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.

feed on her laptop, which was not entirely accurate. She could only devise an effective rescue plan with absolute certainty

some air left here, and I found a cave for cover, but I'm not sure how long it will

location based on the coordinates

entrance, which was hardly

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

blast directly above Percival's position, it

Wolf, can you hold out for

to aim to keep the rescue operation within

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

could he possibly succumb to the mine's depth when he

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

Wolf, don't speak unless it's absolutely

muffled by movement, then settling back into stillness, "Vivienne, I love you." Vivienne

Vanguard Agency's special squad quickly set charges at

they must

this was

mine was akin to

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

them apart was their precision. Carefully calculated placement allowed control over

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

down to how you

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

had affectionately bestowed upon the explosive

calculated layout, not a flicker of doubt in

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

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

nod, placing all his faith in the

Griffin pressed

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

dust finally settled, Leopold

held their

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

of relief swept over

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

of the mine's interior and break through the blocked entrance,

rallied the troops.

special squad began

led another team to haul

Griffin were already crunching

His crow's feet

to himself, "your daughter is quite

his cane,

operations would wear anybody out. Only with a

call from headquarters," one of the communication

and said, "Turn it

"Yes, sir!"

Ellington family

word from Vivienne or Thomas, the entire family was

you 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

Percival must be tied up with his own

despite his reassuring words, Flynn

that Percival was slated to debut as the Ellington family's heir the

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

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

are you sure that's appropriate? Tomorrow's announcement is crucial. If I take the

"You'll do it. When Percival returns,

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

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