Chapter 9 — End of Line Bus 08

The heavy rain pouring down on the rotten corrugated iron roof of the abandoned factory created a loud, ear-splitting sound, but at this moment, it was a perfect shield. The darkness inside the bus was thick, occasionally torn by pale flashes of lightning from afar.

Lam Huy turned on his phone's flashlight and used his hand to block the light, leaving only a gap that cast a weak streak of light on the pale, wrinkled face of the old man cowering in the corner of the car.

"Drink some water," Tue walked down from the cockpit and gave the old man a half-empty bottle of filtered water. Her hands were still shaking a bit after the recent life-and-death chase.

The old man trembled as he took the bottle of water and gulped it like a traveler thirsty for a long time. Water spilled out of the corner of his mouth, drenching his collar. After drinking, he held his chest and coughed for a long time, his eyes staring blankly at the empty space in front of him.

Huy pulled a chair to sit opposite the old man, keeping a moderate distance so as not to create more pressure.

"What's your name?" Huy asked, his voice was warm but determined. "You know who they are, right?"

The old man swallowed his saliva and licked his dry lips. "I... my name is Tran Van Ba. I'm sixty years old. Before I ran away, I worked as the Captain of the internal security team for Hung Thinh Construction Company - the subcontractor constructing the foundation of the Dai Nam Dong project."

The name Hung Thinh matches what Huy investigated. This is the backyard company of the Bui Thanh Long family.

"Why did the gangsters want to kill you right in the middle of the street?" Huy continued to question. "What secret are you keeping from them?"

Mr. Ba lowered his head, his rough hands clasped tightly together, twisting and crumpling the strap of the backpack on his lap. There was a long, heavy silence. Huy could clearly hear his panting mixed with the sound of torrential rain.

Huy decided to play his trump card. He reached into his chest pocket, took out the sheepskin notebook, and held it up to the glimmering light of his phone's flashlight.

"Did you intentionally leave this notebook under the last seat of this car a week ago?"

Mr. Ba's eyes opened wide in surprise when he saw the notebook. His whole body trembled, half from fear, half from some strange relief.

"You guys... are you undercover police?" He stammered and asked.

"No, I'm an investigative journalist," Huy replied frankly. "Miss Tue, this is the route 08 driver who witnessed the kidnappings in her car. We read the book. We know about the five names that were wiped out. And now, we need to know the whole truth. You are the one who recorded this death list. What role did you play in those disappearances?"

A cloudy tear rolled out from the corner of Mr. Ba's wrinkled eyes. The mass of guilt weighing heavily in his heart seemed to have found a loophole to flow out.

"I don't want to do that... I swear to heaven and earth, I don't want to!" Mr. Ba covered his face and cried. "But they threatened. My wife had a stroke and was bedridden, my son was heavily indebted to gangsters and gangsters. Dai Nam's security director said, if I didn't follow orders, my family would be ruined, my son would have his arms and legs cut off. They paid off all his debt, but in return, they turned me into their henchman, their hunting dog. them."

Tue crossed her arms over her chest and coldly asked: "What did you do?"

Mr. Ba raised his face, his bloodshot eyes filled with regret and melancholy. "My job is to monitor and 'coordinate'. When superiors discover that any workers accidentally hear secrets or see things that should not be seen in the basement area, I will be assigned the task of approaching, threatening or seducing them. If they refuse to accept the silent payment or plan to denounce, their names will be put on the 'black list'. I was the one who had to lure them to deserted bus stops at night, under the pretext of meeting to pay compensation or deliver documents. I have to make sure they get on the last bus, sit in hidden places, and then give the coordinates to the gangsters so they can get on the bus to force them away or kidnap them at the next stop."

The cruel truth exposed made the atmosphere in the car cold. The miserable man in front of Huy is not a cruel mastermind, but just a weak, humble link, forced to assist in the crime. He's a decoy.

"Those five people," Huy growled, trying to control his anger. "They were eliminated, right? What did they do with their bodies? Buried in concrete pillars in the basement like the mafia often does?"

Mr. Ba shook his head vigorously, his face pale. "No. There are no bodies buried in the project's basement. It is too big a risk if the project is inspected later. They killed people, dumped their bodies in abandoned industrial landfills in Binh Duong and Dong Nai, then used chemicals to burn the bodies to ashes. Very clean, doesn't leave any traces. The basement of the Dai Nam Dong project... contains something much worse."

"Black plastic bins?" Tue blurted out and interjected.

Mr. Ba looked at Tue in shock. "How do you know?"

"The wife of one of the victims showed us the photos he took before he disappeared," Huy briefly explained. "What do those plastic containers contain? Why must it be mixed into foundation concrete?"

