An Eye For An Eye (Fast & Furious | Hobbs/OFC)

Chapter 10

Elizabeth looked over her shoulder at the open doorway of Cipher's office and the tall ginger standing within it. Despite the knowledge that Connor was Cipher's right-hand man, she simply didn't like the look of him, or any of them actually. Americans could never be relied upon to keep their mouths closed and their opinions to themselves nor trusted to carry out a job properly. "I thought you said we'd have privacy."

"Relax. What is it, Rhodes?"

"There's a DSS agent sniffing around. He's looking for Owen Shaw."

Well that didn't sound good. Who the hell were the DSS and how had they caught wind of her brother? Beth turned her chair around to face Rhodes and waited for him to continue. Instead, Cipher broke the silence first.

"What's his name?"

"Luke Hobbs."

Shit. Hobbs had a reputation — even among the circles she moved in — for tracking the toughest targets down no matter the distance. Cipher frowned, laying out the options in her head as to how she could deal with him, then glanced at Elizabeth and the pensive look on her face. "You should go. I'll drop you off at the airport. It's almost time for Maslenitsa, isn't it?"

"Almost." She remembered Elizabeth wasn't practising Orthodox, didn't she? Religious status didn't stop anyone from gorging themselves on pancakes but nonetheless, it wasn't reason enough for her to leave early when there was still so much to do. They were also thirty thousand feet in the air where leaving wasn't as simple as walking out the front door. "Who's Hobbs?"

"Nobody you need to worry about. Just focus on getting those EMPs built and working. I'll contact you again in a month."

"Hey Alice, you with us or still off in Wonderland?"

She glanced down from the folio, making sure her feet were firmly in the middle of the nature strip. They'd been walking around for ten minutes now and Hobbs had said almost nothing beyond 'don't go in that building, or that one, or that other one' and 'I expect you to be on your best behaviour' as if they were troublesome children and he their schoolmaster. "I'll take the two Marussias and whatever spare parts you have."

"The F2 and B2?" Eric questioned, scrolling down through a screen on his phone. If she was sure, he'd send the details immediately to Mr. Nobody. Keeping things compartmentalised, however annoying the protocol was, allowed for a small sense of security. Without Cipher knowing which cars they planned to use, she couldn't have her goons plant any kind of bug or tracking device.

"That's what I said. Both."

"What about the Zhigulis?" He'd seen her looking at them with a fondness in her eyes, as if they held some kind of importance. Personally, Little Nobody thought they were old pieces of crap that needed to be condemned to a wrecking yard, but what did he know?

"Um, yes, those too."

"You don't need four cars," Deckard said. Marussia? Zhiguli? What kind of crappy imports were they? "Three's enough between us."

"And you don't need to act like Dad." The names rang bells in Owen's mind yet he couldn't pinpoint where the familiarity came from. "She's not running the mission with us, Deck. Better she improves her mechanical skills than sits around twiddling her thumbs all day."