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.

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

"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

pinpointed his location based on the coordinates he

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

the collapse between 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 trigger a secondary

with concern. "Mr. Wolf, can you hold

ensure a safe extraction, she had to aim to keep

you're waiting for me outside, I can hold

depth when

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

stern, "Mr. Wolf, don't speak unless

love you." Vivienne bit her lower lip, feeling a surge of emotion

special squad quickly set charges at the

passage, they must blast through the

was

unstable mine was akin

than traditional explosives, resembling grenades but packing a punch

set them apart was their precision. Carefully calculated placement allowed control

were like a deck of cards-sometimes, a handful could make a minimal impact,

came down to how you

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

moniker Griffin had

a flicker

for another. Once her mind was

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

firm nod, placing all his faith

that, Griffin pressed

air, kicking up a billowing cloud of dust that soared skyward like fireworks before cascading

when the dust finally settled, Leopold peered into the mouth of the mine to

and his comrades held their

triumphant voice, "Vivienne, we've got a hole

wave of relief

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

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

shovel in hand, rallied

special squad began to

another team to haul away the

were already crunching

distance. His crow's feet crinkled in

he muttered to himself, "your

command vehicle, leaning on his cane, and dialed Rivenwood's headquarters to ensure

anybody out. Only with a solid supply

a call from headquarters," one of the communication

it and said, "Turn

"Yes, sir!"

family

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

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

expression was grim. "No, Percival must

his reassuring words, Flynn was also

Percival was slated to debut as the

one that demanded Percival's presence. With no idea of

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? Tomorrow's announcement is crucial. If I take

it. When Percival returns, he can handle the rest.

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