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.

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 absolute

"I'm in a temporary shelter within the mine. There's some air left here, and I found a cave for cover,

his location based on

was hardly an

the entrance was unknown-they would have to blast through bit by bit to reach him

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

Wolf, can you hold

aim to

waiting for me outside, I can hold out for

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

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

stern, "Mr. Wolf, don't

into stillness, "Vivienne, I love you." Vivienne bit her lower lip, feeling a

quickly set

a passage, they must blast through the

this was

in an already unstable mine was akin to dancing

creations, more compact and potent than traditional explosives, resembling grenades but packing a punch far beyond the standard

Carefully calculated placement allowed control over the

minimal

down to how you played

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

Griffin had affectionately bestowed

intricately calculated layout, not a flicker of

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

Leopold, whose heart was in his throat, but if Vivienne believed it was possible, that was enough

nod, placing all his faith in the

Griffin pressed the

succession of ten explosions ripped through the air, kicking up a billowing cloud of dust that soared skyward like fireworks before cascading down like

dust finally settled, Leopold peered into the mouth of

held their breath in

we've got a hole five feet wide and thirty feet

wave of relief

excavators could have easily triggered a collapse, particularly in

mine's interior and break through the blocked

rallied the troops.

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

team to haul

were already crunching numbers for the

distance. His crow's feet crinkled in a mixture of concern

to himself, "your

on his cane, and dialed Rivenwood's headquarters to ensure the logistic support was

with

call from headquarters," one of the communication officers said, holding out

glanced at it and said,

"Yes, sir!"

family

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

those threatening letters with knives, and now we can't reach either of them. What are we going to do?"

grim. "No, Percival must be tied up with

reassuring words, Flynn was

as the

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

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

in hesitation. "Dad, are you sure that's appropriate? Tomorrow's announcement is crucial. If I take the

it.

at Richard. "Richard, I'm concerned

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