Chapter 17 — Profile 9:17

In the underground bunker of steel foundry No. 3, the air was thick with the smell of rust and despair. The professional assassin with a faint scar on the corner of his eye slowly walked down the concrete steps, the muzzle of the silencer pointed straight at the middle of Le Nhu Van's forehead. Hoang Minh stood in front of her, his arms spread out helplessly. On the screen of the laptop connected to the server, the data copying progress bar is slowly and painfully inching by percentage: 87%... 88%...

"Your bravery is commendable, but also stupid," Tung smirked, his index finger began to gently squeeze the trigger. "Lawyer Vu told me to handle this matter very cleanly. Leave no traces, leave no witnesses."

Van closed her eyes tightly. She is not afraid of death, but she is not willing to let the "Council" win again. The trillion-dollar secret is lying right on that table, in just a few dozen seconds, it will be exposed to sunlight.

"95%..." Minh's voice whispered, sweat pouring down his forehead.

At that moment, a sharp explosion rang out from above the mouth of the tunnel. It wasn't the sound of Tung's silenced gun, but the deafening roar of an AK-47 firing into the air.

Tung was startled and turned around. From a space filled with the late afternoon light, dozens of black gun muzzles simultaneously pointed down. Major Tran Binh, wearing bulletproof armor, stepped out of the tunnel mouth, his sharp voice echoed throughout the foundry: "It's the police! You guy, put down your weapon! You're completely surrounded!"

Surprise was evident on the assassin's face. He didn't understand how C03 could find an abandoned steel factory in Bien Hoa at such a fast speed. He glanced at Van, recognizing the young girl's challenging half-smile.

"Do you think I would walk into a monster's lair without leaving behind a rescue rope?" Van spoke slowly, her eyes shining. Before leaving T30 Prison to come here, she secretly set up a real-time live location sharing mode for Major Binh's phone number, along with a timed message: "If you stop at a location for more than 30 minutes without calling back, send troops there immediately."

Knowing he had no way back, the instincts of a professional hunting dog made Tung make a cruel decision. He did not aim to shoot at the police, but brandished the gun and pointed it straight at the server and the connected laptop. If he can't escape, he must destroy the evidence.

"Dang! Bang!"

Two gunshots rang out almost at the same time. A bullet from Tung's silencer grazed the edge of the laptop screen, hitting the server's steel shell, causing sparks to fly. But the second bullet, coming from Major Binh's K59, hit Tung's right shoulder blade, knocking him hard into the lead wall behind him.

"Tit...tit..."

The familiar notification sound of the Windows operating system rang out clearly in the basement filled with the smell of gunpowder. The progress bar has reached 100%. "Data copying completed".

Hoang Minh immediately pulled out the portable hard drive and stuffed it tightly into his chest pocket. Meanwhile, special forces soldiers rushed into the basement and crushed the bleeding assassin to the cold concrete floor. interrupt.

Van exhaled, her legs wobbling. The battle at foundry No. 3 ended, but it was the opening shot of a great purge unprecedented in the history of the judiciary.

Data from Do Trong Thang's secret server, after being decoded at C03, created a terrible earthquake throughout the entire political and economic system. "The Council" - the group of hidden tycoons manipulating a series of mega-projects - was finally exposed. A detailed list of their anonymous bank accounts in Switzerland, the Cayman Islands and Singapore was handed over to the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol). The huge flow of dirty money, estimated at tens of thousands of billions of dong, which was prepared to acquire the "Nam Huong Sea Reclamation Project", has been frozen globally.

In just one night, a series of leaders of large corporations and high-ranking officials who were involved in the "New Acceptance Standards" were all ordered arrested. The sky net is spacious and sparse, but difficult to penetrate.

However, when the authorities arrived at Trinh Vu's luxury apartment and Steering Committee office, they only found empty rooms. The Council's "knight" lawyer and professional hunter had disappeared without a trace, as if he had vanished into thin air. He smelled the collapse of the organization from the moment he lost contact with Tung.

Six months after the Great Purge.

Ho Chi Minh City is entering the first days of the dry season with brilliant sunshine. In the large hall of the University of Architecture, a special ceremony is taking place. The atmosphere did not have the gloomy color of criminal trials, but was filled with hope and youth.

Le Nhu Van, in traditional ao dai, stands in front of the microphone on stage. With the compensation amount extracted from the huge recovered assets of Dinh Phat Group, plus the contributions of sponsors after Hoang Minh's article was honored, Van applied for permission to establish the "Le Van Sang Scholarship Fund".

"Today, we are not here to recall the pain of ten years ago," Van spoke warmly, looking down at the hundreds of excellent students sitting below, most of them children of construction worker families in difficult circumstances. "We are here to turn that pain into new strength."

She held up the certificate of establishment of the Scholarship Fund. "My father, engineer Le Van Sang, sacrificed his life to protect the safety of the bridges and works of this city. And the Scholarship Fund named after him will continue that mission. The fund will sponsor all tuition and living expenses for construction and architecture students in difficult circumstances, who commit to bringing professional ethics and integrity as their luggage into life."

The hall burst into thunderous applause. Tears rolled down the cheeks of mothers and wives who lost their family breadwinners in tragic work accidents. From now on, their children will not have to drop out of school, nor will they have to follow the footsteps of poverty and deadlock. A new generation of engineers is being nurtured from the ruins of the collapse.

The ceremony ended in hugs and hugs radiant smiles. Hoang Minh, now reinstated as Head of the Investigative Reporting Department and becoming a symbol of journalistic integrity, walked over and patted Van on the shoulder.

"You did well, Van. Your father would be very proud of you," Minh smiled.

"This is just the beginning, Minh," Van replied, looking out at the deep blue sky outside the window. "New schools and bridges will grow from clean hands."

But amidst the joy of victory, a gentle, rippling feeling still lurked in Van's mind. When she returned to the Scholarship Fund's private office, she discovered on her desk a bouquet of blue Forget-me-not flowers. There was no greeting card, nor the name of the sender.

Van slowly picked up the bouquet of flowers. In the middle of the delicate flower petals, there is a small black USB stick cleverly installed.

She connected the USB to the computer. No encryption, no passwords. Inside there is only a single text file titled: "The sky is not yet clear".

It was an anonymous email sent through a server in Eastern Europe. Even though there was no signature, Van immediately recognized the writer's calm, sharp writing style.

"Hello Van. Congratulations on establishing the Scholarship Fund. You won an excellent game of chess. But don't forget, power is like a stream of water, when this flow is blocked, it will find another way to creep in. The 'Council' in Vietnam has collapsed, but the forces backing it overseas are still intact. They will not easily give up the frozen billions of dollars in assets. Be prepared for the most brutal counterattack on the surface. international legal battle. See you at the appeal court."

Van gritted her teeth, her hand holding the computer mouse turned white. Trinh Vu is still out there, lurking in the shadows, and he has just issued a warning, or rather a new declaration of war. The huge amount of assets that have not yet been released into public funds is becoming a target for competition by powerful international law groups.

Sure enough, that afternoon, the news reported a sensational news: "The bar association representing shell companies in Singapore and Switzerland has just officially filed an appeal with the High People's Court, requesting to annul the first instance judgment and demand compensation for damages for the decision to freeze C03's assets."

The toughest legal battle, deciding the true fate of thousands of billions of dong and the future of this city, has now officially set sail.