Chapter 16 — Swept into the Wave of Love

The semi-finals took place in an unprecedented tense atmosphere, when news of the attack the previous night, although not yet announced in detail to the public, spread smolderingly among the athletes, making everyone on high alert. The tournament security team increased its forces throughout Ghenh Rang beach, but Viet Khoi and Lam Khue both understood clearly that the real mastermind was hiding right in the heart of the organizers, and that superficial security reinforcement could hardly stop someone who already had power and inside information.

The semi-final competition area was moved to a section of beach near Hai Vong cliff, where the wave terrain is more complex, considered the final challenge to select the two best athletes to enter the final. This is also the area where Viet Khoi once warned Lam Khue to be careful, because the underground current around the cliff is notoriously dangerous, causing many accidents for both fishermen and inexperienced tourists.

Early that morning, before the match, Viet Khoi found Lam Khue at the warm-up area, repeating his instructions from the night before. "The waves in this area are much more difficult to read than usual. If you see anything unusual, even if it's just a feeling, you must quit the test immediately, don't try too hard."

"I know," Lam Khue nodded, even though her heart was still filled with panic from last night's attack. "I will be careful."

The judges announced the order of competition, and as usual, camera lenses and thousands of spectators' eyes focused on the athletes entering the water. There was a tense atmosphere all over the beach, partly because of the important nature of the semi-finals, partly because vague rumors about last night's incident were still creeping through the crowd even though they had not been officially confirmed.

Lam Khue played excellently in the first round, achieving high scores and temporarily leading the semi-final rankings. But entering the second round of competition, as soon as she paddled out to the main wave area near the cliff, something unusual happened: the wave that should have taken her smoothly surfing to shore suddenly changed direction violently, pulling her towards the sharp reefs hidden under the water's surface, where the swirling current was unusually strong compared to all previous training sessions.

Standing on the shore observing, Viet Khoi immediately realized something was wrong. The current in that area has never been so strong and unusual, even on the roughest days. He saw Lam Khue trying to control the board to escape the vortex, but to no avail, her body was pulled closer and closer to the sharp rocks, waves continuously came and submerged her under the murky water.

"Lam Khue!" Viet Khoi shouted loudly, without thinking any more, immediately rushed into the water, despite the organizers' ban requiring athletes not competing to stay on the shore. He swam as fast as he could, his muscles tensing against the fiercely swirling water, his eyes never leaving the figure of Lam Khue floating in the middle of the big waves.

The rescue team on the shore also quickly discovered the emergency situation, immediately sent an alarm signal, mobilized the rescue boat to rush out to assist, but the distance from the shore to the rocky outcrop area was quite far, making Viet Khoi the person with the fastest opportunity to reach Lam Khue in this difficult situation.

He swam over just as a big wave pushed Lam Khue under the water's surface. Her surfboard was thrown away, leaving her adrift in the swirling water without any support. Viet Khoi dived down, used all his strength to pull her out of the water, one hand held her tightly, the other tried to swim against the vortex that was trying to pull them both towards the dangerous cliff.

"Hold on to me!" he shouted through the roar of the waves, clearly feeling Lam Khue's weight clutching his shoulders, her body trembling with exhaustion and panic after being submerged many times in a row.

The struggle with the swirling water lasted for what seemed like an eternity, with every passing second a real battle for survival as the two were continuously buffeted by large waves, trying to sink them closer to the sharp, jagged rocks below. Viet Khoi used all his experience of more than twenty years working with the sea, recognized the short silence between two big waves, took advantage of that exact moment to swim across the current instead of swimming directly against the current, gradually bringing both of them out of the most dangerous vortex.

The lifeboat finally approached and pulled them both out of the water in an exhausted state but fortunately narrowly escaped deadly danger. Lam Khue lay on the floor of the boat, coughing loudly from choking on water, but still conscious, eyes wide open to look at Viet Khoi who was breathing heavily next to him, his face full of small scratches from colliding with the reef while struggling to save her.

"Are... are you okay?" she asked, her voice weak but filled with worry.

"I'm fine," he replied, holding her hand tightly, his eyes filled with relief that she was safe. "You're the one who scared the hell out of me. Don't ever make me go through that feeling again."

After being brought to shore, the medical team immediately checked the health status of both. Lam Khue only suffered a few light scratches and exhaustion from choking on water, while Viet Khoi had a few small cuts from hitting the reef but they were not serious. The organizing committee immediately announced the suspension of the semi-finals to investigate the cause of the incident, while a technical team was sent to check the wave area where Lam Khue crashed.

The preliminary test results sent chills down the spines of everyone present: a small artificial current generation system, cleverly disguised under sand and reefs, was secretly installed in the exact area where Lam Khue competed, capable of being activated remotely to create an unusual vortex at the desired time. This is no longer a random incident or simple equipment error, but a carefully calculated murder plot, so sophisticated that it's terrifying.

