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.

give 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

from his location, "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

pinpointed his location based on the coordinates he

was

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

Percival's position, it could easily trigger

Wolf, can you hold

a safe extraction, she had to aim to keep the rescue operation within

waiting for me outside, I

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

the speaker, "Conserve your strength, Percival.

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

one 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

special squad quickly set

they must blast through the

was

explosives in an already unstable mine was akin

and potent than traditional explosives, resembling

their precision. Carefully calculated placement allowed control

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

came down to how you

still in the early stages of development, untested in real-world conditions, and Griffin was anything

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

the intricately calculated layout, not a flicker of doubt in her gaze. "Detonate,"

for another. Once her mind was made up, Vivienne

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

placing all his faith

Griffin

ripped through the air, kicking up a billowing cloud of dust that soared skyward

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

held

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

relief swept

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

of the mine's interior and

in hand, rallied the troops. "Follow my

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

to

were already crunching numbers for the subsequent

crow's feet crinkled in a mixture of

to himself, "your

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

rescue operations would wear anybody out. Only with a

headquarters," one of the communication officers said, holding

it and said,

"Yes, sir!"

the Ellington family was

word from Vivienne or Thomas, the entire family was on

you? We just received those threatening letters with knives, and now

"No, Percival must be tied

reassuring words, Flynn was also

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

event, one that demanded Percival's presence. With

fallout and quell the speculation about Percival and Vivienne's absence.

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

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

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