The Million-Dollar Heart

Vivienne's icy gaze locked onto Micah across the room, her eyes sharp and piercing with an almost palpable intensity.

Micah remained silent for a few heartbeats before switching off the intercom.

The voice that had been calling his name fell abruptly silent.

"I need to know," Micah's voice cut through the tension. "Do you have a solid plan to extract Percival safely?"

In that instant, an almost spectral aura of authority emanated from Micah, a remnant of the times he had battled through the most harrowing situations.

Thomas and Leopold, standing nearby, were momentarily taken aback.

Micah had been their drill instructor back in the day. Since becoming the deputy director, the formidable presence he once commanded seemed to have diminished. They had all assumed that Micah was past his prime, a paper pusher with graying hair.

But they were wrong. He had merely cloaked his ferocity beneath a guise of geniality, letting the years mellow his exterior.

Vivienne's gaze never wavered from Micah, shadows flickering in her eyes as she spoke with a gravity that brooked no argument, "Percival is the love of my life."

That single declaration held more weight than any promise could.

"He's the love of my life. How could I possibly leave him to face danger alone?"

Hearing Vivienne's resolute and unequivocal statement, Micah turned to issue orders, "Leopold, take Vivienne to the coordinates. Thomas, get to Soren immediately and have him report the mine's internal status!"

"No need," Vivienne interjected, pulling up a satellite map on her tablet. It showed the interior of the mine with a faint red dot marking Percival's location.

Hovering near Vivienne, Thomas voiced his concern, "Ma'am, the air is thin inside the mine. We don't know how much oxygen the captain has left, and we can't reach him."

Vivienne understood the urgency. "Does he have his headset?"

"He does, but we've lost contact. It seems a signal jammer is at play inside. No telling how long he can hold out," Leopold added quickly.

"As long as he has it," Vivienne said, retrieving a device resembling a Bluetooth speaker from Griffin's gearbox and connecting it to a laptop screen.

As soon as she activated it, all the headsets of the Vanguard Agency agents in the vicinity lost their signals.

Even the command vehicle where Micah sat was suddenly bereft of any communication.

"What's going on? Another virus?" Micah asked, bewildered.

"No." Vivienne typed in a sequence of codes, and a prompt appeared on the laptop screen. "Leopold, what's Mr. Wolf's public channel code?"

"0001."

Vivienne entered the code, and a faint sound of breathing immediately came through the speaker.

Everyone was startled, and Micah looked at Vivienne incredulously, at a loss for what had happened.

Vivienne put on a headset and said, "Mr. Wolf, can you hear me?"

After a brief pause, a voice came through, "Vivienne?"

"Holy smokes, it's Percival!" Leopold exclaimed, "Vivienne, you're a miracle worker!"

Micah, too, grasped the principle behind Vivienne's communication with Percival.

She had redirected all communication signals to focus solely on her and Percival's devices, turning the Bluetooth speaker into a targeted signal transmitter.

By inputting Percival's code, she could funnel all communication directly to the disconnected headset.

Micah's look of admiration towards Vivienne deepened.

feed on her laptop, which was not entirely

shelter within the mine. There's some air left here, and I found a cave for cover, but I'm not sure how long it will hold. I've got thirty percent

his location based on the coordinates

was hardly an

between his location and the entrance was unknown-they would

directly above Percival's position, it could easily trigger a secondary collapse, endangering

with concern. "Mr. Wolf,

a safe extraction, she had to aim

voice came through with a chuckle. "If you're waiting for me outside, I can hold out for twenty

depth when he had not yet married his

the speaker, "Conserve your strength, Percival. We're coming to get you."

tone was stern, "Mr. Wolf, don't speak unless it's

more thing," Percival said, his voice muffled by movement, then settling back into stillness, "Vivienne, I love you." Vivienne bit her lower lip, feeling a surge of emotion

special squad quickly set charges at the mine

safely carve a passage, they must blast through

this was

unstable mine was

traditional explosives, resembling grenades but packing a punch far

calculated placement allowed control over the

a minimal impact,

all came down to how you played your

development, untested in real-world conditions, and Griffin was anything but certain. "Vivienne," she cautioned, "the 'Morning Glory' is still untested. This

Griffin had

studied the intricately calculated layout, not a flicker of doubt in her gaze. "Detonate,"

hesitate even for a second meant risking Percival's life for another. Once her mind was made up, Vivienne would

with Leopold, whose heart was in his throat, but if Vivienne believed it was

a firm nod, placing all his faith in the "Morning

that, Griffin pressed the

ten explosions ripped through the air, kicking up a billowing cloud of dust

and when the dust finally settled,

his comrades held their breath

came Leopold's triumphant voice, "Vivienne, we've got a hole five feet wide

wave of relief swept over the

Using heavy machinery like excavators could have easily triggered a collapse, particularly in Weststart City, which was already scarred by extensive mining. The risk of a ground

Glory," they could ensure the stability of the mine's interior and break through the

hand, rallied the troops.

with their entrenching tools, the Vanguard Agency's special squad began to clear

another team to haul away the

Griffin were already crunching numbers for the

distance. His crow's feet crinkled in a mixture of concern

to himself, "your daughter

his cane, and dialed Rivenwood's headquarters to ensure the logistic

of non-stop rescue operations would wear anybody out. Only with

headquarters," one of the communication officers said, holding

it and said,

"Yes, sir!"

the Ellington family was

missing and no word from Vivienne or Thomas, the entire family was on the brink of

think something's happened to Percival, do you? We just received those threatening letters with knives, and now we can't reach either of them. What are we going

expression was grim. "No, Percival must be tied up with his

words,

real issue was that Percival was slated to debut as the Ellington family's

was a critical event, one that demanded Percival's presence. With no idea of his

sofa, Richard broke the silence. "Flynn, you'll stand in as acting chairman. We must minimize the fallout and quell the speculation about Percival and

bit his lip in hesitation. "Dad, are you sure that's

better than having no one," Richard cut in. "You'll do it. When Percival returns, he can handle

at Richard. "Richard, I'm concerned Percival might take this