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.

at the satellite feed on her laptop, which was not

temporary shelter within the mine. There's some air left here, and I found a cave for cover, but I'm not sure how long it will hold. I've got thirty percent oxygen left in the

pinpointed his location based on the coordinates he

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

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

directly above Percival's position, it could easily trigger a secondary

brow furrowed with concern. "Mr. Wolf, can you hold out for two

ensure a safe extraction, she had to aim to keep the rescue

voice came through with a chuckle. "If you're waiting for me

mine's depth when he had not yet married his

speaker, "Conserve your strength, Percival.

stern, "Mr. Wolf, don't

I love you." Vivienne bit her lower lip, feeling a surge of emotion as she replied firmly into the headset,

Agency's special squad quickly set charges

passage, they must blast through

this was

an already unstable mine was

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

precision. Carefully calculated placement allowed control over the blast radius,

a minimal impact, and other times, the same

came down to how you played

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

Griffin had affectionately bestowed upon

layout, not a flicker of doubt in

life for another. Once her mind

was in his throat,

nod, placing all

that, Griffin pressed the

rapid succession of ten explosions ripped through the air, kicking up a billowing cloud of dust that soared skyward like fireworks before cascading down like

the dust finally settled, Leopold peered into the

and his comrades held

we've got a hole five feet wide and

wave of relief swept over the

a collapse, particularly in Weststart City, which was already scarred by extensive mining. The risk of a ground collapse was just too

of the mine's interior and break through the

shovel in hand, rallied the troops. "Follow

tools, the Vanguard Agency's special squad began to clear

to haul away

were already crunching numbers for the

His crow's feet crinkled in a

muttered to himself, "your

his way to the command vehicle, leaning on his cane, and

rescue operations would wear anybody out. Only with a solid

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

at it and said,

"Yes, sir!"

Ellington family

no word from Vivienne or Thomas,

something's happened to Percival, do you? We just received those threatening letters with knives, and now we can't reach either

"No, Percival must be

his reassuring words,

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

event, one that demanded Percival's presence. With

minimize the fallout and quell the speculation about Percival and

in hesitation. "Dad, are you sure that's appropriate? Tomorrow's announcement is crucial. If I

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

"Richard, I'm

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