Chapter 16 — Calls are not allowed to be hung up

The line was still open, the child's steady breathing continued to echo through Dan's headphones, a fragile but steadfast sound, like a thin thread connecting the two ends of the city in the deep night. Dan didn't dare take her eyes off the sound wave screen, nor did she dare relax for even a second, because she knew any moment could be the moment everything changed.

Two forty minutes in the morning. Anh Tuyet sat next to her, her eyes still glued to the screen, her hand tightly holding the phone connected to Vinh who was waiting in silent mode outside the wooden door with rabbit-shaped slippers. Bao Ky sat behind the two of them, no longer holding any documents in his hand, all his attention focused on the sound wave display screen that was flashing small ripples regularly.

During the past five minutes, nothing has changed. The child's breathing remained steady, with the occasional longer breath like a suppressed sigh, but overall the situation seemed more stable than the chaotic moments earlier in the night. Dan began to allow herself hope, however faint, that perhaps this night would pass more smoothly than she thought, that the other man had gone back to sleep and posed no more danger.

That hope, fragile and short-lived, lasted less than a minute.

Suddenly, the sound wave graph jumped up, a noise much louder than the previous small sounds entered the line: a woman's painful moan, heard clearly even though it was muffled as if trying to hold it back, followed immediately by the sound of rapid footsteps, not the light footsteps of a child, but the heavy footsteps of an adult.

Dan's heart was pounding. She heard the child's breathing suddenly speed up, no longer able to maintain the calm rhythm as before, and right after that, a man's voice rang out, not shouting loudly like last time, but low and threatening, so close that Dan felt like he was standing right next to him.

She signaled to Anh Tuyet, a brief gesture enough for her to immediately understand that the situation had changed, then returned to focusing all her senses on the open line, trying to analyze every sound in the chaotic moment that was taking place.

— Who left the light on? Why aren't you sleeping yet, at this hour?

There was no answer from the child, only a short silence full of fear, then the footsteps came closer, each step was like a hammer hitting Dan's chest even though she was not there, could not see anything, could only hear and imagine.

Dan didn't have time to consider anything else. She reached out and grabbed the phone connected to Vinh, quickly switching from text message mode to direct voice call, accepting the risk that the call sound could leak to the other line in a split second.

— Mr. Vinh, knock on the door now! There's a man threatening inside, now, please!

Her voice came out urgently, no longer able to maintain the professional composure she had seen over the past eight years, every layer of professional defense in her collapsed in that moment before the instinctive fear of a person hearing the danger approaching through her own ears, without any more professional filters.

On the other end of the line, the sound of pounding on the door rang out almost immediately, followed by Vinh's voice, loud and majestic, completely different from the careful whisper he had been using all this time. Dan imagined him standing straight in front of the wooden door, one hand banging on the door repeatedly, the other hand already placed on the last treasure of official power he had been given, the regional police badge attached to his chest.

Anh Tuyet, sitting right next to her, automatically switched to dispatch preparation mode, opened the exact location map of the Lam Dien apartment building, quickly typed specific address information into the system, ready for any situation that required immediate deployment of an ambulance without wasting another second of searching.

— Area police here! Open for inspection!

Through both lines at the same time, Dan heard chaos erupt: the footsteps inside the apartment suddenly stopped, something clattered like a chair or small table had been hit in a panic, and the man's voice, now changing from threatening to panicked, shouted an incomprehensible sentence.

— Open the door! — Vinh repeated, his voice still steady even though Dan could imagine that his heart was beating as fast as hers. — I hear unusual noises inside, please open the door immediately!

He emphasized each word, deliberately raising his voice enough for anyone inside the apartment to hear clearly, a familiar tactic of professionals to let the subjects inside know that the presence of the authorities had been confirmed and was no longer something that could be ignored.

There was no response from within. There were only the sounds of hurried footsteps moving, the sound of something being dragged across the floor, and in between it all, the gasp of the child still holding the phone to his ear, now no longer trying to keep quiet, but bursting out in a choked sob.

Dan tightened his grip on the headset, feeling his entire body freeze in that moment, only his ears and heart were still working, recording the chaotic sounds pouring in from two lines at the same time. She had never experienced a moment this tense in her eight years on the job, not even that April night five years ago, because this time, for the first time, she was directly hearing the developments of the situation as it happened, instead of just waiting for news to come later.

— Miss... help me...

That sentence, the first time it had been uttered in full since the first short nine-second call nearly four hours ago, pierced Dan's heart like a needle. All night long, the child only dared to whisper, only dared to type, only dared to breathe softly, never once daring to let his true feelings come out in such a complete voice. It was that extraordinary repression, now bursting into a sob, that made Dan realize more clearly than ever the degree of fear the child had endured for many hours.

— It's me, the police are right outside your door, stay calm, it's almost over. You did very well, you did very well all night.

Dan said those words not only to reassure the child, but also as a way to anchor herself to reality, amidst the chaos of sounds pouring in from the two lines, every word she uttered was carefully chosen by her, even though her heart was beating so fast that it was almost uncontrollable.

Anh Tuyet stood up, one hand on Dan's shoulder, the other holding the internal phone, ready to make emergency contact with the medical support team near the Dong Lam area if the situation inside required immediate medical intervention.

— Dan, have ambulance dispatch information ready. If Vinh confirms that someone is injured, we need to send a car there in a split second, without waiting another second.

Dan nodded, his hand already placed on the keyboard, his eyes still not leaving the sound wave screen where the child's sobs continued to echo, mixed with the pounding of the door and Vinh's loud voice from the other line, creating a chaotic harmony of fear and hope that were simultaneously erupting in the middle of the night.

Bao Ky, without waiting for anyone to ask, automatically opened a direct communication channel with the medical team on duty near the Dong Lam area. His fingers trembled slightly on the keyboard but his movements were still precise in every detail, a testament to the fact that despite his initial doubts, he never let that doubt affect his ability to work professionally when the situation really required it.

— The nearest medical team vehicle is about six minutes away in empty road conditions. — Bao Ky reported quickly, trying to keep his voice steady even though he was clearly as nervous as the rest. — I have put them in a state of readiness to depart as soon as the order is given.

— Very good, Ky. — Anh Tuyet replied, not taking her eyes off her screen, her voice still maintained the familiar certainty even though the situation was tense.

From the line with Vinh, the sound of pounding on the door continued non-stop, each punch was like a countdown hitting the chests of all three people sitting many kilometers away, waiting for a door to open or a decision to be made in the next split second.