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.

found a cave for cover, but I’m not sure how long it will hold.

location based

was hardly an ideal spot. The thinness of the air was

was unknown—they would have to blast through bit by bit to reach

blast directly above Percival’s position, it could

concern. “Mr. Wolf, can you

ensure a safe extraction, she had to aim to keep

“If you’re waiting for me outside, I can hold out

possibly succumb to the mine’s depth when he had not

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

“Okay.”

“Mr. Wolf, don’t speak unless

said, his voice muffled by movement,

a surge of emotion as she replied firmly into the headset,

special squad quickly set charges at the

must blast through the

was a

already unstable mine was akin to dancing

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

their precision. Carefully calculated placement allowed control

make a minimal impact, and other times, the same number could

all came down to how you played your

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

Glory” was the moniker Griffin had affectionately bestowed

calculated layout, not a flicker of doubt in her gaze. “Detonate,”

for another. Once her mind was made

glance with Leopold, whose heart was in his throat,

nod, placing all his

Griffin

a billowing cloud of dust that soared skyward like fireworks before cascading down like a hail of

the dust finally settled, Leopold peered into the mouth of the mine to

his comrades held their breath in

a hole five feet wide and

wave of relief swept

a delicate matter. 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 collapse was just

with the “Morning Glory,” they could ensure the stability of the mine’s interior and

hand, rallied the troops.

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

led another team to haul away the

and Griffin were already crunching numbers for

from a distance. His crow’s feet crinkled in

himself, “your

on his cane, and dialed Rivenwood’s headquarters to ensure the

non-stop rescue operations would wear anybody out. Only with

the communication officers said,

it and said, “Turn it

“Yes, sir!”

Ellington family was

Percival missing and no word from Vivienne or Thomas, the

threatening letters with knives, and

Percival must be

despite his reassuring words,

as the Ellington family’s heir the

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

stand in as acting chairman. We must minimize the fallout and quell the speculation about Percival and

lip in hesitation. “Dad, are you sure that’s appropriate? Tomorrow’s announcement

cut in. “You’ll do it. When Percival

worriedly at Richard. “Richard, I’m concerned Percival

that petty. Flynn, make sure you’re prepared for it.” Richard took a