Midday in Rio de Janeiro shimmered with heat, the kind that clung to steel and soaked concrete in sweat. Inside a deserted warehouse on the city's outskirts, the air crackled with something hotter: horsepower.
Engines roared, tires screeched, and a laptop timer clicked with ruthless precision.
"Again!" Tej yelled, tapping the spacebar.
Shepherd Fox gunned the throttle. The car — a modded Dodge Charger with its engine gutted and rebuilt from the ground up — launched forward. Sleek, black, and angry, it raced down a tight stretch between crates and cones.
Three seconds. Five.
The car zipped under a suspended camera rig Tej had installed to mimic the security lenses inside the police garage.
Brian hit a button. The simulation feed played back, grainy but readable.
"Still caught the license plate," he muttered. "Barely, but enough."
Roman whistled. "You mean we're trying to outrun light now? Come on."
Shepherd climbed out of the Charger, wiping sweat from his brow. "Not light. Shutter rate. There's a millisecond blind spot between the image scans. We just need to slip through that."
Han gave a slow nod. "So we're not racing the camera. We're racing the gap."
"Exactly," Shepherd replied, popping the hood. "Which means I need five percent more boost on takeoff and two percent tighter steering input. The mods are close — but not enough yet."
Dom, leaning against the wall with arms crossed, watched silently.
This guy had walked into their world like a ghost with a toolbox — calm, focused, never wasting words. But when he worked under the hood, he made machines sing like they owed him something.
And the crew was starting to notice.
Tej walked over to the second car — one Roman had dubbed Silver Bullet. It had already been re-tuned with Shepherd's adjustments.
"We'll run it again. Roman, you're up."
Roman groaned. "Man, why is it always me in the test seat? I'm the eye candy!"
"You're the loudest," Brian grinned.
Roman muttered something about "driver abuse" but got in.
This time, when Silver Bullet launched down the lane, the engine sounded different — tighter, more tuned, like a whip crack instead of a growl. It sliced under the rig in 6.3 seconds.
Tej checked the feed.
"Nothing. Not even a blur."
Brian grinned. "That's it. That's the sweet spot."
Dom finally stepped forward. "Good. Now we run all four. Simultaneous. Tight formation."
Han raised an eyebrow. "In this space?"
"We either train tight now," Dom said, "or we burn later."
The test runs continued into the afternoon. Over and over. Sweating, wrenching, tweaking, racing. Each driver ran every car. They switched positions, mapped their timing, tracked how each vehicle responded to Dom's aggressive leadership and Shepherd's surgical tech.
And as the sun dropped behind the warehouse roof, they moved to the map.
The Planning Table – Safehouse, Night
The old workbench had been cleared of tools. In their place: blueprints, satellite images, marked-up street layouts of downtown Rio. On the wall, a whiteboard scrawled with numbers, clock cycles, and access points.
"Alright," Tej said, clicking a laser pointer. "This is our window."
He pointed to a red zone — a block of perimeter fencing inside the police impound.
"They run a shift change at 03:17. That gives us a ninety-second blind zone across all exterior cameras."
"We're in and out before they notice," Han added, sipping from a soda bottle.
Roman leaned in. "Yeah, but what about this spot right here?" He jabbed the map. "That corner gets hit by street patrol at random. If we roll dice and it lands bad, we're all toast."
Shepherd pulled a laptop closer and started typing.
"What're you doing?" Brian asked.
"Overlaying weather, traffic, and patrol logs," he muttered, pulling up a simulation model. "They use three-man teams, always two bikes and a cruiser. The bikes sweep on rotation. But they avoid this stretch during rush hour because of backup."
A click. A new visual popped up showing the weak zone in the pattern.
Dom leaned over the map.
"That's our breach."
Tej nodded. "And if the timing's right, we can piggyback their blind spots to cross through."
Dom looked at Shepherd.
"You trust the math?"
Shepherd didn't hesitate. "I built it."
Dom grinned faintly. "Then we drive it."
Crew Roles Finalized
"Brian and I will take the lead car," Dom said. "Han and Roman follow tight behind. Tej, you run the gate open. Shepherd, you're with me."
Roman threw up a hand. "Hold up — new guy's co-piloting your car?"
Dom's eyes narrowed. "He's the only one who knows every wire and circuit inside these things. If something goes wrong, I want the man who built it sitting next to me."
Shepherd didn't gloat. He just nodded, accepting the weight.
Brian clapped him on the back. "Welcome to the deep end."
Han smirked. "About time someone earned their place with torque instead of talk."
Roman sulked theatrically. "Y'all act like I didn't fly a car into a building last year."
"That was three years from now," Tej muttered under his breath, ignoring timeline logic entirely.
Late Night – Final Checks
Long after the others turned in, Shepherd stayed behind, walking the line of cars like a commander inspecting his soldiers. He checked tire pressure, data logs, heat tolerances. He made micro-adjustments no one else would think to make — and wouldn't even notice until they were burning rubber.
Dom approached quietly, holding two beers.
"Shepherd," he said, offering one.
Shepherd accepted.
"Didn't think you'd trust me this fast," he said.
Dom looked him dead in the eye.
"You didn't try to impress anyone. You just worked. That's how Toretto's do it."
They drank in silence for a moment.
"You remind me of my mom," Dom added, softer now. "Quiet strength. Never wasted breath."
"She was the only one I had," Shepherd replied. "She came here when I was a kid. Looking for work. Never made it back."
Dom nodded slowly. "She was good people."
They stood there, two men bound by blood and street grit, forged by different fires — but finally, standing on the same side of the line.
"You ready?" Dom asked.
Shepherd looked down the row of cars, then back toward the map.
"I'm not here to play it safe. I'm here to win."
Dom smiled.
"Then let's take what's ours."