Chapter 14 — Profile 9:17

The city cemetery on a late autumn afternoon was filled with scattered yellow leaves. The sky was overcast, bringing with it a bit of cold wind. Le Nhu Van held a bouquet of white chrysanthemums and walked slowly on the red brick road towards her parents' graves.

She placed the bouquet of flowers on the grave of engineer Le Van Sang, carefully using her hand to wipe off the dust particles on the stone stele engraved with his name. The black and white photo on the tombstone still shows the gentle, upright smile of ten years ago, the smile that always illuminated Van in the darkest days of her life. But today, when faced with that photo, Van felt an indescribable sadness.

"Dad," Van whispered, her fingers caressing the inscription of her father's name. "I thought I had gotten justice for you, father. I stood on the podium to receive the Medal of Courage, listening to people praising your sacrifice. But it was all just a fake tribute from those in power, a bloody drama in which they used you as a front."

Tears began to roll down Van's cheeks. Ten years ago, her father was a pawn sacrificed by Do Trong Thang to protect a billion-dollar project. And ten years later, she accidentally became a pawn in Trinh Vu's hands, manipulated to depose Do Trong Thang, paving the way for a force a hundred times more brutal to invade this city.

"I won't stop," Van bit her lip, drying her tears. Her gaze became cold and steady. "True justice does not lie in arranged sentences, nor in Medals. It must be exchanged for revealing the entire true face of the 'Council'. Father, please give me strength, because the war before me now is not just Trinh Vu alone, but a whole system of dark power."

After leaving the cemetery, Van took a taxi and went straight to Z-30D Prison, where Bui Van Deo was serving a five-year prison sentence. Using her status as a relative of the victim's family, plus some cleverly forged introduction documents prepared by Hoang Minh, Van arranged a short meeting with the former construction captain.

The visiting room is separated by a thick tempered glass panel. Bui Van Deo stepped out, wearing striped prison clothes, his shaved hair clearly showing he was haggard and much older than a few months ago. He picked up the phone and looked at Van with surprised eyes.

"Miss Le... what are you doing here?" Deo asked timidly, his voice hoarse. "The court has already passed the sentence. I'm paying for my crimes, what else do you want from this cripple?"

"Mr. Deo, I didn't come here to blame you," Van looked straight into Deo's eyes, his voice decisive. "I came to ask you about a person. His name is Tung, Security Director of Dinh Phat Group, the person who brought the aluminum briefcase to the bank basement that night. Do you know him?"

Deo shivered when he heard that name mentioned. He glanced at the two prison guards standing guard at the door, then lowered his voice and covered his mouth. "Of course I know him. He is Mr. Thang's most loyal hunting dog. Is there something related to him? The press says he is most wanted."

"Stop pretending, Mr. Deo," Van smirked, pushing a printed photo black and white through the small gap at the bottom of the glass. That was part of the photo she cut out, only zooming in on Tung's face. "You were the construction team leader under Thang ten years ago. You must know the background of the people around Thang. Who is he really?"

Deo stared at the photo, his hands shaking. "Do you really want to know? Once you know, there's nothing you can do. Tung is not a gangster. Before working for Do Trong Thang, he was an international mercenary, operating in the Golden Triangle area. He is a cold-blooded assassin, specializing in cleaning jobs that leave no trace."

"If he was so loyal to Do Trong Thang, why on the night of the fire in Di An did the assassins chasing him miss?" Van suddenly asked a sharp question.

Deo stopped, his eyes opened wide. "What...what did you say?"

"Remember the night in Di An," Van coldly analyzed. "They came in very quickly, equipped with professional silencers. But why did they miss a disabled old man and an unarmed girl at close range? Why did Trinh Vu easily help us escape from such a carefully prepared siege?"

Deo swallowed his saliva, drops of cold sweat began to break out on his forehead. The shock from Van's question hit a vague doubt that he had been hiding in his heart all this time.

"And one more detail," Van continued to add. "The group of assassins robbed the briefcase in the basement of the bank. Do you think that a person like Do Trong Thang would send a group of amateur killers to rush out and crash the car loudly, only to be easily crushed by C03, while Tung - his most professional assassin - was shot and dropped the briefcase so foolishly?"

