"Shaw, where are you? Owen?"
Roman rolled his eyes as he drove. Whatever was going on between those two, he knew better than to get involved. Letty was Dom's wife, not his, and certainly not Shaw's.
"I'm a little busy right now." Oh, there he was. "Decks, think you can—"
Suddenly the two ATVs driving on either side of Roman broke off and moved away. That was weird. Why would they give him space? Even the Mustang behind him had eased up. It didn't make any damn sense. Unless...
"Shit!"
Roman pressed his right foot to the floor as all hell broke loose. Two loud, terrifying peals of thunder echoed through the sky, followed by the deep sound of something heavy rushing towards him.
Then as the Lamborghini pushed forward, something struck the rear bumper, shattering it with enough force to shake and lift the entire front half of his car. A moment later, that something struck the road.
Cracks spread through the asphalt, radiating outwards from a hole almost three feet deep. The impact kicked up a thick black cloud of dust and sent pieces of asphalt hurtling every which way, scratching up his paint job and bouncing off the panels.
"Roman?! Answer me!"
He turned to look over his shoulder at the road and blinked. Brian's voice went ignored for the few seconds it took Pearce's brain to catch up with him.
"I'm. I'm here," Roman stammered. "What the hell just happened?"
"You need a diaper there, man?" asked Tej. "Baby wipes? How badly did you shit yourself?"
"Tej."
"Uh-huh?"
"Shut up."
"How about air fresheners?" Tej laughed. He was still teasing, but the concern in Parker's voice didn't go unnoticed. "So you good?"
"Yeah," said Roman. "Like I said, what the hell was that?"
The first sign that something had gone wrong was the truck's left side lifting as Owen slid out from beneath it. He moved clear of the tyres seconds before they slammed back down onto the road.
"We're going to lose this thing if someone doesn't get in there," grumbled Deckard. He looked over his shoulder, checking his brother was now clear, and sighed. The ramp was gone. The car's usefulness outlived. "Owen, it's time to ditch."
"No need. The engine's functioning."
"That wasn't a suggestion." Owen needed to be behind the wheel of his SUV so Deckard could get control of the truck. "Just do as you're told, yeah?"
Owen was a little too old for him to be pulling that line, but sometimes it needed saying. Although they weren't eighteen and ten anymore, Deckard was still the proverbial head of their family. The responsible head, at that.
"The truck's done." Even Owen could see that. Its rear tyres were beginning to slide across the road. The refrigerated compartment sat at an angle. Sooner or later, the whole thing would come crashing down on their heads. "We need to focus on staying alive."
If his brother hadn't noticed, they were still surrounded. Toretto and the others remained somewhere at the rear of the convoy, and Letty? Who knew where she was. In other words, help wouldn't be coming. Everyone was busy covering their own arses.
"Shaw." Hobbs' voice pulled Owen out of his thoughts. "I need an intercept! ATV about to cross your path. Tall white guy in kevlar."
"You want him dead or alive?" asked Deckard.
"Alive."
Well that wasn't much fun. Owen drove clear of the truck's cab just as two ATVs came into view, guns aimed in their direction. In one of them stood the man Hobbs wanted.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." There was something mildly disturbing about how casually he spoke, staring straight at Owen. As if he knew exactly who he was addressing. "You two are meant to survive this, or else there'll be wrath from up on high."
Wrath? Owen chuckled. This bastard knew nothing of wrath. Or of them. The aftermath of what Deckard had done was proof enough that the Shaws were a level above Toretto's usual enemies.
"And as far as I can tell," Jakob continued, "queen bees don't make idle threats."
Queen bees…What was that supposed to mean? Had Cipher's ego grown so big that she now referred to herself as royalty?
Or—No, it couldn't be. Owen was overthinking it. This guy was just talking shit, right? Unless Elizabeth had fed Cipher information.
Because this bloke couldn't possibly know their almost-thirty-year-old nicknames without one of his sisters opening their mouths. From school records to criminal and military, anything pertaining to their pasts had been locked down tight.
But the minor details that went ignored by most people, well, they weren't written down at all.
"Hey, I need you on my six," Owen said. "Keep it steady."
Behind the Shaws, the trailer jackknifed as the tyres lost all traction. It swung wildly across the road, blocking most of the highway. Tilting like it were seconds away from rolling and taking them out.
"Owen, you were right," Deckard said, checking his side mirror. The trailer rocked from right to left and back again, teetering precariously before its left wheels touched the highway once more. It had to be pushing 110mph, and when gravity finally won out… "It's too late."
Hobbs cursed under his breath. If they let Jakob go now, they'd lose the only advantage they had: a direct line to Cipher. With him in custody, the team could potentially utilise that. "Reisner, get around the truck any way you can! I'll take him down myself."
"I don't think that's a good—"
Boom.
