Chapter 6 — Light Streaks Off The Runway

The current map is blue. The old map is red. Both are stamped by Vam Chan airport.

Nghi spread them out on the floor of the storage room because the only table was borrowed by Tong to place the online opening files. Dust clings to the corners of the paper. A green line runs straight from the power cabinet to the W-3 circuit, clean and decisive. The red line goes around the subsidence area, with irregular dots, as if the map maker had to stop many times to look at the ground.

Uyen sat next to him, carefully placing plastic bags on each copy. "The red version has a date eight years ago. The blue version has no date."

“No date is an information.”

“Maybe they forgot to write it down.”

“Maybe. But don't fill in the date yourself.”

Ho Boi Lan brought in a small file box. The outside says "Foundation repair in W area, phase 2". She put down the box and brushed her hands off.

“I found it in an old warehouse,” Lan said. “Stuck behind a drainage ditch record.”

Suspect open. Inside there are photos of the background after the subsidence, a list of materials, a cable replacement quote and a temporary acceptance record. Photo taken when the ground was still muddy, the light pole was clearly tilted. A person stands next to box number 17, holding a ruler. The face was hidden by shadow, but the shape of Nghi's shoulders was recognizable.

Ngo Thanh Vuc.

Uyen softly asked: "Do you want me to go out?"

"Are not."

“Because he is your teacher?”

Looking at the photo. “Because he can explain.”

The abyss was called in the afternoon. He still walks slowly but does not use a cane. His hair is more gray than the time Nghi met him at a colleague's funeral. He looked at the two maps, then didn't ask who found them.

“Have you opened box number 17 yet?” he asked.

“It's open,” Nghi replied.

“The cord has pull marks?”

"Have."

“The box has moisture marks?”

"Have."

Vuc nodded, as if he had heard a familiar story. “So the old map is more correct.”

Uyen looked at him. “Why doesn't the current map have a date?”

Vuc did not answer immediately. He took off his glasses and wiped them with a cloth. I saw his hands shaking a little.

"After repairing the foundation, we moved the cable route to the north to avoid the subsidence area. We cannot replace the entire circuit, so we should use the existing branch. The red map is the construction plan. The green map is the version used for operation."

“Who drew the blue print?” Nghi asked.

“An outsourced engineer.”

“Did you measure the position of the box again?”

“Measured according to temporary landmarks.”

“What temporary milestone?”

Abyss looks towards Lan. “White painted pile near the ditch.”

Lan burst out laughing briefly. “That pile went into the ditch during the following flood season.”

Abyss closed his eyes. "I do not know."

“You didn't come back to check?” Nghi asked.

"I'm in charge of re-running the circuit. There is electricity. The stakes are still visible from the road. We need to open the yard before the peak season."

“You signed the acceptance.”

"I know."

Nghi put the photo down. “He also signed the green map.”

“I signed because it was put into operation.”

“No date, no coordinates, no geometric confirmation.”

Vuc looked at her. “We didn't have measuring equipment like we do now.”

“But there are eyes.”

“The eyes of a person standing on a sinking ground are not enough to measure displacement.”

“So why did you sign?”

The air in the storage room thickened. Uyen stopped writing. Lan looked down at the file box. Vuc does not get angry. He aged noticeably in just a few seconds.

“Because I think the temporary plan will last three months,” he said. "The province has said it will provide funding. Airlines need the airport to operate. Workers need shifts. I think if I don't sign, they will close the airport. If we sign, we will have time to fix it."

“Eight years is the repair time?”

"Are not."

“So what is it?”

“It's eight years of marriages term.”

Nghi turned away. She remembered Vuc once said not to call a temporary connection permanent. He taught her to use the correct name for the device, but signed a temporary system in a way that gave it the real system name.

Tong walked in and listened to the last part. He asked: "Is there any document requesting a complete repair?"

Vuc nodded and pointed to the box. “Price is below the photo.”

Nghi took it out. Replacing the entire circuit and junction box costs more than expected, but not an unimaginable amount. The difficult part is the construction schedule, closing the yard, relocating the cable route and redoing the landmarks.

Read along. “Has this proposal been sent yet?”

“Sent.”

“Who accepts?”

“Planning department.”

“Are you answering?”

“They said they would consider it after the peak season.”

Flip to the end. Vuc's signature in the section confirms that the device can be exploited under supervision.

Nghi asked: "Who is the supervisor?"

Vuc said: "Technical shift leader."

“Has the shift leader written down how to supervise?”

"Are not."

“So what does that mean?”

Glass removal area. “It means we believe we can see a problem before it becomes dangerous.”

Lan gently tapped her hand on the file box. “The land has subsided. The cable reported by pulling. The light is reported by deviation. Only paper does not listen."

Tong did not argue.

Nghi proposed to record Vuc's explanation. He signed without reading it for long. When pen touched paper, Nghi found herself wanting to stop him, just like when she was an apprentice, she wanted to take the toolbox from his hand when he was tired. She did not stop.

