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.

precise details," Vivienne demanded, staring at the satellite feed on her laptop, which was not entirely accurate. She could only devise an effective

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

location based on the

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

was unknown-they would have to blast through bit

it could easily trigger a

furrowed with concern. "Mr. Wolf, can you hold out for two

to aim to keep the rescue operation within a

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

succumb to the mine's depth when he had not

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

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

more thing," Percival said, his voice muffled by movement, then settling back into stillness, "Vivienne, I love you." Vivienne bit her lower lip, feeling a surge of emotion as she replied firmly into the headset, "Percival, I love

squad quickly set charges at

carve a passage, they must blast through the debris

this was

already unstable mine was akin

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

them apart was their precision. Carefully calculated placement allowed control over the blast radius,

cards-sometimes, a handful could make a minimal impact, and other

to how you played

was anything but certain. "Vivienne," she cautioned, "the

had affectionately bestowed upon the

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

risking Percival's life for another. Once her

his throat, but if Vivienne believed it was possible, that

firm nod, placing all

that, Griffin pressed

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

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

comrades held their breath

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

of relief

entrance to the mine was a delicate matter. Using heavy machinery like excavators could have easily triggered a collapse, particularly in Weststart

mine's interior and break through the blocked

shovel in hand, rallied the troops. "Follow my

Vanguard Agency's special squad began to clear the

another team to haul away

were already crunching numbers for the

from a distance. His crow's feet crinkled

muttered to himself, "your

vehicle, leaning on his cane, and dialed Rivenwood's

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

from headquarters," one of the communication officers said, holding out Micah's relentlessly buzzing

and said, "Turn it

"Yes, sir!"

family

Vivienne or Thomas, the entire family was on the

happened to Percival, do you? We just received those threatening letters with knives, and now we can't reach either of them. What

was grim. "No, Percival must be tied up

despite his reassuring words, Flynn was also anxious

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

Percival's presence. With no idea

the sofa, Richard 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 absence. If need be, tell

are you sure that's appropriate?

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

Richard. "Richard, I'm concerned Percival might