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.

need precise details," Vivienne demanded, staring at the satellite feed on her laptop, which was not entirely accurate.

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 not sure how long it will hold. I've got thirty percent oxygen left

location based on

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

location and the entrance was unknown-they would have to

it could easily trigger a secondary collapse,

with concern. "Mr. Wolf, can you hold

a safe extraction, she had to aim to

you're waiting for me outside, I can hold out for twenty

to the mine's depth when he had not yet married

hardly contain himself, shouting at the speaker, "Conserve

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

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

quickly set charges

a passage, they must blast through the

this was a

mine was akin to dancing

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

control over the blast radius, which was essential

were like a deck of cards-sometimes, a handful could make a minimal impact, and other times, the same number could bring down

down to

real-world conditions, and Griffin was anything but certain. "Vivienne,"

was the moniker Griffin had affectionately bestowed

calculated layout, not a flicker of doubt

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

in his throat, but if Vivienne believed it

nod, placing all his faith

Griffin

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

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

and his comrades held their breath in

a hole five feet wide and

relief swept over the

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

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

shovel in hand, rallied the troops.

special squad began to

to haul away

crunching numbers for the subsequent

from a distance. His crow's feet crinkled in a

he muttered to himself, "your daughter is

cane, and dialed Rivenwood's headquarters

of non-stop rescue operations would wear anybody out. Only with a solid supply chain could they keep the rescue efforts running

a call from headquarters," one of the communication officers

it and

"Yes, sir!"

family was in

or Thomas, the entire family was on

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 to do?"

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

reassuring words, Flynn was

issue was that Percival was slated to debut as the Ellington family's heir the next day, facing shareholders

event, one that demanded Percival's presence. With no idea of his whereabouts, what

chairman. We must minimize the fallout and quell the speculation about Percival and Vivienne's absence. If need be,

you sure that's appropriate? Tomorrow's announcement is crucial.

"You'll do it. When Percival returns, he can handle

looked worriedly at Richard. "Richard, I'm concerned Percival