Vuc stood up. “Doubtful.”

"Yes."

“Do you think I should stop consulting?”

“I think you should leave all the records behind.”

“Just that?”

“I don't know the rest yet.”

Vuc nodded. “Yes. She is no longer a student who needs clean answers.”

He came out. Uyen looked after. “Do you hate him?”

Nghi placed the red map on the blue map. “I'm trying not to use a simple word for something that lasted eight years.”

“But he signed.”

"Correct."

“And he didn't talk.”

"Correct."

“So do we need to say more?”

Nghi looked at Vuc's signature. “Need. Not to make him a bad person. To know which decision made the temporary thing last longer.”

At the bottom of the file box, Uyen found a page listing the names of people who had received maps. There are three lines torn out. Only the date and recipient's signature remain.

Another page stuck to the bottom of the box read: “Recheck when water level drops.”

There is no test date.

No signature.

Nghi put the paper in a new file bag. The two-color map is no longer a story about someone who drew it wrong. It is the story of a temporary solution that is passed through many hands until no one remembers what they are holding.

Vuc called three people who had participated in the foundation repair. The first person remembers that construction vehicles cannot enter the north side. The second person remembered there was a box raised by a pallet, but was not sure if it was box number 17. The third person said he only received the map to sign and hand over, not to see the scene.

Nghi sat next to him, recording the call time and answer. Vuc does not use the teacher's voice. He asked like someone trying to reassemble a device that had been disassembled for too long.

“Do you keep the photo?” he asked the second person.

“Maybe in the old machine.”

“Can you check?”

“I don't want to get involved.”

Abyss of silence. Nghi said: “We do not ask you to admit your mistakes. We just need to know the photo exists.”

The other person asked: “If the photo shows that we did it wrong?"

“We recorded the correct context and performer. Technical errors need to be corrected; is not a reason to delete data.”

The other person promised to find it. Vuc records the phone number, does not write "agreed to provide" until it is actually received.

After the call, he asked Nghi: "How do you tell them so they will accept?"

“I said limit. No promise to protect them from any consequences.”

“In the past, I often promised.”

“What do you promise?”

“That if we keep the airport running, there will be money to fix it. That my name on the paper will protect the people on the field. That no one wants to cause trouble.”

Nghi asked: "Do you believe it?"

The view of the sunken background image. “I believe it long enough to sign.”

At the old equipment warehouse, Uyen found a box of relays labeled with the year the foundation was repaired. All were expired, but a delivery card showing the W-3 circuit had been removed in two different sections. The blue map does not mention this section.

Uyen brought the card to Nghi. “If two sections were removed, why isn't there a diagram?”

“Because diagrams are drawn for operations, not for history.”

"If history is erased, the next person will not know that the line has been changed."

"Correct."

Vuc heard it and said: "I think whoever takes the shift must read the repair records."

“Not thinking,” Nghi replied. “Must be written down as a handover request.”

Vuc nodded. He was not offended. Perhaps he was tired of defending the old way of doing things.

Tong requested a summary of no more than two pages to send to the province. Nghi wrote, but kept the full appendix. The summary has five parts: observations, data, limitations, risks of continuing, and decisions to be made. She did not put Vuc's name first, nor did she hide his signature in the appendix.

Read along. “You didn't call anyone responsible.”

“Responsibility is divided according to decisions and actions. Do not use one name to close the file.”

“I like the name.”

“The province needs to fix the system.”

Tong underlined a sentence and then rewrote: "Previous decisions have not guaranteed the conditions for updating and checking geometry." That sentence is not easy to read, but it is fairer than calling one person "let it happen".

Doubt accept it back. “This sentence works.”

Tong asked: "What did you think working with me would be like?"

“I thought you would say to open the yard.”

“I also thought I would say that.”

“So what changed?”

Tong looked at the red map. “I have read too many plans that only have goals and lack conditions. When I take responsibility, I see that the missing part lies with others."

Nghi did not say he had changed. She just put the summary in the file.

In the evening, Vuc sent old photos. A worker stands next to a junction box lifted by two wooden pallets. The photo is blurry, but the cable direction is clear. Uyen enlarged, compared to the new mark. Nghi did not use photos to prove how much translation the current box has. She used it to prove that the round plan once existed.

Vuc looked at the caption and asked: "Did you put my name?"

“Yes, in the profiler section.”

“Don't let my name be the one to save the day.”

“No one wrote that down.”

"Don't be like the one who broke it."

Nghi looked at him. “Your name will be accompanied by a signature and background. Readers judge for themselves.”

Area of acceptance.

An electrical circuit can be traced by device. An old decision must be traced through many logs, calls, and places where people once wrote nothing.

Nghi put the photo in the appendix. Box number 17 has not been replaced yet. But for the first time, the team knows where it once stood, who placed it, and why a loop was flattened on paper.