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.

air left here, and I found a cave

his location based

the mine’s entrance, which was hardly

location and the entrance was unknown—they would have

position, it could easily trigger a secondary

Wolf, can you hold out

extraction, she had to aim to keep the rescue

came through with a chuckle. “If you’re waiting for

to the mine’s depth when he had not yet married his beloved

at the speaker, “Conserve

“Okay.”

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

muffled by movement, then

lower lip, feeling a surge of emotion as she replied firmly into

quickly set charges at the mine

they must blast through the debris blocking

was

explosives in an already unstable mine was akin to dancing with

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

placement allowed control over the blast radius, which was

minimal impact, and other times, the same number could bring

came down to how you played

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 untested. This is its first

was the moniker Griffin had affectionately bestowed upon the

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

for another. Once her mind was made up, Vivienne

his throat, but if Vivienne believed

a firm nod, placing all

Griffin pressed

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 a hail of

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

comrades held their breath

voice, “Vivienne, we’ve got a hole

wave of relief swept over the

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

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

shovel in hand, rallied the troops.

Agency’s special squad

team to haul away the

were already crunching numbers for the

from a distance. His crow’s feet crinkled

himself, “your daughter is

his way to the command vehicle, leaning on his cane, and dialed Rivenwood’s headquarters to ensure the logistic support was in

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

call from headquarters,” one of the communication officers

glanced at it and said, “Turn

“Yes, sir!”

the Ellington family

Thomas, the entire family was on the brink of

don’t think something’s happened to Percival, do you? We just received those threatening letters with knives, and now we can’t reach either of them.

Percival must be tied

reassuring words, Flynn was

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

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

acting chairman. We must minimize the fallout and quell the speculation about

you sure that’s appropriate?

having no one,” Richard cut in. “You’ll do it. When Percival

“Richard, I’m concerned Percival

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