The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

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.

“Mr. Wolf, give me your exact position and surroundings. 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 certainty of Percival’s whereabouts.

I found a cave for cover, but I’m not sure how

location based

the mine’s entrance, which was hardly an ideal spot.

the entrance was unknown—they would have to blast through bit by bit to

it could easily

furrowed with concern. “Mr. Wolf, can

to aim to

a chuckle. “If you’re waiting for me outside, I can hold

mine’s depth

shouting at the speaker, “Conserve your strength, Percival. We’re

“Okay.”

tone was stern, “Mr. Wolf, don’t speak unless it’s absolutely

Percival said, his voice muffled by

of emotion as she replied firmly into the

special squad quickly set charges at the

a passage, they must

was

an already unstable mine was

creations, more compact and potent than traditional explosives, resembling grenades but packing a

precision. Carefully calculated placement allowed control over the blast radius, which was essential for

a minimal impact, and other times,

came down to how you

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

Glory” was the moniker Griffin had affectionately

layout, not a flicker of doubt in her

risking Percival’s life for another. Once her mind was made up, Vivienne would

Leopold, whose heart was in his throat,

all his faith in the “Morning

Griffin

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

finally settled, Leopold peered into the

held their

“Vivienne, we’ve got a hole five feet

of relief swept over

could have easily triggered a collapse, particularly in Weststart City, which was already

could ensure the stability of the mine’s interior and break through the blocked

rallied the troops. “Follow

their entrenching tools, the Vanguard Agency’s special squad began

to

Griffin were already crunching

feet crinkled in a

muttered to himself, “your

command vehicle, leaning on his cane, and dialed Rivenwood’s

wear anybody out. Only with a

of the communication officers said, holding out Micah’s

at it and

“Yes, sir!”

family

or Thomas, the entire family was on

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

grim. “No, Percival must be tied up with his

despite his reassuring words, Flynn was also

as the

was a critical event, one that demanded Percival’s presence. With

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. If need be,

“Dad, are you sure that’s appropriate? Tomorrow’s

one,” Richard cut in. “You’ll do it. When Percival returns,

worriedly at Richard. “Richard, I’m concerned

sure you’re prepared for it.” Richard took a deep breath, stood up, and returned to his room