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.

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

left here, and I found a cave for cover, but I'm not sure how long it will hold. I've got thirty

based

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

the collapse between his location and the entrance was unknown-they would have to blast

it could easily trigger a secondary collapse,

with concern. "Mr. Wolf, can

she had to aim to keep the rescue operation within

waiting for me outside, I

depth when he

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

Wolf,

settling back into stillness, "Vivienne, I love you." Vivienne

Vanguard Agency's special squad quickly set charges at

carve a passage, they must blast through the debris

this was a

mine

Griffin's latest creations, more compact 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, which

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

all came down to how

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

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

a flicker

meant risking Percival's life for another. Once her mind was

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

nod, placing all

Griffin pressed

cloud of dust that soared skyward like fireworks before cascading down like a hail

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

comrades held

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

wave of relief swept over the

excavators could have easily triggered a collapse, particularly in Weststart City, which was already scarred by extensive mining. The risk of a ground

ensure the stability of the mine's interior and break through

hand, rallied

Vanguard Agency's special squad began to

team to haul away

crunching numbers for

His crow's feet

himself, "your

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

anybody out. Only with

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

at it and said, "Turn

"Yes, sir!"

Ellington family

word from Vivienne or Thomas, the entire family

don't think something's happened to Percival, do you? We just received those threatening letters with knives, and now we can't reach either of them. What are we going to do?" Imogen

Percival must be tied up

reassuring words,

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

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

in as acting chairman. We must minimize the fallout and quell the speculation about Percival and Vivienne's absence. If need

you sure that's appropriate? Tomorrow's

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

at Richard. "Richard, I'm