The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

The “Destruction Plan” was the ill-fated op that Karen led with the Vanguard Agency’s elite squad, ending in a devastating failure.

After the mission’s collapse, Lark went AWOL, Micah vanished into obscurity, and Vance Edwards went deep undercover while the rest of the special squad was nearly wiped out.

Years later, Lark’s deputy team leader, Daphne, met a mysterious end.

Lark herself ended it all with a supposed suicide.

Due to the tragic consequences of the mission, the “Destruction Plan” was classified as top secret by the headquarters, never to be spoken of again.

For years, Percival had been itching to unravel the whole story, but his clearance level was far from sufficient.

Now, however, no longer being a part of the Vanguard Agency, he found himself with more freedom to act.

Vance rubbed his temples, his voice grave. “You should know that even with my clearance, I can’t access those files.”

“You just need to give me the “Destruction Plan” code. I know you remember it better than anyone.”

The past haunted every surviving member, and Vance had once climbed to the rank of second-in-command at the Sea City Vanguard Agency HQ.

He definitely had access to the detailed case files and that unforgettable sequence of numbers.

Vance hesitated. “You’re asking me to make a mistake.”

“You’ve done it before, Vance. It’s important to me.”

Silence stretched on the other end of the line before Vance finally spoke, “245214216589.”

After getting the information, Percival hung up and entered the code into his computer.

Seconds later, the connected printer whirred to life, detailing the “Destruction Plan” documents.

report, scrutinizing every word, imprinting them

secure servers seeking the “Destruction Plan” files but always hit

doubt, this was Karen’s

matter how skilled the hacker, without the correct

counter-hack sequence, pinpointing the intruder’s location

Vivienne had

handing Vivienne a glass of juice, and

the papers to Percival and

he compared the new printouts with the

was the original operation

remaining document after Karen’s “suicide,” clearly showing

routes matched

the Vanguard Agency chasing GTO but

proved that the intel on GTO’s location provided to the “Destruction Plan” was a

was a calculated, swift annihilation of the Vanguard Agency’s special squad, orchestrated by an

was as cold as ice. With such blatant evidence, no wonder Lark never returned to

realized there was

a red line on the map.

his knuckles white. “It’s because of this decision that most of the first squad survived, though

that the Agency suspected her, leading to the relentless pursuit,” Vivienne added, pointing at an image of the squad’s uniform. “Our pursuers wore this. I

tightened Percival’s

He remembered.

had trusted only him and

all sides, she never revealed to Percival who was

might have unleashed a storm of blood and betrayal within the Vanguard Agency, and whether Percival would have

was not yet fully developed, and even

within

in silence, the weight of revelations heavy in the

open secret within the Vanguard Agency that there was a mole in their midst, and the mole had indeed been identified, the raw truth still hit hard when it was finally laid bare before

a sense of dread. There, in