Chapter 19 — Forest Keeper

The attack on the rescue area quickly became the focus of attention of the entire station and spread throughout the region, as the news spread by word of mouth through neighboring villages. The Provincial Forest Protection Department sent a working group to work in conjunction with the district police, noting that the incident was serious, but what Khue received afterward was not the drastic support she expected.

"Ms. Khue," an officer from the Department, who was assigned to work directly with the station, said during the situation assessment meeting, his tone was unusually cautious, "we recommend that the station suspend individual investigative activities, to avoid causing further danger. This case should be handled by the competent authorities according to proper procedures."

"What do you mean I should stop?" Khue asked, her voice could not hide her frustration. "After the rescue facility was attacked, after I received a direct message threatening me, now you tell me to stop and let the 'process' handle it, when eight years ago, that same 'process' closed my father's accident case in less than a month?"

The Branch officer was somewhat confused by her harsh reaction, glancing at Ma Van Loc as if looking for support, but Loc, now completely on Khue's side, just remained silent, with no intention of helping him calm the situation.

"I understand your frustration," the officer said, his voice softening, "but your personal safety is also something we need to consider. This is a recommendation, not an order, but I hope you think carefully."

After the meeting, Khue sat alone in the office, feeling disappointed and angry. She clearly understood that this was not necessarily a deliberate plot to hinder her — perhaps the officer was literally worried about her safety — but the end result was still a pressure that forced her to falter, right at the moment when she was closest to the truth.

Nguyen found her later, brought a cup of hot tea, and sat down opposite her. "What are you going to do next?"

"I can't stop," Khue replied, her voice determined. "But I also understand, we need to be more cautious. Perhaps it's time to stop relying solely on official district or even provincial channels, and find a way to contact directly with a higher level investigation unit, less likely to be influenced by local relationships."

"Do you know anyone at that level?" Nguyen asked.

Khue shook her head, then suddenly remembered something. "But I remember, when I was in secondary school of forestry, there was an old teacher of mine who later moved to work at a unit specializing in environmental crimes of the Ministry of Public Security. I lost contact with him for many years, but was able to find him again."

"It's a direction worth trying," Nguyen said, his eyes shining with hope. "An independent channel, at the central level, will hardly be influenced by local relationships like Vi Dinh Thuan."

She spent the entire evening looking through old contacts and notebooks from her school days, trying to find a clue to contact her old teacher - Mr. Duong, who once taught her forest ecology, was famous for being strict but always devoted to his students. Finally, through an old classmate who still keeps in touch, she got the current phone number of her teacher, who is now a senior investigation officer at the environmental crimes unit.

On the first call, Mr. Duong was initially surprised to recognize his old student after many years of losing contact, but when he heard Khue briefly explain the situation, his tone immediately turned serious and professional. "You send me all the documents and evidence you have, the more detailed the better. I will review and find ways to support, but you also need to understand that the process of inter-sectoral and inter-provincial coordination will take time and cannot be rushed, otherwise it will alert the target before there is enough basis for action."

That advice, although it did not bring an immediate solution, also gave Khue a new source of hope, another door other than the local official channels, which had proven ineffective and even suspicious.

Immediately after the call, when Khue began preparing documents to send to Mr. Duong, another problem arose within the station, making the situation even more complicated. She discovered that one of the photo files of the illegal timber yard scene, which was saved on the station's shared computer for easy sharing among members, had been deleted for unknown reasons.

She immediately informed Nguyen and May, and all three checked the computer access history. According to the system log, the file was deleted sometime the night before, when only a few people on the station were awake and had access to the shared computer.

"Who was using the computer at that hour?" May asked, her voice tense, immediately realizing the serious meaning of this discovery.

Khue checked more closely, and her heart sank when she realized that one of the names logged in at that time was that of Tung, a young ranger who had just moved to the station about half a year ago, someone she had patrolled with a few times but had never really gotten close to.

"We can't jump to conclusions," Nguyen said, although his voice was also filled with doubt. "Maybe it's just a coincidence, or he accidentally deleted it when cleaning up the device's memory."

"But this is exactly the most important photo file related to the illegal timber yard and truck license plates," Khue said, her voice cold. "Not another random file."

That evening, Khue tried to observe Tung more discreetly, paying attention to the phone calls he received and the times he left the station for unknown reasons. She didn't dare to come to a certain conclusion, but her hunch about an insider in her own team made her feel more insecure than ever - if she couldn't completely trust the colleagues who worked together, ate together, and shared the dangers of work, then who could really be trusted?

She shares this doubt with Loc, who has now become an important ally even though their relationship is still somewhat awkward after what happened. Loc listened, his face pensive.

"I'll keep an eye on Tung more carefully," he said. "But you also need to be careful, don't let your suspicions get out, otherwise if it's really him, he will be even more wary and more difficult to reveal himself."

In the days that followed, the atmosphere in the station became much more tense and stuffy than before. Every conversation is carefully considered, every action carries a new caution. Khue felt tired, not only because of the pressure from the investigation, but also because of the psychological burden of having to live in doubt right in the place she once considered her second family.

There was only one thing that brought her some peace amid those turbulent days - Nguyen's steady, steadfast presence by her side, and Nau's clear, carefree eyes every time he greeted her with familiar chirps, completely unaware of the conspiracies and suspicions surrounding the person who saved her life.

One evening, when Khue was drafting all the documents to send to Mr. Duong by registered post instead of via email because he was worried about being tracked, Nguyen walked in, carrying a small USB.

"I just backed up all important data to a separate hard drive, stored separately, no longer connected to any of the station's computers," he said, handing the USB to her. "If a file on a shared machine can be deleted once, it can be deleted again. We can't let all our hard work be ruined by a single mouse click."

Khue took the USB, a deep gratitude welling up in her heart for Nguyen's thoughtfulness and caution, qualities that she increasingly realized were indispensable in this arduous journey. "Thank you. I don't know how I would have managed without you by my side through all of this."

"You'll still manage, you're always the strongest person I've ever met," Nguyen replied, sitting down next to her, his voice gentle. "But I'm glad I don't have to stand outside and watch her shoulder everything alone."

They sat together until late, reviewing all the documents one last time before sending them out, the small table lamp illuminating two tired but determined faces, in the middle of a ranger station that was no longer a place of absolute peace like before, but still standing steadfastly, like the Thousand Cloud Forest itself that has stood firm through many rainy and sunny seasons, through many ups and downs of time and people.