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.

at the satellite feed on her laptop, which

a cave for cover, but I'm not sure how long it will hold. I've got thirty percent oxygen

location based on the coordinates

was about 0.6 miles from the mine's entrance, which was hardly an ideal

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

were to blast directly above Percival's position, it could easily

with concern. "Mr. Wolf, can you

aim to keep the rescue operation within

"If you're waiting for me outside, I can

the mine's depth when he had not yet married

could hardly contain himself, shouting at the speaker, "Conserve your strength,

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

stillness, "Vivienne, I love you." Vivienne bit her lower

quickly set charges at

must blast

this was a

mine

than traditional explosives, resembling grenades but packing a

precision. Carefully calculated placement allowed control

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

came down to

untested in real-world conditions, and Griffin was anything but certain. "Vivienne," she cautioned,

Griffin had

a flicker of doubt in

even for a second meant risking Percival's life for another. Once her mind was made up, Vivienne would

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

all his faith

that, Griffin

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

the dust finally settled, Leopold

his comrades held their breath in

a hole five feet

of relief

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. The

of the mine's interior and break through

hand, rallied the troops. "Follow my

Vanguard Agency's special squad began to clear

led another team to haul

and Griffin were already crunching numbers for the

a distance. His crow's feet crinkled in a

himself,

his cane, and dialed Rivenwood's headquarters

wear anybody out. Only with a solid supply chain could they keep the rescue efforts running

the communication officers said, holding out Micah's relentlessly buzzing

at it and

"Yes, sir!"

the Ellington family was in

or Thomas, the

just received those threatening letters with knives, and now we

"No, Percival must be tied up with his

his reassuring words, Flynn was also anxious

slated to debut as the Ellington family's heir the next day, facing shareholders

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

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

that's appropriate? Tomorrow's announcement is crucial. If I take

Richard cut in. "You'll do it. When Percival

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

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