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.

left here, and I found a cave for cover, but I’m not sure how long it will hold. I’ve got thirty percent

based on

was hardly an

unknown—they would have to blast through bit by bit

blast directly above Percival’s position, it could easily trigger a secondary collapse, endangering his

Wolf, can you hold

had to aim to keep the rescue operation

waiting for me outside, I can hold

the mine’s depth when he had

hardly contain himself, shouting at the speaker, “Conserve your strength, Percival. We’re coming to get

“Okay.”

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

thing,” Percival said, his voice muffled by movement, then settling back

of emotion as she replied firmly into the headset,

Agency’s special squad quickly set charges at the

passage, they must

this was a

unstable mine was akin to

potent than traditional explosives, resembling

Carefully calculated placement allowed control over the blast radius, which was

a handful could make a minimal

came down to how you played

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

had affectionately bestowed

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

meant risking Percival’s life for another. Once her mind was

Leopold, whose heart was in his throat,

placing all

Griffin pressed the

cloud of dust that soared skyward like fireworks

finally settled, Leopold peered into

his comrades held their breath

we’ve got a hole five feet

relief

entrance to the mine was 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

“Morning Glory,” they could ensure the stability of the mine’s interior and break through the blocked entrance, saving precious time

hand, rallied the troops. “Follow

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

another team to haul

crunching numbers for

from a distance. His crow’s feet crinkled

himself, “your daughter is

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

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

a call from headquarters,” one of the communication officers

and said, “Turn

“Yes, sir!”

the Ellington family was

from Vivienne or Thomas, the entire family was on the

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

must be tied up

words,

as the Ellington family’s heir

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

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

are you sure that’s appropriate?

having no one,” Richard cut in. “You’ll do it. When Percival returns, he can handle the rest.

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

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