Hobbs still couldn't figure out why he had been thrown.
Even though he had seen Morin's body and knew that he worked out and was in great physical shape, there was no way a man with a body like Morin's could throw him that far.
He was a two-hundred-pound man!
How could he have been thrown so easily and so far?
"That's more like it," Morin said with a smile. "Alright… come on?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Hobbs threw a straight punch at Morin.
Morin didn't dodge. He threw a straight punch back.
This time, however, Morin had slightly reduced his strength.
The two fists collided, making a dull thud that everyone around could clearly hear. The two arms, which looked completely mismatched in size, ended up with the thicker one shaking noticeably and retreating.
This shows that sometimes, bigger isn't always better. Being compact and solid is what really matters.
"Had enough?" Morin said with a smile, waving his hand. "Goodbye, Agent Hobbs. I wish you the best of luck with your operation, and… never mind."
"You…" Elena still wanted to stop Morin.
"Stop!" Hobbs called out to Elena and his men. He was gasping for breath. "Let's go to the hospital first."
He felt like his hand had been fractured!
After watching Hobbs and his team leave, Morin called Toretto and told him what had happened.
"So, you taught him a lesson?" Toretto laughed.
"Not exactly. If he hadn't made the first move, I wouldn't have fought back, and he wouldn't have gotten hurt. What I did was self-defense," Morin said. "You guys better hurry up, Dom."
"Of course. Once we figure out the situation around the police station vault, we can officially start the plan," Toretto said.
"Alright, but it's best to be careful," Morin said, yawning. "Dom, after this job, you guys should get out of the game. Now that you have a kid, it's time to go back to a normal life."
"I know," Toretto said seriously. "Besides, if everything goes well, we won't need to do these kinds of things anymore!"
Morin didn't comment on that. He knew Toretto's plans were bound to change.
Whether it was because he couldn't sit still or because he had to save his wife Letty, Toretto would definitely not stop. He would, at most, take a break for a while.
...
A few days later.
Morin kept his word and didn't get involved in Toretto's operations… he just provided some equipment and technical support for the modifications.
Can providing equipment and technical support be considered getting involved?
And for Toretto's crew, with Morin's technical support, everything became a lot easier.
They barely had to worry about safety. With the armor of that off-road vehicle, there were probably no weapons in the city that could threaten them, at least for a while.
After all, Toretto and O'Conner's driving skills were also top-notch, and they were the "children of fate" with a protagonist halo.
If they could handle things without his help before, how could anything go wrong now that they had Morin's equipment?
Was he worried about a jinx? Morin wasn't worried at all!
After all, he wasn't participating in the operation.
In short, Morin was treating this trip as a real vacation. He was either partying on his yacht or doing activities like surfing, sailing, or skydiving.
Hobbs had never come to see him again after he was sent to the hospital by Morin that day… The hospital's report said he had a minor fracture that would take at least two or three months to heal.
The fracture resulted in Hobbs's right hand being in a cast, so he couldn't lead any armed operations. The FBI had sent some more people for Hobbs to command.
Elena had suggested using Hobbs's injury report as a reason to force Morin to cooperate with the investigation, and Hobbs was a little tempted at first. However, after he received a phone call, he gave up on that idea.
If he had handled things from the start, taking Morin to the station for questioning, kind of like "shoot first, ask questions later," he wouldn't have had to worry about the aftermath. The FBI would have covered for him.
He would have just gotten a scolding and done some superficial work to get away with it without any real punishment.
But now, he hadn't succeeded, and Morin had made a few calls. Now the problem was serious.
Wealth often means power. A multi-millionaire has some weight, especially a multi-millionaire currently… at least, you must think about whether it's worth it to make a move.
This was especially true since Morin hadn't done anything illegal, at least not anything they could find on the surface.
Fabricating or forcefully framing him might work for small-time thugs, but for a businessman with Morin's status…
Did they want to get sued to death?
The investigator who had suggested it was transferred to a department with no real responsibilities the next day because he had "stepped through the door with his left foot" and his furious superior was in a bad mood.
After receiving a scolding and a warning from his superior, Hobbs had to give up on the idea of bothering Morin again.
Now, even though he knew Morin had to have a connection with Toretto, he could only ignore that lead and focus on using satellite and surveillance to cross-reference facial recognition to try to find their whereabouts.
He had thought about using surveillance and the lack of manpower had been solved since the bureau had sent more people because of his injury. However, that didn't mean he could spare people to monitor Morin…
To monitor someone, you needed a space where you could monitor them!
With all the yacht parties, sailing races, and skydiving, who could afford all that?
His superior had already been furious and in disbelief after Hobbs was beaten and fractured by Morin in a fight. If Hobbs were to ask for more money… would he be trying to get spat on?
Hobbs was a strong man, but he wasn't an idiot!
As for other forms of surveillance… in this day and age, if you wanted to listen in on a cell phone, you first had to be able to get close enough to install the device!
And what kind of conditions would allow someone to get close to Morin?
According to the intelligence Hobbs had, it was either a beautiful woman or a businessman.
Among Hobbs's team, Elena was probably the only one who could be considered a beautiful woman… and she was a woman, and she was only a Rio police assistant who was temporarily brought in to be a guide and translator.
And she had already met Morin.
As for a businessman… what about the clothes? What about the identity? What about the way they speak?
Even though they had intel that Morin was still accepting car repair or modification jobs… did they really think he would pay attention to some random person who just drove up in a beat-up car?
In the end, it all came down to money.
So, no matter what era it was, money was a hard currency. With it, whatever you wanted to do was much easier than without it.
And since his superior had explicitly told Hobbs not to bother Morin, Hobbs, of course, couldn't get any more money from his superior.
That meant if he really wanted to monitor Morin, he would have to pay for it himself.
Hobbs wasn't so stubborn that he would only focus on Morin, especially since he had other ways to complete his mission.
Besides, Morin had also sent him money for his medical bills… but of course, that wasn't the main reason… absolutely not!
~~~~~
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