Eric jerked the steering wheel to the right, sending them off the highway and onto the desert plain. As he did, the truck's cab erupted into a fireball, exploding and sending shrapnel flying in every direction. The trailer itself tipped over and into a roll, hurtling violently forward towards the Shaws.
"Hey! I told you…" Luke turned to look over his shoulder, eyes wide as he stared at the truck. Twisted, burning metal stood in place of the cab, giving off a heat so severe it raised the air temperature by more than a few degrees. "Deckard, where the hell is he?"
"Going east. Two o'clock. He's running for the plane!"
It was a good guess. In the chaos of the incendiary round taking out the truck's cab, unleashing the trailer, Jakob had ordered the ATV's driver to floor it and cut across the highway. So while the Shaws tried to outrun what chased them, he opted for evasive measures by any means necessary.
"Anyone up there listening?" Jakob looked upward, eyes scanning the sky for any glimpse of Cipher's plane. "I need a rolling pickup! Currently half a klick due east of the road, following a northeast trajectory."
"Lose the tails first."
Tails? He whipped his head around and came to focus on the miniature convoy closing the distance Jakob had gained. Save for the Shaws, the entirety of Toretto's team were all speeding toward him, spread out but driving as one. Like sharks herding fish, they moved with purpose.
Huh. It seemed Dom had finally scraped together what could only be described as bottom of the barrel tactics. If not for the fact they worked, this might've been an amusing display of ingenuity on his part.
"Goddamn it," Jakob muttered. Without his Mustang, he was stuck in this shitty little roofless ATV, being chased by Dom and co. One wrong move now would leave him caught with no way out. Alright, he thought. There's still more than seventy miles to the nearest town. You've got gear, time, gas…
A shell game! The perfect distraction. There was cover up ahead that he could hide in. Toretto and the others wouldn't expect him to be on foot amongst brush and trees. And at the speed they were going, no one would notice him either.
"It's time to finish this. I want three cars to my position now," Jakob ordered. "Keep your faces covered and Toretto's crew distracted. Cipher, circle around and drop Shaw off to the south. I'll give her my location when she's close."
"No."
"What do you mean 'no'?"
"If you can't handle Dom while accompanied by an armed convoy, that's not my problem."
Perhaps he was reading into her tone too much, but Cipher sounded pissed, and in the background Jakob could hear what sounded like the passive aggressive tapping of keys.
"I supplied the resources you'd need," continued Cipher. "Which means the hands responsible for utilizing them aren't mine."
And right on cue, here came the psycho babble. The endless stream of bullshit Cipher spouted like she was reading from a goddamn thesaurus, or the syllabus of some freshman literature class. Garbage that made her sound smart without actually meaning a fucking thing, like that terrible crocodile at the watering hole analogy.
"God, I never thought time could move slower than it did when I was in prison," Elizabeth groaned, "but this is ridiculous. Any word from—"
Silence fell over the channel as the transmission was cut, blocking any chance of him getting Shaw's attention. Fine. Jakob could deal with it. His priority now would be taking out Letty. Strategically, it was the best move he could make.
With Ortiz removed from the picture, Dom's focus would be torn, allowing Jakob to put even more distance between himself and the team.
"All remaining cars to me! Fire everything you have at the Corvette."
* * *
"Dom, we gotta do something, man. I don't like this."
"Me neither. Shaw, what do you think?"
Was that worry he heard in their voices? Funny. Deckard had never taken them for people who got scared. Once upon a time, Toretto was a ballsy bastard, willing to go head to head in a fight. Now he seemed to be hesitant in the face of what, a couple machine guns and some arsehole with a grudge?
"We need to slow this thing down," Deckard shouted at the ramp car in front of him. He'd been riding his brother's six for a few miles now, maintaining proximity for a quick escape route. Despite the trailer still hurtling towards them, the knowledge of what'd happened in Spain lingered at the back of his mind. "Got any ideas?"
"Yeah," said Owen, "but we don't have any bombs."
A large explosion might've provided enough opposing force to drain the trailer of its momentum. Too bad they didn't have the requisite materials, or the equipment. Owen couldn't drive and rewire multiple explosives at the same time either.
Shit. Where was an extra set of hands when he needed them most? Without Hattie, Vegh, or Letty, Owen was all out of options, which left only the contingency: get out of the way and let that thing crash.
Subconsciously, he knew it was too risky to use the harpoons. The force of the trailer's roll would be more than enough to spin the steel cable, and by extension, drag or flip their cars. Consciously, it seemed as good an idea as any, provided they had the numbers.
Glancing back over his shoulder, Owen noted Deckard's position and that of the trailer chasing them. It still rolled side over side, occasionally lifting into the air only to slam back down and send shards of asphalt flying in every direction.
