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.

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

within the mine. There's some air left here, and I found a cave for cover, but I'm not sure

location based

from the mine's entrance, which was hardly

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

position, it could easily trigger a secondary

"Mr. Wolf, can you hold out for two

ensure a safe extraction, she had to aim to

chuckle. "If you're waiting for me outside, I can hold out

to the mine's depth when he had not

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

stern, "Mr. Wolf, don't

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

squad quickly set charges at

must blast through the

this was a

an already unstable mine

than traditional explosives, resembling grenades but packing

calculated placement allowed control over the blast

a handful could make a minimal impact, and other times,

came down to how

was 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

a flicker of doubt in her

for another. Once her mind was made up, Vivienne would

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

firm nod, placing all his faith in the "Morning

Griffin

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

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

and his comrades held their breath in

"Vivienne, we've got a hole five feet wide

of relief

collapse, particularly in Weststart City, which was

could ensure the stability of the mine's interior and

shovel in hand, rallied the troops. "Follow my

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

another team to haul away the

Griffin were already crunching numbers for the subsequent

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

himself, "your daughter is quite

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

rescue operations would wear anybody out. Only with a solid supply chain could they keep

of the communication officers said, holding

glanced at it and said,

"Yes, sir!"

Ellington family was in

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

just received those threatening letters with knives, and now

was grim. "No, Percival must be tied

despite his reassuring words, Flynn was

debut as the Ellington family's heir the next day, facing

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

fallout and quell the speculation about Percival and Vivienne's absence. If need be, tell

sure that's appropriate? Tomorrow's

one," Richard cut in. "You'll do it. When Percival returns, he can handle the rest.

I'm concerned Percival might take this

The Novel will be updated daily. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

Comments ()

0/255