Chapter 12 — Mist Peak Rescue Team

Every step that brought Khanh Van closer to the area around Ham Rong area felt as heavy as dragging an invisible block of lead tied to her ankle.

She had been walking alone for about fifteen minutes, keeping her promise to Uncle Tong - only going to a point where she could have an overview of the area, not going near the edge of the cliff. The road in this section is no longer a clear trail, just natural worn traces left by people and wild animals traveling for many years on the rock base, winding between large moss-covered rocks.

The walkie-talkie on her belt squeaked. "Heaven's Gate, this is Team A — Mr. Kien's group. Checked all eight hundred meters of the main trail, no signs yet. Ms. Van, how are you doing?"

She pressed the answer button. "We're approaching the Ham Rong observation area, haven't discovered anything yet. Uncle Tong and Dieu Han are returning to T7 because Dieu Han has a slight injury to her wrist, not serious."

"Dieu Han is injured?" Kien's voice was clearly a bit worried. "Do you need backup?"

"Not yet. I'm fine. Keep going."

She turned off the radio, continued walking, and just a few minutes later, she reached a higher ledge, from which she could see over part of the small valley leading down to Ham Rong abyss, although the fog still obscured most of the distance vision. She stood there, her hands clinging to an overhanging rock, her eyes scanning slowly across every visible space.

Nothing unusual at a distance. But as she lowered her eyes closer, looking along a narrow path that cut across the mountainside just below where she stood—a path that led away from Ham Rong abyss, in a direction she had never noticed in all the times she had deliberately avoided the area over the past two years—a small, unusually bright stain on a low thorny bush caught her eye.

She bent down, squinted her eyes to look more closely, her heart began to beat fast. It was a small piece of fabric, bright orange — the color of a popular windbreaker for trekkers, stuck on a thorny branch, as if someone had passed by in a hurry, not having time to remove the jacket from the bushes blocking the way.

Khanh Van did not hesitate, moving carefully down that small path, never taking her eyes off the piece of fabric until she got close enough to touch it. She gently removed the cloth from the thorn branch, turned it in her hands, carefully examining the material and color.

Bright orange. Just as Vu A Tua described the color of the coat of one of the three missing people.

Her heart pounded, not because of fear this time, but because of a real ray of hope that had just flashed. She looked around more closely, and now that she knew what she was looking for, she began to notice other signs—a patch of trampled dirt indented in the shape of a shoe heel, a small branch broken in a way that could only have been caused by a person passing by, not wind or wild animal.

"There it is," she whispered, her voice shaking with both excitement and tension.

She followed the trail, walking slowly but surely, her eyes constantly scanning both sides of the road so as not to miss any details. This small trail, she realized, did not lead straight to Ham Rong abyss as she initially feared, but turned in another direction, around a lower rocky slope, towards an area that she vaguely remembered had a few natural rock caves - a place the locals called the Da Bat area, because there used to be a colony of bats residing in large rock cavities there.

Khanh Van stopped and immediately pulled out the walkie-talkie, her hands shaking slightly with excitement. "Heaven's Gate, this is Team A! I found traces - a piece of orange jacket fabric, along with footprints leading towards the Da Bat cave area, not towards Ham Rong area as originally predicted!"

Dac Lam's voice rang out immediately, unable to hide his excitement. "Recognize clearly! Determine exact location and coordinates. Kien, can you hear me clearly?"

"Yes!" Kien's voice broke through the radio waves, urgently. "Miss Van, what are the exact coordinates? We'll be there right away."

Khanh Van read the coordinates from the handheld GPS device, her voice was now steady again, completely eliminating the previous trembling to make room for the absolute concentration of a person facing the first real opportunity of the day. "I will continue to follow the trail, reporting continuously. Do not approach the cave area alone if you find it before me — wait for enough people, medical treatment may be needed immediately upon approach."

"Understood," Dac Lam replied. "But Van — don't continue alone. Wait for Kien to join you before going any further."

She looked ahead, where the trail was still clear, leading farther into the thickening mist again—a sign that the weather window was beginning to close. Every minute of waiting now carried a different weight than it had a few hours ago, when they had no clue to follow.

"Got it," she replied, even though inside, the old instinct—the part that had made her recklessly hasten every decision two years ago—was screaming at her to keep going now, not to wait another second.

She stood there, between the two people she used to be and was trying to become, her eyes glued to the traces that were gradually fading in the increasingly thick fog, waiting for Kien's footsteps to come from behind.

While she waited, she used the time to record every trace she found in detail in her notebook — the location of the piece of cloth, the direction of the footprints, the estimated distance between the traces indicating the speed of movement of the missing group. She estimated that, based on the shallow depth and distance of their strides, they probably walked through here in a state of panic, with uneven steps, sometimes almost running.

She also noticed another detail — the footprints were three different sizes, as expected of three people, but one of the three sets of footprints seemed shallower and shorter than the others, as if the person was being helped along or was exerting more effort than usual to keep up. She immediately thought of Bao Anh, of the small cloth bag strapped to her chest, of the possibility that heart disease was silently gnawing away at that woman's strength for many hours.

The sound of rapid footsteps sounded from behind, and just a few seconds later, Kien's figure appeared from the mist, followed by Vu A Tua and Long, all three panting because they had to move quickly to get there in time.

"What did you find?" Kien asked immediately, looking down at the piece of orange fabric Khanh Van still held in her hand.

She showed him the piece of cloth, pointing along the direction of the mark. "Go this way, towards the area with the cave — the villagers call it Da Bat. The footprints show that they moved quickly, and there was one person who seemed weaker than the other two."

Vu A Tua bent down to look closely at the footprints and nodded in confirmation. "That's right, directions to Da Bat cave. If they can find the entrance to the largest cave in that area, at least they have better shelter outside."

"Then let's go now," Kien said, his voice had regained some of its familiar urgency, but this time, he turned to look at Khanh Van before walking, as if waiting for her confirmation instead of deciding on his own like in the morning. "What do you think?"

Khanh Van looked at him for a second, noticed the small but meaningful change in the way he asked, then nodded. "Go. But go together, not separate teams anymore. How far is it from here to Da Doi cave, Mr. Tua?"

"About four hundred meters, but the terrain is complex, with many large rocks interspersed." Tua started walking, leading the way with his familiar walking stick. "We need to be careful, the fog is getting thicker."

The group of four continued to move, faster than before but still maintaining a safe distance between each person, closely following the trail that was leading them closer to the first real hope in a long day of searching.

Khanh Van pressed the radio to report to Dac Lam about the new direction of travel, her voice now carrying a completely different tone than the previous reports - no longer just anxious urgency, but mixed with a growing belief that they were on the right track, that the other three people were still there, waiting to be found before the mist once again closed around this mountain.

"Heaven's Gate clearly recognizes," Dac Lam replied, and in his voice, Khanh Van heard a relief that he did not try to hide. "Be careful, both teams. The second weather front is approaching faster than originally forecast. You have about an hour, maybe less, before visibility drops completely."

One hour. Khanh Van looked at Kien and saw that he was also looking at her. They both didn't need to say out loud what they were both thinking: this was the last window, and there was no time to hesitate any more.