Time to play the team card. Reaching down, Owen turned on his radio once more and adjusted his throat mic. "Letty, you still alive?"
Did it seem like she wasn't? Letty grumbled and swung back into place beside Tej as more bullets began to strafe them. These assholes were now targeting Ramsey, it seemed, and each round that hit their cars was one less chance at survival.
"I'm kinda in the middle of something right now," she said. "Can it wait?"
"No. We need all hands to stop this thing. It's the only way we don't lose—"
The servers. Damn. It'd be a miracle if they weren't damaged already, or destroyed. "You want hands? Get these guys off our asses."
"The ramp's gone."
Letty scoffed. Had he forgotten she wasn't some blind street racer anymore? "Your brother's gun isn't."
A low chuckle came through the radio. From who, Letty didn't know, until that emotionless voice followed it. "I have to ask: what's it like working with the people who killed your team?"
"My team are right—"
"Jah, Vegh, Klaus. Denlinger, Adolfson, Ivory…You can't pretend you felt nothing when you saw him sprawled out, bullet lodged in his spine."
He was just an asshole trying to push her buttons. Nothing more. And she'd made her peace with the past, or at least Letty thought she had. "Shaw, hurry it up, will you?"
"Or Vegh. Twisted up in a car that should've kept her alive. A car you and your boyfriend helped build."
"Don't listen to him, Letty. He's just pissed because no matter how hard he tries, it'll never be enough to beat Dom," Hobbs said. "Yeah, that's right, you reject Ken doll, I know you who are. I know about your brother Jesse too."
A chill ran down her spine as Letty lifted her head, looking in Dom's direction. She hadn't heard that name spoken aloud in almost fifteen years.
Although they'd never forgotten his idiotic genius, Jesse wasn't a topic anyone brought up often. The past was a painful fucking subject to delve into for all of them. They'd lost so many family members that living solely in the present was easier. It didn't mean they forgot. Just that they moved on and tried to focus on better times. To live and enjoy life for those who'd been taken far too early.
"We loved that kid!" said Brian. "So why the hell are you gunning for us?"
"Ask Dom. He's the one who promised to keep my brother safe."
What? Letty spun the steering wheel, breaking formation and heading straight towards Dom. God only knew what was going through his mind right now. He had to be reeling like she was. Letty didn't remember Jesse having a brother or ever mentioning one, but then again, their conversations mostly revolved around cars, parts, gas, and girls, in those days.
"It was him who left Jesse to die. The doctors said he might've been saved if only someone had applied pressure."
She slid into position next to Dom, struggling to catch his attention. The look in his eyes was distant as he drove, and his shoulders sat low like all the strength had suddenly left him. Dom, Letty wanted to scream. Look at me, Papi. It's not your fault, okay? It's not your fault.
"Why wait until now?" Dom asked.
"First I hoped it'd be Braga that killed you and saved me the trouble. Then Reyes. The Shaws. Cipher. But every time they failed."
"Well, as the saying goes," that smooth, sadistic voice echoed in her head like Letty was back in London, going around scouting for escape routes, "if you want something done right, you do it yourself."
Owen! Letty sat upright and watched as that low-slung ramp car drifted into view, sans the entire ramp structure. It'd been sheared off, leaving a gaping hole. Still, the rest of it was intact, with a figure stretched out and clinging to the back of it.
Slowly, that figure moved until it was upright and crouching, both hands grasping one of the roll cage bars. Owen drove straight for the first ATV, clipped the rear and sent it spinning off to the left.
As he did, the figure stood up. For a moment, with their body at an angle, she might've said it was Shaw. The other, other Shaw, if it were even possible for Elizabeth to be here. But a second glance at that shaved head and five o'clock shadow revealed it was only the son of a bitch who'd almost put Dom in his grave. Deckard.
"Hey Princess, you want some help there?" Hobbs asked.
"If I need it, Hercules, I'll ask."
"Y'know, your sister said that—"
"And his mom," Dom added, with a laugh.
Despite the shell casings pouring from the machine gun rigged to the second ATV, Owen closed the distance between him and it, until Deckard was able to hop from one car to the other.
"Oi! Shut it! I'm try…" Deckard's voice faded for a moment, like the radio signal was being blocked. "…die."
Followed by the increasingly loud whine of turbine engines. As three men scrambled to transfer themselves from one car for another, a fourth climbed into the driver's seat.
"Owen, eleven o'clock," Letty said. "Asshole's alone and about to break off!"
"You know what to do."
Yeah, no shit. When Letty looked back, the heists she'd pulled with Dom were child's play in contrast to the ones she'd done with Shaw and his team. Stealing a microchip from an armoured convoy in the middle of Moscow? The old Letty would've balked, if only for a moment.
Whereas amnesiac Letty — well, she'd never hesitated in the face of anything. Everything that was old became new again. The insanity of heists got turned all the way up until the dial broke.
