No Time To Die

Chapter 12 : The Beauty Vault

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"The beauty of public offices?" Mia places the map on the plywood table, Isabela helping her unroll it and place tools on the corners. "Public Records."

Brian moves to the other side and points at a certain spot. "This is where he's keeping the money. The vault in the evidence room."

"Um, uh, yeah." Tej spoke up, elbows leaning against the table. "Can I get everyone's attention, right here, for a second? We're talkin' about breaking into a-po-lice-station. Is anyone listening to those words? Anybody? Po po? Five-O. Onetime. Pigs? People we don't like."

"You know, police stations are designed to keep people in, not out." Han pointed out, and Brian nodded. "That's why it's a stealth mission. We'll be in and out before they even know we were there."

"Well, we'll need to get eyes in there." Dom said, and Isabela nodded while her green eyes glanced up to him. "At least to find out the make and model of that vault."

"So the vault, and then, so..." Roman mumbled, putting his chin in his hand as he looked over the map. "It's crazy." Then he points around it, "Who's supposed to, uh, do all this?"

Brian shared a look with the three Toretto's, who all then smiled and gave Roman a look. He looked up and between them, then the others in the group that were already looking at him, before standing up in realization. "What - What do you mean? Why me?"

"'Cause you got the biggest mouth." Brian said, and Tej shook his head with a nod. "That's for damn sure."

Roman looked between them as if he's been betrayed.

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The next day, as Roman was doing his part of getting a box into the evidence room at the police station, Isabela had gone out to get more clothes to change into - before adding a baseball cap and sunglasses to her current outfit so that she wouldn't be immediately noticed by security cameras or whatever - as she walked into the public library and went over to the computers.

She then quickly went to work in checking out the wallet she had taken off the agent last week. Obviously hacking and computers weren't her best skill, but she still had an eye for it. 

About an hour later and she had learned his name, his address, family members, dead wife's name - then went on to read how he retired and opened a garage down here... the same one that Scott worked at. 

Did that mean she wasn't able to trust Scott?

And if this Dean guy retired, why was he back?

A timer she had set on her new watch went off, snapping the girl out of her thoughts and causing her to pocket the wallet and clear the computer's history, before quickly getting up and leaving through the back door. 

Just missing the two agents that had rushed in, Thomas and Dean, who quickly looked around the room, before shaking their heads at each other from different ends of the giant room - because she was already gone.

Eventually the girl (who had changed her appearance yet again) met up with the boys in the back of the brown van parked in the parking garage near the police station. 

"He good yet?" Isabela stepped in, sliding the door closed behind her as Tej shrugged and Brian nodded. "Should be. Went in ten minutes ago."

She nodded and moved to sit on the other side of Tej, now in a black tanktop, red zip-up sweater and jean shorts, as her hair was pulled up into a ponytail and she had some sports cap on. 

It was less than five minutes later and Roman joined them, flopping into the seat behind Tej and Brian as he closed the door behind him and said. "It's done. See, I think I make a better special agent than you ever did."

He laughs but Isabela and Brian just give him a look, as Brian added. "Well, that depends on how you define 'special'."

Tej and Isabela scoffed, but Roman just hits Brian's hand away. "Yeah. Whatever."

"Come on. Let's see what we got." Tej turns his attention to his set up, beginning to mess with the controller to the remote control car toy that Roman snuck in, with a camera on it. After knocking it's box off the shelf, Tej was able to drive around, allowing them all to see the evidence lock up on the screen. "Alright. Come on."

He drives it under a few shelves, causing Roman to shake his head. "Dog, you still can't drive." Tej accidentally runs into a shelf, so Roman then adds. "See, now I see why you're always getting into accidents. You can't even drive a damn remote control car."

"I'm gonna need you to shut up right now. I'm tryin' to concentrate." Tej tries, but Roman just shakes his head. "I'm not gonna shut up."

"Man, strap him in his safety belt, man." Tej says to Brian, who shares an amused look with Isabela, before they looked back at the screen. But then Roman says, "Give me the remote, dog. Go left. It - It looks like something over there to the left. What is that?"

As Tej followed the instruction, Isabela's eyebrows furrowed together as she looked at the screen. "What is that?"

"Bingo." Tej stops driving the remote car, but moves the camera so that they had a better look at the vault, as Brian said. "What is that, 6-by-6?"

"8-by-12." Roman says, but Tej corrects him. "7-by-12. Fitted with 18-inch-thick steel reinforced walls with a insulated copper core to protect against thermal lance. A class three electronic lock with a surefire Griffin retumbler and a biometric palm scanner. Ten tons of top-of-the-line security."

Isabela shared a look with the other two, who had no idea what he just said, so Brian nodded at him. "Do I wanna know how you know all that?"

"I had a life before you knew me, O'Conner. Let's just leave it at that, alright?" Tej shakes his head, and Isabela laughed, before they looked back at the screen - Tej adding. "She is a beauty though, man."

"A beauty as in good?" Roman asked, but Tej shook his head. "A beauty as in she's gonna start off playin' hard to get. Then, no matter how much I caress her, no matter how much I love her, in the end, she still ain't gonna give up that ass."

The boys laugh, as Isabela rolled her eyes as her nose scrunched up. "You nasty."

"Bambi." Tej shakes his head with an amused chuckle, before looking back at the screen. "It's one of the toughest vaults to crack in the business. We ain't gonna get anywhere with it, unless we got a duplicate to practice with. Bet that."

Isabela looked at the screen with a shake of her head, breathing out. "Why is it every turn we make in this job, it gets harder?"