Chapter 16 — Floating Market Without Water

The cooperative's server was empty just as the inspection team arrived.

No power outage. The screen is still bright, the network light is still flashing, but the "M-07" folder only has empty files. The system's input and output logs were deleted from 2:17 a.m. to 3:05 a.m., exactly the time before the tank overflowed.

Mrs. Hanh stood in front of the machine, her face pale.

“I didn't delete it.”

Mrs. Sau asked who had the password. Ms. Hanh, the accountant, the head of the technical department and a factory employee were granted viewing rights. Duy said the factory did not have the right to edit.

An checks the system trash. Nothing. I took a screenshot before the device turned off. Khai removed the secondary hard drive, but the officer asked to seal it.

“If there are no more files, what do we have left?” An's mother asked.

“There are still photos, records and testimony,” An replied.

“Are those deleted?”

An did not answer.

The editor's lawyer came and asked to make a record of the deleted server and keep the device intact. Factory representatives said it could be due to a synchronization error. An independent expert looked at the system log and said the deletion occurred by administrative command, not an error.

“Who has administrative rights?” An asked.

Ms. Hanh gave the list. Last name is Vinh.

Duy looked at the paper, his lips pursed. “Vinh only has maintenance rights.”

“Maintenance includes deleting logs?” the specialist asked.

"I do not know."

Vinh was called. He did not accept deletion. Says the account can be used remotely. He showed his phone the location calendar: time deleted, he was in the tank area after the rain.

“Has anyone seen you?” An asked.

“Rescue team.”

“The phone can be left there.”

Vinh looked at her. "I know."

He didn't get angry. He said the factory told him to clean the server because the system was contaminated with data, but did not tell him to delete it. Duy turned to:

“Who gave the order?”

“Legal department.”

"Name?"

Vinh did not speak.

Khai asked if he kept a paper diary. Vinh took out a wet notebook from his pocket. Some pages are blurred, but now in the tank they are still readable.

“Why not give it sooner?” Khai asked.

Vinh replied: "Because I received extra money to fix the valve."

“What did you fix?”

"I changed the gasket. I know the M-07 door is leaking."

“You know the south branch is muddy?”

"I see mud. I don't know the source."

An asked who used M-07 at 2:17 a.m. Vinh said the access card had a common code, used for both the factory team and the cooperative. That code does not identify the person.

Mrs. Sau bowed her head.

“I asked for a common code so that boat owners can come in to get water when the factory is closed,” she said.

An looked at her. “How many people will you give?”

“Don't remember.”

“That's the loophole.”

"I know."

Everyone was silent at the admission that there was no one to blame.

I wonder if the expert can restore the file. This person said the original data may still be in the unwritten area, but a hard drive copy and time are needed. The factory requests no copying because the server belongs to the management unit.

The lawyer said that if there is a dispute, the equipment must be temporarily kept according to the record.

Duy signed first. He said the factory agreed to seal it, even though it would have stopped operations.

“You're going against where you work,” An said.

“I'm keeping the device so I know what I did.”

“Who do you mean by ‘me’?”

“Factories, cooperatives, pumping stations, all the signers.”

In the evening, An and Ti work at Mr. Nam's factory. They placed three copies of the data on the table, compared the checksum, then realized that the anonymous USB and Ms. Hanh's diary had an overlapping time period. The sender doesn't just get factory data; They took the cooperative book.

Little open one Image files are hidden in empty folders. The file is only named “M-17-old”. Picture taken of the inside of the mud discharge door, there are seven markings on the wall.

“Seven flushes?” An asked.

“Or seven levels.”

Mr. Nam looked at the photo. "This line was recorded by engineer Lam. He did not record it when the tank was empty."

Khai sat by the door. “Father Duy knows.”

An asked: "Will you say no?"

"It wasn't me who said it. The drawing said it."

Outside the factory, a motorbike stopped and left. The next morning, Mr. Nam's backup hard drive disappeared.

There was only a piece of paper left on the table:

“The photo is there, but the map is not.”

An didn't immediately call it a threat. She checked the factory door, mud marks, locks and cameras of the building next door. The camera only recorded one car passing by, no people were seen. Mr. Nam said the hard drive was placed in an unlocked drawer because he thought the workshop was a place where people could come in and get things.

“I've been opening the door for others for too long,” he said.

“It's not your fault if someone takes it.”

“But I know important things shouldn't be left like that.”

Let's review the hard drive snapshot one last time. In the reflection of the metal surface, there was a figure holding a bag. He zoomed in and saw a fish-shaped sticker on the bag. This code matches the factory's shipping unit, but it's unknown who uses it.

