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.

the report, scrutinizing every

she had hacked into the Vanguard Agency’s secure servers seeking the “Destruction Plan” files but

this was Karen’s

hacker, without the correct file code, the documents

trigger a counter-hack

had never

glass of juice, and said, “How’s it

the papers to Percival and began

compared the new printouts with the old; his

original operation trajectory of

Karen’s “suicide,” clearly showing GTO’s movements during the “Destruction

routes matched almost

chasing GTO but rather GTO ambushing

the intel on GTO’s location provided to the “Destruction

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

face was as cold as ice. With such blatant evidence,

have realized there was a mole

turned another page, her finger tracing a red line on the map. “This route? My mom led the first squad

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

her decision 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.

words tightened

He remembered.

and Micah within

sides, she never

seemed clear—if Karen had shared the truth, it might have unleashed a storm of blood and betrayal within the Vanguard Agency, and whether Percival would have survived was anybody’s

not yet fully developed, and even Karen was in dire straits.

imagined that someone within the

silence, the weight of revelations heavy in the

an 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 one’s eyes. No matter how mentally prepared you might be, betrayal by someone you trusted implicitly is a pill

dossier with a sense of dread. There,