The Million-Dollar Heart (Percival and Vivienne) novel Chapter 490

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.

Percival 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 got thirty percent oxygen left in the tank."

Vivienne pinpointed his location based on the coordinates he provided.

He was about 0.6 miles from the mine's entrance, which was hardly an ideal spot. The thinness of the air was unimaginable.

The extent of the collapse between his location and the entrance was unknown—they would have to blast through bit by bit to reach him safely.

If they were to blast directly above Percival's position, it could easily trigger a secondary collapse, endangering his life.

Vivienne's brow furrowed with concern. "Mr. Wolf, can you hold out for two days?"

To ensure a safe extraction, she had to aim to keep the rescue operation within a two-day window.

Percival's voice came through with a chuckle. "If you're waiting for me outside, I can hold out for twenty days."

How could he possibly succumb to the mine's depth when he had not yet married his beloved Vivienne?

Leopold could hardly contain himself, shouting at the speaker, "Conserve your strength, Percival. We're coming to get you."

"Okay."

Vivienne's tone was stern, "Mr. Wolf, don't speak unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Just one more thing," Percival said, his voice muffled by movement, then settling back into stillness, "Vivienne, I love you."

Vivienne bit her lower lip, feeling a surge of emotion as she replied firmly into the headset, "Percival, I love you too."

The Vanguard Agency's special squad quickly set charges at the mine entrance.

To safely carve a passage, they must blast through the debris blocking the entrance.

But this was a gamble.

Detonating explosives in an already unstable mine was akin to dancing with death.

These were Griffin's latest creations, more compact and potent than traditional explosives, resembling grenades but packing a punch far beyond the standard issue.

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

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

It all came down to how you played your hand.

The prototype was still in 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 its first detonation."

"Morning Glory" was the moniker Griffin had affectionately bestowed upon the explosive device.

Vivienne studied the intricately calculated layout, not a flicker of doubt in her gaze. "Detonate," she commanded.

To hesitate even for a second meant risking Percival's life for another. Once her mind was made up, Vivienne would not waver.

Griffin exchanged a glance with Leopold, whose heart was in his throat, but if Vivienne believed it was possible, that was enough for him.

Leopold gave a firm nod, placing all his faith in the "Morning Glory."

With that, Griffin pressed the detonator.

A rapid succession of ten explosions ripped through the air, kicking up a billowing cloud of dust that soared skyward like fireworks before cascading down like a hail of bullets.

Everyone shielded their faces with their arms, and when the dust finally settled, Leopold peered into the mouth of the mine to assess the damage.

Thomas and his comrades held their breath in anticipation.