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 accurate. She could only devise an

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

pinpointed his location based on the coordinates

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

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

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

"Mr. Wolf, can you hold out for two

had to aim to keep the rescue operation

"If you're waiting for

he possibly succumb to the mine's depth when

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

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

said, his voice muffled by movement, then settling back into stillness, "Vivienne, I love you." Vivienne bit

Vanguard Agency's special squad quickly set charges at the

passage, they must blast through the debris

was a

explosives in an already unstable mine was akin

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

their precision. Carefully calculated placement allowed control

of cards-sometimes, a handful could make a minimal impact, and other times, the same number

to how

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

had affectionately

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

for another.

throat, but

placing all his faith

Griffin

succession of ten explosions ripped through the air, kicking up a billowing cloud of dust that soared skyward like fireworks before cascading down like a hail

their faces with their arms, and when the dust finally settled, Leopold peered into

and his comrades held their breath

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

wave of relief swept over the

triggered a collapse, particularly in Weststart City, which was already scarred by extensive mining. The risk of a ground collapse

stability of the mine's interior and break through the blocked entrance, saving precious time

rallied the troops. "Follow

entrenching tools, the Vanguard Agency's special squad began

to haul away the

already crunching numbers for

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

to himself, "your daughter

vehicle, leaning on his cane, and dialed Rivenwood's headquarters to ensure the logistic support was in

operations would wear anybody out. Only with a solid supply chain could they keep

one of the communication officers

glanced at it and said,

"Yes, sir!"

family was in

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

those threatening letters with knives, and now we can't reach either of them.

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

despite his reassuring words, Flynn

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

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

We must minimize the fallout and quell the speculation about Percival and Vivienne's

hesitation. "Dad, are you sure that's appropriate? Tomorrow's announcement is crucial. If

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

Richard. "Richard, I'm