Olivia Sparks

"Stop squirming, baby. You'll end up giving me a boner," Maxen hissed. 

Scrunching her nose, Olivia wiggled on her spot one more time to find that perfect angle to face Maxen.

She ignored his protests moments ago, and went on to narrate what she saw last night.

"So I was saying…" she trailed off, hooking her arms on Maxen's neck. "I didn't notice it at first, and I don't know how I even got into that data. I was just bored and I kept scrolling, and checking, and then scrolling again."

"Okay?"

"Okay. And theeen, you know how I would see patterns in numbers—the highs, the lows, and where the stream flows." Olivia took a sharp inhale when a swirl of green, red, and blue flashed before her eyes. 

It was the same image she accidentally saw last night. The image alone was enough to send a shiver down her spine, dotting her skin with goosebumps.

"Just get on with what you saw, baby."

"I need to explain how I saw what I saw and what I saw."

By the time Olivia punctuated her sentence, Maxen was scratching the skin above his eyebrow. "So how and what did you see again? Are we there yet?" Maxen asked like an impatient child strapped in the backseat of a car.

"Okay. Wait for it… Are you ready?"

Maxen nodded his head.

"I think... I just found out where the Huks are hiding."

Maxen held his breath. He felt air sawed through his lungs when he exhaled through his nose.

How on Earth was she able to pin the Huks' location when they've been scouring the place for years?

"And how did you come into such a conclusion, O Sui?"

A blush krept up Olivia's face, and she had to bite her bottom lip to stop herself from smiling.

"Oh, someone likes it when I call her O Sui," Maxen teased, rubbing the tip of his nose with Olivia's.

"Say it again, then I'll tell you the whole story."

"Nah."

"Maxen!" Olivia fumed. "Okay, then. Just so you know, marriage laws in Nisia let wives keep their maiden name. Might as well keep mine."

"Or I could have your name legally changed to Mrs. Maxen Sui if you dare keep that maiden name." Maxen threatened. He squeezed Olivia's waist but his brows furrowed at her reaction. 

"Whatever," she uttered the first word that popped up in her mind. Completely brushing their argument under the rug. "So I was saying, I chanced upon the geological map scans of Nisia, boring stuff." She waived it off.

Maxen bobbed his head, agreeing with Olivia.

"But then, I noticed in a span of months, the green color in the scans were slowly fading as if those minerals dissolved or…"

"Someone is mining them."

Olivia snapped her fingers. "Exactly."

"Is it concentrated in one place?" Maxen probed. If Olivia said she found a location, it only meant the Huks concentrated mining at a certain place in the map.

"No, but there is a pattern of three months before they move to the next place. According to my calculations, thank me very much," she thanked herself, and the smug look on her face naturally elicited a scoff from Maxen.

"Thank you, O Sui."

"Mrs. Maxen Sui," she corrected.

"Are you serious? Olivia, focus on your story, please."

"I have all day to tell you everything that I found. Remember? I had an early retirement," Olivia pouted. She fiddled with Maxen's lapel while her foot swayed in the air.

"Why do I have a feeling that you're dragging this conversation? Are you waiting for me to offer an invitation to the War Room?" Maxen c.o.c.ked an eyebrow at his wife, finally figuring out her motive for running in circles with her story.

"Well, if you want me to join you, then why not? As I've said, my schedule is free from commitments."

Maxen felt a strum on his funny bone and the laughter that rambled on his c.h.e.s.t escaped his mouth, loud enough to send the birds flying away from the tree below the balcony.

"Okay, but before anything else, let me clarify things first. So you checked the geological maps and saw a pattern in mining. Correct?"

"Correct," Olivia agreed.

"If we check the current scan, we can locate the Huks?"

"Yep."

"Is there anything else that I should take note of?" Maxen asked. He tried his best to keep himself from smiling, thinking he could get away from ever bringing Olivia to the War Room, but the smile crossed his face.

"You don't have plans of bringing me with you, do you?" Olivia hopped off Maxen's l.a.p and dusted her hands. "It's okay. Let's talk about what else I found after you capture the Huks."

Olivia rolled her eyes and sauntered back inside their master suite. A smile crossed her face when she heard footsteps trailing behind her.

Without ever letting Maxen speak, she abruptly halted her tracks and turned on her feet to face him. "I'll be ready in five," she said, beaming at Maxen who was left speechless and with no choice but to scratch the skin above his eyebrow.

Thirty minutes later, Maxen and Olivia arrived first in the War Room in Nisia's Military Camp.

"I shouldn't be bringing you here," Maxen grumbled, turning the light switch on inside the room.

While Maxen was annoyed, Olivia ground her teeth to bottle in her excitement. It felt as though she was entering a White House panic room in a movie set.

The place was free of decorations, adorned with just a large oval table in the middle with seats tucked in it, and a wall made out of giant screen for their disposal.

"Hey, I'll leave after I check if my hunch is correct, okay?"

Maxen shook his head. He was hunched on the switchboard full of buttons and keys, double-checking if he entered the correct password.

The blank screen soon came alive, showing Nisia's time and other countries like New York, London, Tel Aviv, and Sydney.

Slowly, cliparts of sh.i.p.s and overlapping lines of red and blue popped up on the screen.

Olivia held her breath everytime the sh.i.p.s moved onto different directions, and the lines would dance on the board. "Wow. Can't believe I'd live to see a real life air and naval operations," she mused.

Maxen's jaw ticked. He wanted to remind his wife that she forced him to tag her along but the way her eyes twinkled was priceless, he seriously considered to bring her again next time.

"What are we looking for again?"

"A cargo ship that never docked in Nisia a month ago," Olivia alleged. She crossed her arms over her c.h.e.s.t and studied the wall to wall screen, like a map to a treasure hunt game.

"Okay, here we go," Maxen announced, spinning a button, and by his command, the screen backtracked into a month ago.

They studied the video in double-speed, as sh.i.p.s sailed to and fro Nisia. They were a minute into the nauseating video when they noticed one vessel staying a few miles away from the dock for days.

It could be a random vessel staying afloat in Nisia's seas, yet what raised the red flags were how smaller vessels come and go near it for days.

"Do you think it's this one? I can check a satellite image to get a clue who owns this," Maxen probed.

"Yeah, I'm positive. So my guess was right."

Maxen's eye peered up on for a second before he trained his gaze back on the switchboard to pull up an image for that day. "Would you mind retelling how you came to such a conclusion?"

Perching herself on Maxen's l.a.p, Olivia narrated, "So I was wondering where they would deposit those minerals, that's why I started doing computations in my head. But…" She held a finger up. "But my computation didn't tally the data for exports and local production. By the way, you look hot, Max," she blurted.

Maxen tsked and ignored her, although deep inside he was jumping for joy for Olivia's compliment; however, his focused his attention to the problem at hand. "Thanks, baby. But can you please finish your story? People will be coming in shortly." He reminded her.

Pouting, Olivia continued, "Hmm, that's pretty much what happened. I thought if it's not tallying with the data, then those minerals must be smuggled out of the country. There's no other way around it."

She saw Maxen's face harden, and it was her cue to check what's on the screen. "Oh, Max. I don't like what I'm seeing."