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.

in a temporary shelter within the mine. There’s some air left here, and I found a cave for cover,

location based on

which was hardly

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

it could easily trigger a secondary collapse,

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

extraction, she had to aim to keep the rescue operation within a

a chuckle. “If you’re waiting for

succumb to the mine’s depth when

shouting at the speaker, “Conserve

“Okay.”

Wolf, don’t speak

his voice muffled by movement, then settling back into stillness, “Vivienne,

feeling a surge of emotion as she replied firmly into the

Vanguard Agency’s special squad quickly set charges at

a passage, they must blast through the debris blocking

this was

in an already unstable mine was akin to

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

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

cards—sometimes, a handful could make a minimal

to

real-world conditions, and Griffin was anything but certain. “Vivienne,” she cautioned, “the ‘Morning Glory’

the moniker Griffin had affectionately

not a flicker of doubt in her

risking Percival’s life for

exchanged a glance with Leopold, whose heart was in his throat, but

gave a firm nod, placing all his faith

Griffin

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

faces with their arms, and when the dust finally settled, Leopold peered into the mouth of the mine to

comrades held their breath in

got a hole five feet wide and thirty

of relief swept

collapse, particularly in Weststart City, which was

they could ensure the stability of the mine’s interior and break through the blocked entrance, saving

hand, rallied the

tools, the Vanguard Agency’s special

to haul away the

and Griffin were already crunching numbers for the subsequent

distance. His crow’s feet crinkled in a mixture of

himself,

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

days of non-stop rescue operations would wear anybody out. Only with a solid supply

one of the communication officers said,

glanced at it and said, “Turn it

“Yes, sir!”

family

missing and no word from Vivienne or Thomas, the entire family was on the brink

you? We just received those threatening letters with knives, and

grim. “No, Percival must be tied up with

despite his reassuring words, Flynn was also anxious

issue was that Percival was slated to debut as the Ellington family’s heir the next day, facing

one that demanded Percival’s presence. With no idea

the silence. “Flynn, you’ll stand in as acting chairman. We must minimize the fallout and quell

“Dad, are you sure that’s appropriate? Tomorrow’s announcement is crucial. If I take the

do it. When Percival returns, he

I’m concerned Percival might take

won’t. He’s not that petty. Flynn, make sure you’re prepared for it.” Richard took