Mr. Ba let out a deep sigh, the truth was revealed, making him seem to have relieved a thousand-pound burden. "Below the Lot B construction area, the actual geological ground is extremely weak, muddy, and completely unqualified to bear the load of a sixty-story tower according to the design. To completely fix it, it would have been necessary to drive bored piles dozens of meters deeper and use a huge amount of materials. The cost would have increased several times, even bankrupting the project. The investor refused."

He stopped and swallowed. "Instead, they bribed a geological survey company to falsify safety data. But in order to fill underground geological voids in the cheapest way to prevent temporary surface subsidence, they signed secret contracts with chemical companies. Instead of having to spend tons of money to treat dangerous toxic waste according to the process, these companies paid Dai Nam back to secretly 'bury' thousands of plastic barrels containing toxic chemical waste and heavy metals straight into the building's foundation, then poured a thin layer of camouflaged concrete on top."

Huy and Tue exchanged horrified looks. Not only did they build a high-rise building waiting to collapse on soft ground, but they also turned the foundation of a high-end ecological urban area into a huge, oppressive toxic waste landfill. the underground water environment of a large area decades later. An economic and environmental crime of unimaginable scale. Engineer Dinh Trong Quy and the poor workers had to die because they accidentally discovered this terrible secret.

"When engineer Quy was murdered, my conscience could no longer bear the torment. Every night I dreamed of those lifeless faces demanding my life," Mr. Ba choked and cried loudly. "I knew that sooner or later, when the project was completed, those who knew the story like me would be killed to cover up the clues. So I secretly recorded the entire list, time, and location of the disappearances in this notebook, as an indictment for life. I followed the driver Tue for many days, seeing that she was a seemingly tough person, paying attention to abnormalities, so I took the risk of dropping the notebook under the seat, hoping she would pick it up and give it to the police or someone. Dare to expose the truth."

"And tonight? Why are they chasing you so hard?" Huy asked, directing the flashlight at the backpack on the old man's lap.

Mr. Ba quickly unzipped his backpack, tremblingly pulled out something carefully wrapped in many layers of waterproof plastic bags. It is a portable hard drive (removable SSD hard drive).

"They found out I was trying to collect evidence to blackmail or escape," Mr. Ba whispered. "I promptly stole and copied the entire data storage file system of Hung Thinh company's server room. This hard drive contained everything: the original unedited geological report, secretly filmed videos of the process of burying toxic waste under the foundation, shady bank transfer orders, and even audio files of closed meetings of the board of directors directing the destruction of witnesses."

Huy reached out to take the hard drive, but Mr. Ba withdrew his hand and shook his head.

"This is just an empty shell to serve as a distraction. I wouldn't be foolish enough to carry the real thing with me when I run away." He smirked bitterly. "The hard drive is real... I deposited it in a safe place. I bought a bus ticket to escape to my hometown in the Central region early this morning, but when I got to the alley, they were ambushed and blocked my way, so I had to run like crazy to catch the 08 bus."

Mr. Ba groped in his chest pocket, took out a tiny safe key, numbered 104, and gave it to Huy.

"I rented an automatic locker in the VIP waiting room area of Mien Dong bus station. The real hard drive is in a sports bag there. The locker rental contract is only valid until twelve noon tomorrow, then the locker will automatically unlock according to bus station regulations." The old man held Huy's hand tightly, his eyes pleading. "Take it. You're a journalist, you know how to use it. Publish it to the light, expose those evil beasts, as if to atone for part of my guilt. I just ask you two... take me to the nearest police station to surrender, and ask for my life to be protected. I don't want to die like those other people."

Huy held the cold key in his hand, feeling its thousand-pound weight. Meanwhile, Tue slammed her hand on the steering wheel.

"They will search everywhere. Tomorrow morning, Mien Dong bus station will definitely be blocked by their people. Getting that hard drive out of the bus station will be as difficult as heaven."

"Even though it's difficult, we have to do it. If this hard drive falls into their hands, all evidence will be destroyed destroyed forever, and the deaths of the other five people will be plunged into darkness forever," Huy said resolutely, stuffing the key into his pocket, checking the folding knife again. "We will wait here until 4 am. When it's dawn, Ms. Tue, please drive Mr. Ba straight to the headquarters of the City Criminal Police Department, hand it over to a person named Phong, I will call to make arrangements in advance. Do not stop at any local police station."

"What about you?" Tue frowned and looked at Huy.

"I will separate from here and find a way to reach the Eastern bus station as soon as possible to get the hard drive before they can open the locker."

Lightning flashes across the night sky illuminating the investigative journalist's determined face. The final confrontation with the underground power empire of Dai Nam Group has officially begun, and the key to cabinet number 104 is the detonator.