"I've got your back, Letty."
Dom and Hobbs both spoke at the same time as she pulled away from the formation and floored it. Her tyres kicked up a cloud of dust behind her, but everything ahead was clear. Including the view of Cipher's plane and its gradual descent towards the highway. And Jakob making a run for it like a bootlegger heading for the Mexican border.
"Someone get me Shaw. Now!"
Shaw? Who the hell was he talking to? Owen, Deckard, Tej and Roman were dealing with the dregs of Cipher's convoy. Hobbs and Dom sat on either side of her, with Reisner behind the wheel. And no matter which direction she looked, there wasn't a single sign of Owen's sister or her armoured SUV.
Unless…It doesn't matter, Letty. You need to leave!
No.
She wasn't onboard that plane, was she? Jesus Christ, she couldn't be. Letty hadn't pegged Elizabeth as a traitor, and she was usually pretty good at seeing people for what they were. Dom liked to say she had eyes that saw through someone. That cut right through the bullshit…
So then why the hell hadn't Letty seen this coming?
"Please don't let it be her," she murmured. "God, not again."
"I'll be cutting it close. Tell her to hit the button as soon as my rear tyres are on the ramp."
"It never changes, does it?" Letty muttered. Vegh, Beth, the parasites that'd once clung to Dom. No matter who she got close to, they always betrayed her in some way or another. "She acts like your ally up until there's money on the line, then throws your ass under the bus."
"Letty," Luke interrupted, "there's something I need to—"
"You can try all you want," she shouted, "but you're not getting on that plane today, asshole!"
"And how exactly do you plan to stop me?"
Oh she had an idea or two. Letty reached for the readied harpoon on the passenger seat with one hand and lifted it into her lap. The car's window would provide the necessary support to keep it aimed correctly, while her right hand kept her on course.
"You two remember New York? Same idea, only it's him, not Dom."
Hobbs gave a thumbs up. "I read you loud and clear, Letty."
Every second they drove south brought them closer to the plane, and Jakob. A moment closer to learning the truth. Letty pushed her Corvette to its limit, hounding Jakob as his piece of crap struggled to stay ahead of them.
Dom and Hobbs drove on either side of him, keeping within a few yards. Each had their harpoon ready. Dom's poked out the window like hers, while Hobbs had half his chest sticking out.
"Now!"
Gas hissed as she squeezed the trigger. The harpoon itself flew forward, embedding itself deep in the rear of the ATV…and the rest of the gun followed, ripped free from Letty's window.
"Fuck it!" Hobbs slid back inside his Gurkha then thrust the entire door open, stepping out into the side rail. He carefully clambered up onto the hood and crouched, clutching the roof rack with one hand. "Reisner, no matter what happens, you keep this team together."
"What're you talking about?"
"Jesus, you're gonna get yourself killed!" What was wrong with him? Always jumping from cars, or planes, or pulling some other reckless shit like he was invincible. Newsflash: he wasn't. "It's not worth it, Hobbs."
"Cop, think about what you're doing."
"I am thinking, Dom. I'll call you as soon as I land so don't wait up. Go home. See your family. Trust me, they won't be able to make a move without me knowing."
"…I'll tell Elena you said 'hi'," Letty said. "But you're the one who'll be apologising when she rips you a new asshole."
"Sounds like a deal."
As Jakob's front tyres touched hit the lip of the ramp, Luke jumped. He caught ahold of the ATV's attached gun, feet dragging for a moment before Hobbs managed to lift them. Then the entire ramp began to rise as the ATV rolled into the plane's cargo bay, taking the Fed with it.
"What the hell did you just do, Hobbs?"
"You know, Deckard, after faking your death, it's a bit hypocritical to criticise me for doing my job."
Letty tried not to chuckle, but Hobbs was right. As usual. Really, had no one told Deckard how Hobbs punched a hole through a door?
"Next time I see you, I'm shoving my fist so far up your arse I'll be using you as a ventriloquism dummy."
"Fine. Just don't tell Sam, alright? I'm already—"
The ramp slammed shut, cutting off Hobbs' radio signal. Cipher's plane picked up speed with both Hobbs and Jakob onboard, taxiing down the highway before it began to lift into the air.
"So how do you want to do this, Jakob?" asked Luke. "The easy way or the…"
"Oh. A prisoner. Great." One of the many goons Cipher had hired stood in the corner, fist resting above a bright green button. "So much for getting rid of those tails, Toretto. I guess you'll be the one to explain it to the boss then."
"Kiss my ass, Roberts. Just slap a pair of cuffs on him and stick him in a room somewhere. He'll play nice, won't you, Hobbs?"
"With him? Sure." Luke smirked and eyeballed Jakob. "But lay a hand on me, boy, and I'll make you wish you'd never been born."