to take advantage of the man's weaknesses.

As he ran down the stairs, pushing away men and females alike, Brian had a sudden epiphany that had him stumbling which unfortunately allowed Roman to barrel him over which even more unfortunately, gave Brian the illusion that he was going to have a few bruises by the end of this day.

This guy had known him. The files said so.

This didn't stop the man from almost knocking the living daylights out of him so Brian supposed he could return the favor. He rolled from under Roman and grappled him, twisting his hands behind him and almost managing to make him scream. Roman was strong for his lean figure and shook him off, "You still fight like a pussy."

And if that didn't make Brian fight like a hellcat, maybe the fact that the man gave him a noogie did. But something about that made him think, 'Jus' like old times.'


Another chapter! A few more chapters- the fun ones- and this story will be complete. Maybe I'll do a sequel, but that is still debatable. Hope you guys like it.

Maybe Brian is very compliant in his story but I stopped to think about it and I figured that even Letty had been bery subdued in Fast Six due to her loss of memory. I don't doubt however, that she still had some bite because we all saw her put Klaus in his place. Brian is similar but still...different.

Brian just has to get all those clues and put them together.

Solari Crystal