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.

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 got thirty percent oxygen left in

based on the

entrance, which was hardly an ideal spot. The thinness of the air

the entrance was unknown—they

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

concern. “Mr. Wolf, can

a safe extraction, she had to aim to keep the rescue operation

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

mine’s depth when he had not yet married

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

“Okay.”

“Mr. Wolf, don’t speak unless it’s

by movement, then settling back into stillness,

as she replied firmly into

Agency’s special squad quickly set charges at the

carve a passage, they must blast through the debris blocking the

this was

explosives in an already unstable mine was

compact and potent than traditional explosives, resembling grenades but packing

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

cards—sometimes, a handful could make a minimal impact, and other

to

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

Glory” was the moniker Griffin had affectionately bestowed upon the

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

life for another. Once her mind was made up,

was in his throat, but if Vivienne believed it was possible,

nod, placing all

that, Griffin pressed the

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

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

held their breath in

we’ve got a hole five feet wide and thirty feet

relief swept

particularly in

of the mine’s interior and break through the blocked entrance, saving precious time in the

in hand, rallied the troops. “Follow my

entrenching tools, the Vanguard Agency’s special squad began to clear the rubble at

led another team to haul away

and Griffin were already crunching numbers for the

from a distance. His crow’s feet crinkled

himself, “your

made his way to the command vehicle, leaning on his cane,

wear anybody out. Only with a solid supply chain could they keep the rescue efforts running

the communication officers said, holding out Micah’s

it and said, “Turn

“Yes, sir!”

Ellington family was in

Vivienne or Thomas, the entire

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

was grim. “No, Percival must be tied up with his

words, Flynn was also anxious

Percival was slated to debut as the Ellington family’s

With no idea of

in as acting chairman. We must minimize the fallout and quell the speculation about Percival and Vivienne’s absence. If need be,

in hesitation. “Dad, are you sure that’s

one,” Richard cut in. “You’ll do it. When Percival returns, he

at Richard. “Richard, I’m concerned

for it.” Richard took a deep breath, stood up,