Khai said he needed to report data loss. Mr. Nam didn't want to because he was afraid people would search the factory, but in the end he agreed. The officer made a record, clearly stating that the hard drive contained copies of maps and photos and was not the property of a state agency.

“If the data is not official, why bother looking?” the officer asked.

An replied: “Because the official data has been deleted.”

At the cooperative, the server is sealed. The recovery specialist tried to retrieve the data, but the hard drive area had been partially overwritten. The access log only has discrete milestones. Vinh's account appeared at 2:21, after the door opened; Ms. Hanh's account appeared at 2:30; An unnamed administrator account appeared at 2:58 a.m.

“What is an anonymous account?” An asked.

“System account.”

“Who created it?”

“It is impossible to know if the management section is removed.”

Duy stood behind, listening to everything. He said the factory could lend restoration experts, but the cooperative refused to let anyone with related interests enter the machine.

“I'm not going in,” Duy said. “I was just introducing.”

Ms. Sau replied: "Introductions are also recorded in the minutes."

The following days, the market remained partially closed. Clean water is distributed hourly. An's mother used the porridge pot as a broadcasting point; Anyone who comes to receive water must listen to the water sample announcement and testing schedule. She said she doesn't take money, but each person helps register.

An realized her mother was doing what the cooperative had not done enough: turning information into a part of its livelihood.

Vinh signed his statement. He admitted that he logged into the server to copy data, then received orders to delete files that "did not need to be saved". He said the person delivering the order used an internal number, without a signature. When An asked why he did not refuse, Vinh said:

"I need cases. I need money. I think the data is still in the system."

Khai asked: "Did you open M-07?"

"Yes. I opened it to relieve pressure."

“Who said?”

“Operating schedule.”

“Who signed the calendar?”

Vinh shut up.

I won't force you to tell me your name if you don't have the paper yet. She noted that the testimony lacked the person giving the order.

Ti recovered a folder of photos from the old card. There is a photo of Mr. Nam pointing at the side door, a photo of Ms. Sau receiving the documents, a photo of Duy standing by the wharf and a photo of Vinh holding the crank. No single image is sufficient on its own, but all are in the same temporal sequence time.

The editor asked An if he could write “deleted data”. An said the server was partially deleted and the hard drive was taken, but it's unknown who did it.

“You made it difficult to read,” he said.

“The incident is also difficult to read.”

“Readers want names.”

"If the name is not correct, it will be unjust."

At night, Khai found another map in the old boat warehouse. It does not have a south branch, but on the back is written the number of households who used the water. Some of the names are the same as those who are protesting against the closed market.

“They used to get water supply through M-07,” Khai said.

“So they are also beneficiaries.”

“And there can be responsibility.”

An placed the map on the table, next to Ti's photo. Without maps, they still have people who remember, people who measure, and people who have lived in the water.

An brought the piece of paper to the environmental department, but officials said they could not identify the writer. She asked if she could check the type of paper. Not significant, but paper used in factories is also sold on the market.

“Everything can belong to many people,” Khai said.

“So there must be a chain of use.”

They reconstructed the chain: the hard drive at Mr. Nam's factory, the cooperative server, the anonymous USB, Ti's photo, Ms. Hanh's book, Vinh's testimony. Each piece has a deliverer, a time, and a limit.

I mark in red things with unknown sources. He didn't like the red board more than the blue board, but An said it was the most honest part.

Duy asked for a copy of the vehicle's logbook. A shipment of filter bags passed through the gate at 1:58 a.m., but had no destination. The person in charge of transportation told the car to go to the southern warehouse. The southern warehouse is near the side door.

“Can you sign the confirmation?” An asked.

"Have."

“Are you sure?”

“I saw the book.”

Duy said something certain for the first time.

Vinh declared that the admin account was created when the system upgraded, and the password was divided among three teams. One person quits, one person transfers, one person still works. No one changed the old rights.

“Joint accounts are the problem,” the expert said.

“But it's not the evidence who erased it,” An replied.

"Correct."

Ms. Sau requested the factory to support data recovery but was not given the server. The factory agreed to send experts outside to witness. Lawyers request all video recording operations.

Khai found Mr. Nam's backup hard drive in another wooden box, not the one that was lost. It contains the map image but is missing the last file. Mr. Nam said he once copied it to give to someone, but he doesn't remember who.

“I'm becoming a locker that doesn't remember the key,” he said.

An told him not to remember alone. They called people who had seen the drawings and made a list.

One household remembered taking a map with his phone. They sent photos, part of the south branch corner is still there. A former worker sent a photo of the shift board. Each person adds one piece.

Empty servers are no longer the only empty space.

During the night, Ti finds the hidden file name "M-17-old". When opened, the photo shows seven lines of mud in the tank, each with a date. The last line coincides with the support contract date.