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.

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 rescue plan with

"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 in the

pinpointed his location based on the

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

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

they were to blast directly above Percival's position, it

Wolf, can you

safe extraction, she had to aim to keep the rescue

chuckle. "If you're waiting for me outside,

the mine's depth when he had not

at the speaker, "Conserve your strength, Percival.

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

voice muffled by movement, then settling back into stillness, "Vivienne, I love you." Vivienne bit her lower lip, feeling a surge

quickly

they must blast through the

was a

an already unstable mine was akin

explosives, resembling grenades but packing

calculated placement allowed control over the blast radius, which was

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

all came down to how you played

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

Glory" was the moniker Griffin had affectionately bestowed upon the explosive

studied the intricately calculated layout, not a flicker of doubt in her

for another. Once her mind was made up,

was in his throat, but if Vivienne believed it was possible, that was enough for

nod, placing all his faith in the "Morning

Griffin pressed

rapid succession of ten explosions ripped through the air, kicking up a billowing cloud of dust that soared skyward

settled, Leopold peered into the mouth

held their

came Leopold's triumphant voice, "Vivienne, we've got a

of relief swept

matter. Using heavy machinery like excavators could have easily triggered a collapse, particularly in Weststart

mine's interior and break through the

rallied the

Agency's special squad began to clear the rubble

team to

crunching numbers for the subsequent

crow's feet crinkled in a mixture

to himself, "your daughter is

leaning on his cane,

days of non-stop rescue operations would wear anybody out. Only with

have a call from headquarters," one of the communication officers

it and said, "Turn

"Yes, sir!"

the Ellington family was

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

just received those threatening letters with knives, and now we can't

Percival must be

words, Flynn was also

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

With no idea of his whereabouts, what were they

the sofa, Richard broke the silence. "Flynn, you'll stand in as acting chairman. We must minimize the fallout and

in hesitation. "Dad, are you sure that's

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

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