Deo held his head and mumbled: "What are you trying to say? That everything... is an act?"

"I have evidence that Tung has been working for Trinh Vu since before Thang was arrested," Van concluded, not giving Deo a chance to think of a way out. "They colluded together to overthrow Thang. Tung played the role of a fugitive, but in fact he handed over the original recording tape to Vu, and Vu handed it over to his organization. If you don't tell me the truth about Do Trong Thang's true origin, both you and I will be the next to die when they want to destroy the word."

Panic took over the entire mind of the former construction captain. The old man clung tightly to the glass with both hands, panting. "Thang... Mr. Thang did not come up from scratch on his own. Behind him is the 'Council' - a group of anonymous billionaires specializing in manipulating the financial and real estate markets. Tens of years ago, they chose Thang as their puppet, injecting money for him to found Dinh Phat. But recently, Thang has become arrogant, wanting to personally control the Nam Huong sea reclamation mega-urban project..."

"So they sent Trinh Vu to purge him," Van whispered, completing the dire picture herself.

"That's right," Deo nodded vigorously. "If Vu is really a member of the Council, then you are playing with death, Ms. Le! Stay away from him! They have no humanity!"

Van hung up the phone, stood up and left the visitation room. Deo's statements completely matched the documents she decoded from Vu's USB. She walked outside the prison gate, catching the weak rays of the late afternoon sun. This war is too big, bigger than the imagination of any ordinary people.

At the same time, at the headquarters of the Steering Committee for Restructuring the Acceptance Process in the city center, Trinh Vu was chairing a closed meeting with senior officials of the Department of Planning and Architecture. The content of the meeting revolved around simplifying licensing procedures for a new "key" project.

"As Senior Legal Advisor, I have reviewed the entire process, and found that we are wasting too much time on unnecessary environmental appraisal steps," Vu stood in front of the large projection screen, his tone confident and authoritative. "To ensure the speed of infrastructure development, the Nam Huong sea reclamation urban area project needs to apply a specific mechanism, skipping the steps of independent impact assessment."

Nods of agreement rang out in the meeting room. Vu's power at this time is absolute, reinforced by his reputation as an anti-corruption hero. No one doubts that the justice lawyer is using the anti-corruption mechanism to roll out the red carpet for a super project of giant money laundering organizations, a project that threatens to destroy the entire southern coastal ecosystem.

That evening, while Van was sitting in the office, rearranging the pile of fake bidding documents for the Nam Huong project, the phone on the desk suddenly vibrated. It's a message from Trinh Vu.

"Van, at eight o'clock tonight, can you come to 'The Cliff' restaurant on the rooftop of the Liberty Hotel? I've covered the entire restaurant tonight. We need to have a serious talk about your future at the Steering Committee."

Van looked at the message, a cold breeze running down her spine. "Restaurant included". A completely empty space, with no passersby. For a busy lawyer like Vu, this is not a romantic dinner invitation. This is a purge.

He already knew. Vu discovered that she broke into her personal computer and copied data. The trap has been sprung, and the prey is being invited to enter.

Van smiled slightly, a smile full of bitterness but no less challenging. She opened her desk drawer, took out the USB containing all the decrypted encrypted data, and carefully put it in her bag. She then sent a brief text message to journalist Hoang Minh:

"If you cannot contact me by 10 o'clock tonight, immediately send this attachment to Major Binh at C03, and simultaneously spread it on all your media channels. I will end this war myself."

At eight o'clock in the evening, the Saigon sky lit up with lights. Le Nhu Van pushed the tempered glass door of 'The Cliff' restaurant and entered. The space is luxurious and eerily quiet, with only the melodious jazz music coming from a vinyl record in the corner of the room. Trinh Vu was sitting at a table placed close to the floor-to-ceiling glass window overlooking the entire city, holding a glass of blood-red wine in his hand. He looked up at her, the corner of his lips curled up into a familiar smile - the smile of a hunter watching his prey crawl into a trap.

"You're on time, Van," Vu said, motioning for her to sit in the chair opposite. "Please sit down. Tonight, we have many secrets that we need to turn over to each other."