Ethan Tran stepped off the train, the humid air of Hanoi wrapping around him like a thick blanket. It had been years since he last set foot in Vietnam, but this time, he wasn't here for a vacation. He was here to find answers. To find the person who had murdered his family.
With only a faded photograph and a few scribbled notes from an old police report, he had little to go on. The case had gone cold years ago, dismissed as an unsolvable tragedy. But Ethan wasn't willing to let it rest.
His first stop was a tiny guesthouse in Long Biên, far from the bustling Old Quarter. It was cheap, quiet, and most importantly, out of the way. He didn't want anyone knowing he was here—not yet. After checking in, he sat by the window, looking at the city lights reflecting off the Red River. Somewhere in this city, the person responsible for his family's deaths was still out there, living a normal life. And Ethan would find them.
The next morning, he took the first step in his investigation: getting a job. He needed to blend in, to observe, and most importantly, to gain access to the kind of people who might have answers. A friend of his father's, an old man named Mr. Duy, ran a small café near Hoan Kiem Lake.
"You want to work here?" Mr. Duy asked, raising an eyebrow. "I thought you had a future in America."
"I need to be here," Ethan said. "I need to find out the truth."
Mr. Duy sighed, then handed him an apron. "Alright. But be careful, Ethan. Hanoi has its own way of hiding secrets."
As Ethan wiped down tables and served coffee, he listened. Hanoi was a city that never stopped talking—gossip, rumors, half-truths mixed with reality. It wasn't long before he heard whispers about an underground network that dealt in information, secrets that the police had long forgotten.
If there was anyone who knew what had happened to his family, they would be found in the shadows of this city.
And Ethan was ready to step into the darkness.