Chapter 10 — A Promise At The Cable Car Station

The sound of banging on the factory door rang out a second time. The iron bar Tu inserted across the handle shook violently. Duy told Mai to take Mr. Khang to a hidden corner behind the rope, while Linh held a flashlight to light the way to the cliff.

“Where is the weight room?” she asked.

Mr. Khang pointed to the wall behind the computer. "Behind the steel plate. There's a side door, but it needs my card and the time code."

“08:40?”

He nodded.

Linh took the sealed plastic card and placed it next to the old reader. The light does not turn on. Duy removed the reader cover and checked the wires.

“Auxiliary power source not connected.”

“If we connect, outsiders will know we are here,” Tu said.

“They already know.”

Duy pulled the wire from the generator and connected it to the two poles according to the diagram. The reader light flashes red. Linh entered at 08:40. The screen reported an error, then displayed a line: “Additional code: date the signer left the room.”

“What day?” Mai asked.

Mr. Khang closed his eyes, trying to remember. “August nineteen. 2009.”

Linh entered 190809. The reader made a clicking sound. A steel plate slid aside, revealing a narrow passage.

Outside the main door, the man called out: "Kang, you can't hide forever."

Mr. Khang trembled. “Don't let them see me.”

Tu held the iron bar and stood close to the door. "You guys go in first. I'll keep them."

“I don't know how many people there are,” Duy said.

“I know this door won't last long.”

Linh looked at Mr. Khang. “Can you go?”

“I will go.”

They entered the steel entrance. Duy went first with the lamp, Linh helped Mr. Khang, Mai followed. Tu stayed behind to lock the door. The narrow path leading down the cliff, the concrete floor is damp, on both sides are faded cable tension measurement lines. On the ceiling hang old mechanical sensors.

“The cable weighing room is used to measure the pulling force before opening the line,” Duy said. “If the data is not met, the cabin cannot run.”

“So why was it abandoned?” Linh asked.

“After the landslide, people replaced the measuring system with electronic devices.”

Mr. Khang breathed heavily. "But the old system has manual records. Those records cannot be edited on the computer."

They arrived at a square room. In the middle is a large scale table covered with cloth, and on the wall hang a measuring scale and a number board. A wooden cabinet is located next to the door, locked with a two-slot mechanism.

Duy took half of his ticket. Linh took the other half. The two pieces of paper match, but do not unlock. Linh remembers different dates, rotating the 2008 piece to the left, the 2009 piece to the right. Splitting mechanism.

Open cabinet.

Inside was a blue tin box, a leather-bound notebook and a cloth bag with an old wax seal. No one touched it right away.

Mr. Khang looked at the box, his voice hoarse: "I locked it that night."

“What night?” Duy asked.

“The night your father was forced to sign a debt agreement.”

“My father is not in the weight room.”

"He was in the hallway. He heard Vinh and the bank people talking."

Linh took the camera. “Can you tell me from the beginning?”

Mr. Khang leaned on the scale. "In 2009, the cable line had a landslide. The backup brake equipment had to be urgently replaced. Vinh received the advance payment, but delivered two sets missing. Mr. Khai found out and refused to sign the completion record. Father Duy also did not sign the debt."

“So who signed?” Duy asked.

"Project manager. But the next morning, the name was changed on the paper. The manager disappeared, Vinh was missing, and your father was asked to sign the final confirmation so the company could receive the insurance money."

“Does my father sign?” Linh asked.

"He signed another page, the page that said the quantity was checked. Didn't know the appendix at the back had been replaced."

Linh looked at the notebook. “The original is here?”

"Part of it. The rest is in the box."

The sound of banging echoed down the steel walkway. Tu called: "Hurry up!"

Duy held the box, but Linh held his wrist. “Not open here.”

"I know."

Mr. Khang grabbed Linh's shirt. "The box contains a copy of the debt receipt and the money receipt. But it's not enough. We have to find the person who witnessed the change of appendix."

“Who is that person?”

"A girl who makes scales. Her name is Hanh."

Mai looked at Linh. “My sister Hanh?”

Mr. Khang nodded. "Her mother works at the station below. Hanh was still young but saw Vinh handing the bag of money to the manager."

The sound of metal breaking above. The factory's main door is about to be broken down.

Tu appeared at the steel entrance, breathing heavily. "There are three people. One has a cutting tool."

Duy closed the cabinet and gave the notebook to Linh. “Tu, I'll go with Mr. Khang and Mai.”

“What about you?”

“I hold the door.”

Linh objected: "No one separates the group."

“If they come in, we lose both the box and the people.”

Tu looked at the box in Duy's hand. “Give me.”

"Are not."

“I know the way out.”

“You can also give it to outsiders.”

Tu gritted his teeth. Mr. Khang said weakly: "Tu did not betray. He once came back to take me out of the weight room."

Duy still didn't give the box. “Let's go together.”

They left the room through the back, but the last door was locked with an iron bolt. Duy used a pry tool, each metallic sound echoed in the tunnel. Above, strangers entered the workshop.

Linh looked at the leather-bound notebook. The first page has cable force measurements, the second page has a torn space. On the edge of the paper was left the words: "Party responsible for transferring..."

