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.

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

location based on the coordinates he

was hardly an

of the collapse between his location and the entrance was unknown—they would have to blast

position, it could easily trigger a secondary

concern. “Mr. Wolf, can you hold out

to aim to keep the rescue operation

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

he possibly succumb to the mine’s depth when he

could hardly contain himself, shouting at the speaker, “Conserve

“Okay.”

“Mr. Wolf, don’t speak

one more thing,” Percival said, his voice muffled by movement, then

bit her lower lip, feeling a surge of emotion as

quickly set charges at the mine

passage, they must blast through the debris blocking the

this was

unstable mine

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

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

a handful could make a minimal impact,

came down to how you

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

was the moniker Griffin had affectionately bestowed upon the explosive

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

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

with Leopold, whose heart was in his throat, but if Vivienne believed it was possible, that was enough

all his faith in

that, Griffin pressed

succession of ten explosions ripped through the air, kicking up a billowing cloud of dust that

settled, Leopold peered into the mouth

his comrades held their breath

got a hole five feet

relief

heavy machinery like excavators could have easily triggered a collapse, particularly in Weststart City, which was already scarred by extensive

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

shovel in hand, rallied

tools, the Vanguard Agency’s special squad began to

led another team to haul

and Griffin were already crunching numbers for the

distance. His crow’s feet

to himself,

cane, and dialed Rivenwood’s headquarters to

would wear anybody out. Only with a

of the

and said, “Turn it

“Yes, sir!”

family was in

missing and no word from Vivienne or Thomas, the

threatening letters with knives, and now we can’t reach either of them. What are we

was grim. “No, Percival must be

despite his reassuring words, Flynn was

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

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

stand in as acting chairman. We must minimize the fallout and quell the speculation about Percival and Vivienne’s absence. If need be, tell the world they’re abroad on

are you sure that’s

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

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

Richard took a deep breath, stood up, and returned to his room with his