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.

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

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

pinpointed his location based

entrance, which was hardly an ideal

entrance was unknown-they would have to blast through

they were to blast directly above Percival's position, it could easily trigger a secondary collapse, endangering

"Mr. Wolf, can you hold out for

safe extraction, she had to aim to keep the rescue operation

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

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

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

was stern, "Mr. Wolf,

Vivienne bit her lower lip, feeling a surge of emotion as she replied

Vanguard Agency's special squad quickly set charges at

they must blast through

this was a

mine was

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

apart was their precision. Carefully calculated placement allowed control over the blast radius, which was

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

all came down to how you

conditions, and Griffin was anything but certain. "Vivienne," she cautioned, "the 'Morning Glory' is still untested.

moniker Griffin had affectionately bestowed upon the

studied the intricately calculated layout, not a flicker of doubt in her gaze. "Detonate,"

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

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

gave a firm nod, placing all his faith in

that, Griffin

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

finally settled, Leopold peered into the mouth of the mine

his comrades held their breath in

got a hole five feet wide

wave of relief swept over

a collapse, particularly in Weststart City, which

Glory," they could ensure the stability of the mine's interior and break through the blocked

rallied

tools, the Vanguard Agency's special

team to

already crunching

crow's feet crinkled in a mixture of concern

muttered to himself, "your

leaning on his cane, and dialed

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

of the communication officers said, holding out Micah's relentlessly buzzing

it and said, "Turn

"Yes, sir!"

the Ellington family was

Vivienne or Thomas, the

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 said, visibly

grim. "No, Percival must be tied up with

reassuring words, Flynn

to debut as the Ellington family's heir the next

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

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

"Dad, are you sure that's appropriate?

do it. When Percival returns, he can handle the rest. End

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