“Uncle Khang, who tore this page?”

"I."

"Why?"

"Because I'm afraid. I think if I erase that person's name, the debt won't transfer to Father Duy."

“But it still moves.”

“Because I kept quiet.”

Duy pried open the latch. The back door opens onto a steep stone path down to the ravine. The wind blew in, causing the flashlight to vibrate in Linh's hand.

From inside the workshop, the man shouted: "The box is in the cable weighing room. Block the north entrance!"

Tu pulled Mai away. Duy hugged the box close to his chest. Linh helped Mr. Khang. The group went down a flight of stone steps, behind the sound of footsteps chasing after them.

The road ends at an old suspension bridge across the gully. The railing rope is rotten, and below is fast-flowing water.

“Can't make it,” Mai said.

“Through each person,” Duy replied. “Don't look down.”

Mr. Khang shook his head. “I'll stay.”

“I'll go first,” Linh said. “You are the one who knows the truth.”

They tied a seat belt connected to the handrail cable. Tu went first, trying each board. Mai followed. Linh helped Mr. Khang, while Duy walked last, with his back facing the chase.

The first person appeared at the beginning of the bridge. He didn't step forward, just stood and watched. In his hand was a walkie-talkie with red tape on it.

“Give me the box,” he called. “It won't save your family.”

“Who sent you?” Duy asked.

“The one who paid your father.”

Linh stopped in the middle of the bridge. “My father doesn't accept money.”

“He accepted responsibility.”

“What about Vinh?”

The other person is silent.

That's the clearest answer.

Duy signaled Linh to continue. The bridge shook strongly in the wind. A board bounced off the nail and fell into the crack. Mr. Khang lost his footing, Linh pulled him back. Duy grabbed the rope behind them and used all his strength to hold the bridge.

“Don't stop!” he shouted.

Mai reached the other side first, tying the rope to the stake. Tu pulled Mr. Khang. As soon as Linh set foot on the ground, a small explosion rang out from the bridgehead. The pursuer cut an anchor rope.

The bridge tilted down. Duy is still in the middle.

Linh turned around to step up, but he shouted: "Stay still!"

He held the box with one hand, holding the rope with the other. The board under the foot is broken. His whole body slid down, only the belt remaining with the pile on the other side.

Linh did not listen to orders. She tied the extra rope around her waist, crawled out two steps, and held Duy's wrist. “You don't get to decide alone.”

“You will fall.”

“Then pull me up.”

Tu and Mai pulled the rope together. Duy pushed the box towards Linh, then used his feet to find support. After a few seconds as long as the entire rainy season, they pulled him back to shore.

At the beginning of the bridge, the person wearing a raincoat has disappeared. Only the walkie-talkie fell on the ground.

Duy opened the lid to check the box. The lock is still intact. Mr. Khang looked at it and exhaled:

"Now you know what's in there. But you don't know who needs to be called."

Linh opened the notebook. On the last page, under torn paper, she saw a blurry line:

"The last person to sign is not the last recipient. If you want to correct the debt, you must find a comparison copy at the station below."

During the night, the sound of the cable vibrating came down from the mountainside. The Van Lo route will close before dawn if winds do not decrease. As for the box, after twelve years, it was finally back in the hands of the two people holding the two halves of the ticket.

They took shelter in a rock hole a few dozen meters from the suspension bridge. Tu used a rescue tarpaulin to block the wind, while Mai wiped the blood from Mr. Khang's forehead. Duy checked Linh's belt again and discovered that the buckle was chipped to a piece.

“Are you hurt?” he asked.

"Are not."

“Don't say no without checking.”

Linh reached out to touch her knee. A bloody scratch, not serious. “Me too.”

Duy looked at his wrist, there were only a few red lines from the zipper. He sat down, placed the box between the two of them but did not open it.

Mr. Khang was more alert after drinking water. "In the box there are three copies of paper. A comparison of the number of devices, a debt receipt and a letter from Linh's father. The letter cannot prove who faked it, but it clearly states the name of the last person holding the appendix."

“Vinh?” Duy asked.

“No. Someone else.”

"Who?"

Mr. Khang looked out at the mist. “The person you guys are calling captain.”

Linh looked up. At the upper station, the captain is the person holding the second key to the safe. If Mr. Khang's words are correct, the box is not only related to people who have left the line; it even reaches the person trying to keep the system running until morning.

Tu stood up suddenly. “Are you sure?”

“I saw the signature.”

A long whistle sounded from the station. Duy turned on the walkie-talkie. The captain's voice came, urgently:

"Cabin 17 started automatically. Someone is taking the box to the lower station."

Duy looked at the box in his hand. There cannot be two identical boxes if only one is taken out of the cupboard.

Linh suddenly understood: people at the station above had set up a fake box to create a distraction, while the real thing was hidden in the cable weighing room. But if the cabin is bringing a box down, someone wants everyone to believe the evidence has left the mountain.

“We have to get back to the station,” she said.

Duy nodded. "Go safely this time. Don't run after people you can't see."

Mr. Khang held Linh's hand. “Don't let the box decide for you.”

Linh replied: "We will not let the debt make decisions for us."