The Million-Dollar Heart

Chapter 490

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.

position and surroundings. I need precise details," Vivienne demanded, staring at the satellite feed on her laptop, which was not entirely accurate. She could only devise an effective rescue plan with absolute certainty of

mine. There's some air left here, and I found a cave for cover, but

location based on the

about 0.6 miles from the mine's entrance, which was

his location and the entrance was unknown-they would have to blast through bit by bit to reach

Percival's position, it could easily trigger a secondary

brow furrowed with concern. "Mr. Wolf, can you hold

she had to aim to

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

possibly succumb to the mine's depth when he had not yet married his beloved

at the speaker, "Conserve your strength, Percival. We're

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

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

they must blast through the debris blocking

was a

unstable mine was akin to

potent than traditional explosives, resembling grenades but packing a punch far

control over the

a minimal impact, and

to how you

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

Glory" was the moniker Griffin had affectionately

studied the intricately calculated layout, not a flicker of doubt in

a second meant risking Percival's life for another. Once her mind was made

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

all his faith in the

that, Griffin pressed the

a billowing cloud of dust that soared skyward like fireworks before cascading down like a hail of

when the dust finally settled, Leopold peered into the mouth of the

his comrades held their breath

a hole five feet

wave of relief

easily triggered a collapse, particularly in

could ensure the stability of the mine's interior and break through the blocked

rallied the troops. "Follow

the Vanguard Agency's special squad began to clear the

team to

crunching numbers

His crow's feet crinkled in a mixture

he muttered to himself, "your daughter is

the command vehicle, leaning on his cane, and

Only with a solid

from headquarters," one of the communication

and said,

"Yes, sir!"

family

or Thomas, the entire family was on

do you? We just received those threatening letters with knives, and now we can't reach either

must be

despite his reassuring words,

slated to debut as the Ellington family's heir the next

that demanded Percival's presence. With no idea of his whereabouts, what were they to

acting chairman. We must minimize the fallout and quell

you sure that's appropriate? Tomorrow's announcement is crucial. If I take the

one," Richard cut in. "You'll do it. When Percival returns, he can

I'm concerned Percival might take this

The Novel will be updated daily. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

Comments ()

0/255