Chapter 8 — Champion Bodyguard of the Female President

On Tuesday morning, Kieu Phat Tower welcomed an important group of guests - representatives of a foreign investment fund to discuss the possibility of strategic cooperation, an opportunity that can help the group overcome the current difficult period. The meeting was held in a large conference room on the forty-fifth floor, with the attendance of almost the entire senior management team.

Bach Nguyen stood quietly in the corner of the room, observing each person coming in and out, following the habit he had practiced for many years - not missing any unusual details, from the way a person walked to the eyes of the tea service staff.

The meeting went smoothly for nearly two hours, Tue Lam showed confidence and deep understanding of the company's financial situation, making the foreign delegation unable to hide a good impression. But just as the meeting was about to end, while everyone was preparing to stand up and shake hands to say goodbye, Bach Nguyen suddenly felt something unusual.

His eyes were fixed on a new tea waiter, whom he had never seen before during his previous meals at the company. This person moved with a strange caution, his hands shook slightly when pouring water, and in particular, his gait had an unnatural stiffness at the hips - a typical sign of someone hiding a weapon on his person.

Bach Nguyen immediately left his position, moved closer to Tue Lam, and whispered softly into her ear. "Something's wrong. Sit still, don't move suddenly."

At that moment, the suspicious waiter suddenly pulled out a handgun with a silencer from his jacket and pointed it straight at Tue Lam sitting at the head of the conference table. The whole meeting room was in a panic, screams rang out from several foreign guests.

But before the attacker could pull the trigger, Bach Nguyen moved at a speed that no one could react to. His body passed through a distance of nearly five meters in just a split second, like a weightless wind. His right hand reached out and grabbed the attacker's wrist, turning it at a decisive angle, causing the gun to fly out of his hand, falling to the floor with a clatter.

The attacker, although surprised, still reacted according to his trained instinct and threw a punch straight at Bach Nguyen's face. But he just slightly tilted his head to avoid it, and at the same time launched an Iron Shadow Fist straight into the opponent's chest, the force was so strong that it caused the attacker to bounce back, hit the glass wall, break and fall to the floor, unconscious on the spot.

The entire incident took place in less than three seconds, so fast that most of the people in the room only had time to realize what had happened when everything was over. Silence filled the room, with only the gasps of those who had just experienced a terrifying moment.

"Is everyone okay?" Bach Nguyen brushed his sleeves, his voice still unusually calm, as if he had just completed a normal training exercise and not just saved the entire meeting room from an assassination.

Tue Lam sat numb in the chair, her heart pounding, her eyes still not leaving the motionless body of the attacker lying on the floor. She had heard Bach Nguyen mention that he was trained in martial arts, but had never personally witnessed his true strength, and the scene just made her both surprised and indescribably reassured.

The company's security team, led by Pham Trung Nghia, rushed into the meeting room immediately afterward, quickly controlled the unconscious attacker and called the police. Pham Trung Nghia looked at Bach Nguyen with eyes that were both surprised and somewhat puzzled.

"Where did you learn martial arts to react so quickly?" His voice tried to sound normal, but his eyes observed Bach Nguyen with unusual attention.

"It's just a lucky reaction in time," Bach Nguyen replied simply, not wanting to reveal anything more about his true origin, although in his heart he had begun to notice the somewhat strange attitude of the head of the security department.

Police arrived at the scene not long later, searched the attacker and confiscated the gun as evidence. Through a preliminary check of the fake identification documents that this person brought, the police determined that he used a fake identity to bypass the security check of the event organization company, the unit that provided personnel to serve the tea party for that day's meeting.

"We will thoroughly investigate this service provider," the police chief told Tue Lam after completing the initial field work. "But Ms. Lam, I have to say frankly, this was a quite methodically planned assassination, not the spontaneous action of a single individual. You need to be very careful in the near future."

After the police left, the foreign delegation, although somewhat calmed down, asked for permission to leave the company earlier than expected, promising to continue exchanging cooperation agreements through online working channels in the near future. Tue Lam knew that, even if they don't say it directly, today's incident had certainly had a significant impact on the trust of this potential partner.

When the meeting room was empty, leaving only Tue Lam and Bach Nguyen, she really let her emotions express themselves. Her hands were still shaking as she sat down on a nearby chair, trying to breathe steadily to calm herself.

"Thank you." Her hands were still shaking as she smoothed her tangled hair. "If you weren't there..."

"Don't think about that anymore," Bach Nguyen sat down next to her, his voice much gentler than the calm attitude he had just shown to the crowd. "I promised to protect you, and I will always keep that promise, no matter what happens."

Tue Lam looked at him, her eyes filled with gratitude mixed with a sense of security that she had never felt during the past three turbulent months. "But you also see, today's attacker prepared very carefully, he knew exactly when and where I would be present. Someone inside the company is providing him with information."

Bach Nguyen nodded, his face becoming serious. "I think so too. The attacker can't know the detailed schedule of today's meeting on his own without someone inside revealing it. We need to be more cautious, and perhaps, it's time to start paying closer attention to the people around you, including the people you've always trusted."

That sentence made Tue Lam shiver slightly, remembering lawyer Tran Huu Khang's warning a few days ago - "even the people she trusts the most." She looked out the glass window, the city was still bustling as if nothing had happened, but in her heart, a new insecurity had begun to creep in, different from the fear of hidden enemies outside - this was the fear of the possibility of a traitor right in her own home.

That afternoon, Tue Lam convened an emergency meeting with the people she trusted most — Thuy Linh, lawyer Tran Huu Khang, and Bach Nguyen — to discuss a response plan. "We need to tighten security screening procedures for all upcoming events." Her voice was determined without any hesitation. "At the same time, the entire list of personnel with access to my schedule must be reviewed."

"I will have someone review all event service providers to see how they have recruited new personnel recently," lawyer Khang proposed. "But Ms. Lam, I have to repeat, the list of people with access to your schedule is currently not many, probably less than ten people in the entire company."

Bach Nguyen stood quietly listening to the exchange, his eyes scanning each person in the room, trying to remember each person's reaction when mentioning the possibility of an insider. He noticed that Thuy Linh appeared visibly worried, while lawyer Khang maintained his usual calm and professional appearance. Particularly when the name Pham Trung Nghia was mentioned as one of the few people who knew the security schedule, Bach Nguyen noticed that there was a very short silence, almost unnoticeable, before lawyer Khang continued the story.

He remembered that detail in his mind, telling himself that he would need to observe the security chief's actions more closely in the coming days, and at the same time not rule out any possibilities, including the seemingly most trustworthy people in Tue Lam's close circle.

News of the failed assassination attempt at Kieu Phat Tower quickly spread, although the company tried to control information to a minimum. But one thing could not be hidden - the image of the mysterious bodyguard with extraordinary martial arts moves caught the lens of a few staff present at the scene, and within just a few hours, short videos recording that moment began to quietly spread on social networks, opening the door to a storm of public opinion that neither Tue Lam nor Bach Nguyen anticipated.