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.

precise details," Vivienne demanded, staring at the satellite feed on her

left here, and I found a cave for cover, but

based

miles from the mine's entrance, which was hardly an

of the collapse between his location and the entrance was unknown-they would have to blast through bit by bit to reach

it could

Wolf, can you hold out

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

"If you're waiting for me outside,

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

himself, shouting at the speaker, "Conserve

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

by movement, then settling back into stillness, "Vivienne, I love you." Vivienne bit her lower lip, feeling a surge

Agency's special squad quickly set charges at

safely carve a passage, they must blast through

this was

already unstable mine was akin to

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

allowed control over the blast radius, which was

minimal impact, and other times, the

to how you

still in the early stages of development, untested in real-world conditions, and Griffin was anything but certain. "Vivienne,"

the moniker Griffin had affectionately bestowed upon

intricately calculated layout, not a flicker of doubt in her

a second meant risking Percival's life for another. Once her

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

nod, placing all his faith in the

Griffin pressed the

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

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

comrades held their breath in

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

relief swept

a collapse, particularly in Weststart City, which was

ensure the stability of the mine's interior and break through the blocked entrance, saving precious time

shovel in hand, rallied the troops.

Vanguard Agency's special squad began to clear the rubble at the

team to haul away

Griffin were already crunching numbers for the

crow's feet crinkled in a mixture of

himself, "your

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

Only with a solid supply chain could they keep the rescue efforts running

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

it and said, "Turn it

"Yes, sir!"

Ellington family

word from Vivienne or Thomas, the entire family was on

threatening letters with knives, and now we can't reach either of them. What

"No, Percival must be tied up

despite his reassuring words, Flynn

real issue was that Percival was slated to debut as the Ellington

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

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.

"Dad, are you sure that's appropriate? Tomorrow's

"You'll do it. When Percival returns, he can handle the

looked worriedly at Richard. "Richard, I'm concerned

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