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.

the satellite feed on her laptop, which was not entirely accurate. She

mine. There's some air left here, and I found a cave for cover, but I'm not

pinpointed his location based on the coordinates he

was hardly

unknown-they

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

"Mr. Wolf,

had to aim to keep the rescue

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

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

"Conserve your

stern, "Mr. Wolf, don't speak

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

Agency's special squad quickly set charges at

a passage, they must blast through

was

in an already unstable mine was akin to

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

Carefully calculated placement allowed control over the

handful could make a minimal impact, and other times, the same

all came down to how you played your

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

Glory" was the moniker Griffin had

not a flicker of doubt

meant risking Percival's life for another.

glance with Leopold, whose heart was in his throat, but if Vivienne believed it was possible, that was enough for

gave a firm nod, placing all his faith in

that, Griffin pressed the

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

finally settled, Leopold

comrades held their breath

we've got a hole five feet wide and thirty feet

wave of relief swept

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

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

in hand, rallied the troops. "Follow my

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

another team to haul

and Griffin were already crunching numbers for the

feet crinkled in a mixture of

to himself, "your daughter

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

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

of the communication officers

at it and said,

"Yes, sir!"

Ellington family was

and no word from Vivienne or Thomas, the

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

must be

despite his reassuring words, Flynn was

as the Ellington family's heir the next day, facing shareholders and

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

acting chairman. We must minimize the fallout and quell the

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

than having no one," Richard cut in. "You'll do it. When

I'm concerned Percival might take this

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