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.

details," Vivienne demanded, staring at the satellite feed on her laptop, which was not entirely accurate. She could only

found a

pinpointed his location based on the coordinates

which was hardly an ideal

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

it

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

a safe extraction, she had to aim to keep the rescue operation

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

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

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

stern, "Mr. Wolf, don't

then settling back into stillness, "Vivienne, I love you." Vivienne bit her lower lip, feeling a surge of emotion as she replied firmly into the headset,

squad quickly set charges

safely carve a passage, they must blast

this was a

mine

more compact and potent than traditional explosives, resembling grenades but packing

allowed control over the blast

a handful could make a minimal impact, and

came down to how you

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

the moniker Griffin had affectionately

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

Percival's life for another. Once her mind

in his throat, but if Vivienne

all his faith in the "Morning

that, Griffin pressed

a billowing cloud of dust that

arms, and when the dust finally settled, Leopold

comrades held

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

of relief swept over

the mine was a delicate matter. Using heavy machinery like excavators could have easily triggered a collapse, particularly in Weststart City, which was already scarred by extensive mining.

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

rallied the troops. "Follow my

Agency's special squad

led another team to haul away

and Griffin were already crunching numbers for the

distance. His crow's feet

himself, "your daughter is

leaning on his cane, and dialed Rivenwood's headquarters

days of non-stop rescue operations would wear anybody out. Only with a solid supply

the communication officers said, holding out Micah's relentlessly

and said, "Turn

"Yes, sir!"

Ellington family

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

you don't think something's happened to Percival, do you? We just received those threatening letters with knives, and now we can't

grim. "No, Percival must be

words, Flynn

as the

With

Richard broke the silence. "Flynn, you'll stand in as acting chairman. We must minimize the fallout and quell the speculation about Percival and Vivienne's absence. If need be, tell the world they're abroad on

bit his lip in hesitation. "Dad, are you sure that's appropriate? Tomorrow's announcement

it. When Percival returns, he can handle the rest. End of

looked worriedly at Richard. "Richard, I'm

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