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.

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

his location based on the coordinates he

entrance, which was hardly an ideal spot. The thinness

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

were to blast directly above Percival’s position, it could easily trigger a secondary

concern. “Mr. Wolf, can you

to aim to keep the rescue

you’re waiting for me outside, I can

he possibly succumb to the mine’s depth when he had not yet

at the speaker, “Conserve your strength, Percival. We’re

“Okay.”

tone was stern, “Mr. Wolf,

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

feeling a surge of emotion as she replied firmly into

Vanguard Agency’s special squad quickly

passage, they must blast through the debris blocking

was

explosives in an already unstable mine was akin to

latest creations, more compact and potent than traditional explosives, resembling grenades but

set them apart was their precision. Carefully calculated placement allowed control over the blast radius, which was essential for

a handful could make a minimal impact, and other times, the same number could bring down

came down to how you

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

Glory” was the moniker Griffin had affectionately

studied the intricately calculated layout, not a flicker of doubt in

Percival’s life for another. Once her mind was made up, Vivienne would not

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

all his faith in the “Morning

Griffin pressed

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

dust finally settled, Leopold peered into the mouth of the mine

his comrades held their breath in

a hole five feet wide and thirty feet

wave of relief

mine was a delicate matter. Using heavy machinery like excavators could have easily triggered a collapse, particularly in Weststart City, which was

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

rallied the troops.

special squad

led another team to haul away the

and Griffin were already crunching numbers for the subsequent

a distance. His crow’s feet crinkled

himself, “your daughter is quite

on his cane, and dialed

Only with a solid

of the communication officers said,

it and

“Yes, sir!”

family was in

no word from Vivienne or Thomas, the entire family was

think something’s happened to Percival, do you? We just received those threatening letters with knives, and now we

must be tied up with

words, Flynn was also

the Ellington family’s

demanded Percival’s presence. With no idea

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

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

it. When Percival

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

not that petty. Flynn, make sure you’re prepared for it.” Richard took a deep breath, stood up,