Chapter 57 — Shrimp Street Without Name

Nearly a month after the international rescue operation was launched, the news everyone has been waiting for has finally arrived. The lieutenant called Hai Yen early one morning, his voice could not hide the emotion. “We just received confirmation, three of the four victims were successfully rescued last night, and are now on their way home.”

Hai Yen felt choked up, she immediately called to inform Mrs. Tu Loan, who had been waiting for news about her son for five long years. Her voice trembled through the phone, a mixture of crying and uncontrollable laughter.

“My child, is my child coming home soon?” she asked again and again, as if not daring to believe what she had just heard.

“That's right, uncle,” Hai Yen replied, her own voice choked up. "Hung was among the three people rescued. He is on his way home, it may take time to recover from what he went through, but he is alive, and is about to go home."

The call ended in happy cries from both people. Hai Yen hung up the phone, sat quietly for a long time, letting her emotions flow freely, feeling a rare pure happiness amid the arduous journey she had been pursuing for many months.

In the afternoon, she, Kien and the psychological support team organized a small reception at the provincial police headquarters, where the three victims were brought home after a long flight. Hung, much thinner and haggard than the old photos his mother had shown Hai Yen, got out of the car with panic in his eyes, but when he saw his mother running to hug him, both mother and son burst into tears in each other's arms, a scene that made none of the witnesses able to hold back their tears.

“Thank you,” Hung said to Hai Yen after calming down somewhat, his voice still shaking. “I thought I would never go home again.”

“You don't need to thank me,” Hai Yen replied, smiling through her tears. “It was your resilience, and that of everyone who refused to give up hope, that brought you back.”

Amid the joy of the reception, a sadness still silently crept into Hai Yen's heart: the fourth person, whose family is still waiting for news, has not been found in this rescue. The lieutenant explained that the facility where this person was being held had time to move before the rescue force arrived, possibly due to an information leak from inside the line.

“We will continue to search,” he said, his voice filled with determination but unable to hide his concern. "But the fact that the facility was able to move in time shows that somewhere in the network, there are still people who were informed in advance, which may be directly related to what we just discovered about Nguyen Dang Hoai."

That information made Hai Yen worried. If it was true that there was an information leak regarding the fact that they had just identified the mysterious intermediary, it meant that the network still had eyes and ears in unexpected places, and any of their moves might have been watched more closely than they realized.

She immediately called lawyer Hoang to share this concern. “We need to be more careful in sharing information,” lawyer Hoang agreed. “Maybe it's time we limit the number of people who know about the latest discoveries, to only those who absolutely need to. be informed.”

In the evening, after seeing Hung's family off to rest at a small hotel arranged by the authorities to monitor their health in the first few days, Hai Yen sat down with Kien and shared about this new worry.

“I kept thinking, we're getting closer to victory,” she said, her voice low. “But the news about the fourth person made me realize that the other person is still able to react more quickly than we thought. They are still following us, we just don't know how.”

“We will find the fourth person,” Kien said, his voice steady, taking her hand. “And we will find out how they are leaking information. This is just a setback, not a failure.”

Hai Yen nodded, trying to regain her composure after a day full of mixed emotions — extreme joy at seeing the three families reunited, mixed with anxiety about what still lies ahead. She understood that this war, despite achieving important victories, was still far from over, and each step they took could lead to a corresponding reaction from the other side, who was still finding ways to protect their last secrets.

The next morning, Hai Yen decided to personally review the entire list of people who knew about information related to Nguyen Dang Hoai, trying to determine where the leak could have come from. The list is not long: she, Kien, lawyer Hoang, the lieutenant and a few of his direct colleagues in the investigation team, Minh Khang.

She immediately ruled out people she trusted absolutely, but could not help but consider the possibility that the leak occurred at a higher level within the investigation agency itself, where the information could have been reported upward before reaching the direct enforcement team, creating enough time for the news to leak out.

She shared this thought with the lieutenant during the morning call. He was silent for a long moment before responding, his voice heavy. “I also thought about that possibility. This is a sensitive possibility, difficult to investigate because it involves internal authorities. But I promise to report this concern to superiors and suggest tightening information security procedures for sensitive cases like this."

“I don't want to blame any of you,” Hai Yen said quickly, afraid that her words might cause misunderstandings. “I just want to make sure we learn lessons from this time so we don't repeat the same mistake in the future, especially as we get closer to fully identifying Nguyen Dang Hoai.”

“I understand, and I appreciate your candor,” the lieutenant replied. “From now on, I will limit the sharing of sensitive information to only those who absolutely need to know, and will apply stricter security procedures to any activities related to tracking him down.”

At noon, when Hai Yen visited Hung at the hotel where he was being cared for, she noticed that he was somewhat more alert and calm than the previous day, although his eyes still showed fear from what he had gone through. Hung recounted, albeit fragmentarily and with difficulty, a few details about the place where he had been detained, the people in the same situation, and even a name he overheard from the guards - a name that made Hai Yen excited. startled: "Hoai Seo", a nickname that probably refers to Nguyen Dang Hoai, who now seems to not only be a middleman in buying and selling land, but also directly running part of this human trafficking network.

“This detail is very important,” Hai Yen said, taking careful notes, thanking Hung for his courage to share even though he was still in the process of psychological recovery. "You don't need to tell me more if you find it too difficult. We will respect your pace."

“I want to tell,” Hung replied, his voice determined even though he was still shaking. “I want what I know to help someone, the same way someone else helped me get back.”

Leaving the hotel, Hai Yen immediately called to report the nickname "Hoai Seo" to the lieutenant, who confirmed that this was an extremely valuable detail that could help link Nguyen Dang Hoai directly to human trafficking activities, not just stopping at the role of intermediary in buying and selling land as they previously thought.

“If we can fully confirm it, he will face multiple charges at once,” the lieutenant said, his voice serious. “This is no longer just commercial fraud or land manipulation, but human trafficking, one of the most serious crimes under current law.”

On the way home, Hai Yen looked out the car window, the afternoon sunlight dyed yellow the shrimp fields stretching on both sides of the road, a peaceful scene in complete contrast to what she had just learned. She thought of all the people who had passed through the hands of Nguyen Dang Hoai — the shrimp farmers who lost their land, the crew members who were deceived, the victims of human trafficking who were sent to foreign countries — and wondered how many more dark secrets were waiting to be exposed, before the whole truth about this man, and the network behind him, was fully brought to light.