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.

give me your exact 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

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

based

the mine's entrance, which was hardly an ideal spot. The

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

they were to blast directly above Percival's position, it could easily trigger a secondary collapse, endangering his

"Mr. Wolf, can

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

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

the mine's depth when he had not

could hardly contain himself, shouting at the speaker, "Conserve your strength, Percival. We're coming to

stern, "Mr. Wolf, don't

movement, then settling back into stillness, "Vivienne, I love you." Vivienne bit her lower lip,

Vanguard Agency's special squad quickly set

a passage, they must blast through the debris

this was

mine was akin to

explosives, resembling grenades but

their precision. Carefully calculated placement allowed control

minimal impact,

to how

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

the moniker Griffin had affectionately bestowed upon the

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

Percival's life for another. Once her mind was made up,

in his throat, but if Vivienne believed it was

all his faith in the

that, Griffin

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

arms, and when the dust finally settled, Leopold peered into the mouth of the mine to assess the

his comrades held their

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

relief swept

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

they could ensure the stability of the mine's interior and break through the blocked entrance, saving

hand, rallied the troops. "Follow

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

led another team to haul away

Griffin were already crunching

crow's feet crinkled

himself, "your daughter

on his cane, and dialed Rivenwood's headquarters to ensure

operations would wear anybody out. Only with

the communication officers said, holding out

glanced at it and said,

"Yes, sir!"

family

word from Vivienne or Thomas, the entire family was on the brink of

those threatening letters with knives,

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

his reassuring words, Flynn was also anxious

as the Ellington family's heir the

Percival's presence. With

"Flynn, you'll stand in as acting chairman. We must minimize the fallout and quell the speculation

are you sure that's appropriate?

do it. When Percival

worriedly at Richard. "Richard, I'm concerned

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