"Someone intentionally killed me," Lam Khue whispered, her voice trembling when she heard the news from the technical team, her hands clasped Viet Khoi's hand tightly as if looking for a solid support amid the rising panic.

"But they failed," Viet Khoi said, his voice firm, hugging her tightly. "And this failure will be irrefutable evidence to expose the entire conspiracy. We are very close to the truth, so close that person has to risk murder to silence people. That is the clearest sign that we are on the right track."

He looked straight into her eyes, his voice low but full of weight. "From now on, I won't leave your side until everything is over. Not because I think you're weak and need to be protected, but because I can't bear the feeling of almost losing you again."

Lam Khue nodded, although her whole body was still trembling because she had just experienced a near-death moment, but in her eyes, a new fire of determination burned stronger than ever. She would not back down, not after everything her father had endured, and not after she herself had narrowly escaped death at the hands of the man who had harmed her family for the past sixteen years.

Mr. Luong Ba Truc, head of the tournament security committee, was personally present at the scene to supervise the collection of evidence. His face was unusually serious when he saw the artificial current generation system being dismantled from the seabed. "This is an intentional act of endangering human life, no longer just a matter of simply sabotaging equipment," he told his team, his voice sharp. "We must find out who designed and installed this system at all costs."

That evening, the technical team tracked down the serial number of the remote controller attached to the system, compared it with the equipment delivery book, and discovered that the last person to sign was Suong Bach Lam, the young logistics worker that Lam Khue had been keeping an eye on many days ago because of his unusually tense attitude whenever mentioning the storage area. At the same time, the results of comparing security cameras and the assignment schedule also confirmed that Mr. Huynh Ba Thinh, the elderly technical assistant who was on the initial suspect list, was completely unrelated - he just happened to be present at the storage area at the same time frame to do a routine maintenance check according to the assigned schedule, fully confirmed by witnesses. When invited to work, the young girl collapsed almost immediately, her hands trembled and she cried before being able to say a complete sentence.

"I don't want to do this," Suong Bach Lam sobbed to Mr. Luong Ba Truc, with Viet Khoi and Lam Khue standing as witnesses at the request of the security board because they were both directly involved parties. "But Mr. Bon found out about a mistake I had hidden in my job application, and threatened to report me, causing me to lose my job, or even be prosecuted, if I did not follow through. He gave me a drawing of the system, told me to just install it in the right position and keep quiet, he would take care of the rest himself. I didn't know he intended to use it to almost kill someone, I swear I didn't know how dangerous it really was."

Viet Khoi took another step, trying to keep his voice calm even though his mind was frantically piecing together the pieces of the story. "What about Kien Ba Xuyen's leash, and the broken water barrier of the young athlete the other day - was that also you?"

Suong Bach Lam lowered her head, her shoulders shaking. "Mr. Bon forced me to deal with those two people first, people who had nothing to do with Ms. Khue. He said, if only Ms. Khue's game had a problem, people would immediately look straight at her. But if there were a few other people in trouble, everyone would think this was a saboteur randomly targeting the highest performing athletes, no one would be able to track down the real target. There was only one. I installed all three things in the same night, in the exact order he drew them. available on paper."

No one in the room said anything for a moment. Lam Khue clasped her hands tightly on her thighs, unconsciously rubbing her thumb over the familiar scar, realizing she had just heard the cold calculation of a man willing to put three people's lives in danger just to hide a single goal.

Lam Khue looked at the trembling young girl in front of him, the anger that almost burst out suddenly softened into a bitter sympathy. She realized that behind every link in this conspiracy, there were people forced into a position with no choice, like the anonymous technician sixteen years ago that her father had mentioned in the tape. "Are you willing to sign the report, confirming that it was Mr. Lu Khac Bon who forced and directed you to do this?" she asked, her voice calm again.

Suong Bach Lam nodded repeatedly, tears still falling. "I will sign. I want this to end. I don't want to live another day feeling like I helped harm someone else."

Viet Khoi, even though his body was still sore after the struggle with the whirlpool, resolutely stayed by Lam Khue's side throughout the medical team's examination and the security team's testimony, never leaving even half a step. He held her hand tightly throughout that afternoon, a silent affirmation that no matter how sophisticated and cruel the enemy was, she would never have to face it alone again.

News of the incident, although the organizers tried to control it, quickly spread thanks to a few videos that viewers recorded of Viet Khoi rushing into the water to save people. Cao Boi Nghi was one of the first reporters present to ask for an interview, but both refused to provide details, only briefly confirming that there had been a serious technical problem and were waiting for the results of an official investigation from the security department.