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.

reported from his location, “I’m in a temporary shelter within the mine. There’s some air left here, and I found a cave for cover, but I’m not sure how long it will hold. I’ve

based on the coordinates

entrance, which was hardly an ideal spot. The

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

directly above Percival’s position, it could easily trigger a

with concern. “Mr. Wolf, can you

aim to

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

depth when he had not yet married

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

“Okay.”

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

said, his voice muffled by movement, then settling back

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

Agency’s special squad quickly set charges at

a passage, they must blast

this was a

mine was akin to

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

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

were like a deck of cards—sometimes, a handful could make a minimal impact, and other times, the same number could bring

came down to how you

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

Glory” was the moniker Griffin had affectionately bestowed upon

studied the intricately calculated layout, not a flicker

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

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

nod, placing all his faith in

that, Griffin pressed the

through 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

his comrades held their breath in

triumphant voice, “Vivienne, we’ve got a

wave of relief swept over the

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

stability of the mine’s interior and break through the blocked

hand, rallied

Vanguard Agency’s special squad began to clear

another team to haul away

were already crunching numbers

feet crinkled in a mixture of concern

himself, “your daughter is quite

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

anybody out. Only with a

from headquarters,” one of the communication officers

glanced at it and said, “Turn it

“Yes, sir!”

Ellington family was in

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

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

“No, Percival must be tied

despite his reassuring words, Flynn was

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

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

you’ll stand in as acting chairman. We must minimize the fallout

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

in. “You’ll do it. When Percival returns,

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

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