Transformation: The Clandestine Saga Book 1 (19 page)

“You can prioritize your visuals.  So, say you know you want to leave everyone open, just in case you need to access them quickly and you don’t want to have to wait for them to allow access again. You can stack everyone that you don’t need immediately by giving the command IAC their name and the
Stack Visual
. You can also move them around by saying
IAC Priority 1
then their name and then
Priority 2
, etc.”

“Okay, that makes sense. How do I fight Vampires with all of this clutter in my field of vision?” she asked.

“You can use the command
IAC Pause Visual
and that will take everything out of your field of view. And then to turn it back on it’s
Resume
.”

“Got it,” Cadence said. She knew she was definitely going to need more practice, but it wasn’t nearly as scary as she had thought it was going to be after her experience the night before.

“I’ve got to go, but there’s one more thing I want to mention before I do. You can turn on the Newsfeed by saying
IAC Newsfeed On
and that will give you access to all of the chatter on the IAC, including any broadcasts from our network of Vampire watchers.”

“We have Vampire watchers?”

“Yes, they’re mostly Hunters and Guardians who no longer want to hunt but they want to be involved, or non-Transformers.  So check that out tonight, too, alright?” He stood and walked over to the door. Cadence had to mentally flip a lot of switches to get back to where she was comfortable talking to him and leaving the IAC on. In fact, he was the only one she left on.

“Be careful,” she said.

“Always am,” he replied. “You can watch if you want to. Just request access, and I’ll grant it for you. You’d probably learn quite a bit that way, actually.”

“Okay,” she agreed. It would be nice to see others in action before she went out herself. 

“Just remember if you put yourself on
Full Pause
I won’t be able to re-access you so keep that in mind.”

“Right.” She noticed they were lingering at the door again, even though he was supposed to be going right now or else he was going to hold up the plane and make them all late.

“Aaron, just kiss me already.”

As surprised as he was to receive that message, he was glad she had sent it. And she was surprised at her own boldness. But when he took a step forward, she knew there was nothing to be embarrassed about. He gently moved a ringlet of hair away from her face, locking eyes with her. He slipped his hands around her waist and she placed her hands on his chest.  He leaned in slowly until his lips were just an inch or so away from hers and then paused for a second, just long enough to make her catch her breath and lean in.  And then, his soft lips were on hers, gently at first but then with more pressure.  She slid her hands up to the back of his head and opened her mouth. He continued to kiss her for a few seconds longer before pulling back.

“I have to go,” he said, his forehead resting against hers. 

“Okay,” she said, her eyes still closed, her fingers still entwined in his hair. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he reminded her, kissing her softly on the forehead.

She found a way to pull herself away. “Right, okay,” she said, snapping back to reality.

The thought of kissing her again crossed his mind, but he was already getting messages requesting to know his whereabouts, so he gave her one last longing glance and then slid out the door.

Cadence slumped against the door. Sometimes, too much anticipation led to disappoint. However, in this particular circumstance that was not the case at all.  She ran her fingers across her swollen lips, smiling at the memory and hoping this was just the first of many kisses to come.

                            ***

Watching the hunt had been extremely valuable to Cadence. She was able to observe how the other Hunters and Guardians talked to each other, how they accessed each other’s visuals to determine where they needed to go, and to coordinate their plan of attack. Aaron had allowed her full access to his communication screen, and she was actually able to see him firing off directives to his team members like a rapid-fire machine gun.  He was sending out orders faster than she could read them. Of course, no one was actually reading most of the messages; they were sent directly into the receiver’s brain, but it was still incredibly impressive to see.

Even though Aaron was working with a team he was not as familiar with, he was still able to pinpoint their strengths quickly, and they were able to work together to hem in the Rogue Vampire. Out of fear, the rebel charged one of the Hunters who grabbed him by the throat and squeezed, sending his head flying several feet into the air. What Cadence certainly would have found quite disgusting not too log ago actually had her cheering, and she couldn’t wait to have the opportunity to prove herself on the battlefield.

The next morning, she met Shane and Meagan at the gun range.  Cadence had been disappointed when Aaron had let her know he was going to be a little bit late. She had been thinking about him most of the night, and she couldn’t wait to see him. However, she understood that he had work to do, and Shane went ahead and got started as soon as both ladies were ready.

“Alright, girls,” he said in his booming voice. Shane had the appearance of a body builder, though he had the peppy attitude of a personal trainer. Cadence didn’t know him very well, but she was beginning to like him. He had a fun personality.  “Meagan, this is not your first time a the shooting range. I’m going to go ahead and let you get started on the targets over there while I run through weaponry with Cadence.”

  Meagan found her way to the target practice station and Shane continued. “I’m going to introduce you to the two primary weapons you will be using to kill Vampires.” He reached over to the table next to him and picked up the first weapon, the larger of the two. “This,” he said, “is a modified Berreta 93R.  It packs the same punch as the regular Berreta but we’re not shooting bullets here.   That would be too dangerous. We are shooting liquefied silver ions, or LIS.  Now, this is a compound created right here at LIGHTS and it will essentially take out any Vampire with just one accurate shot to the heart. Since it is a continuous stream weapon, we have to be very careful to make sure the stream ends before we swivel the weapon to engage our next target. Usually this isn’t a problem.  Basically, the stream ends as soon as we take our finger off of the trigger but it is something to be aware of.  LIS is not deadly to humans, or to Hunters, unless a Vampire is shooting it.  It does sting when one of these two entities is hit by it. Please keep in mind, however, that since you are a Hunter, you can kill Guardians if you shoot them with LIS.  You will be required to spend an extensive amount of time in our training modules learning the difference between Vampires and Guardians before we even consider allowing you to take the Berreta outside of this learning environment. Understood?”

“I have a quick question,” Cadence said, hoping for some clarity. “Why do most of the movies and books out there on monsters say that silver bullets kill werewolves but not Vampires, if silver really is lethal to Vampires?

“I have some theories on that,” Shane admitted, “But basically, the answer is they just don’t get it. Confusion, maybe. I tend to think it’s a conspiracy on the part of the Vampires. You ask Aaron that and mention a conspiracy; he’ll laugh right in your face. Bottom line is this, best way to kill a Vampire, rip his MFin’ head off. Second best way, silver to the heart? Got it?

Cadence nodded and so he moved on to the next weapon. “Now this is a modified Glock. Because of the size of the Glock, it does not shoot LIS.  We load these suckers with the real deal, silver bullets. Naturally, you can imagine these weapons are highly dangerous because they carry actual bullets, which can also kill humans. So, with this weapon, you can basically kill any entity.  Which means,  if a Vampire gets his grimy hands on one of these and fires it at a Hunter, they will most certainly drop-dead just as quickly as any other being. I'm sure you know by now that Vampires cannot kill Guardians, but they can kill Hunters with any weapon at their disposal. Though they usually prefer not to use guns, they can, and sometimes they do. You may or may not be aware that the original Glock does not come with a safety feature. However, ours are thoroughly modified with a top-of-the-line safety mechanism, which you engage and disengage here,” he said, demonstrating the safety to her.

After Shane took her through the steps of making sure the safety was on, how to take it off, and how to tell the difference, he showed her how to load the weapons and the best way to use the viewfinder for both of the weapons, especially since she was right eye dominant because the IAC could potentially interfere with the right eye’s ability to focus correctly. It took a little while for Cadence to become accustom to holding her eyes the way he instructed her, to and she found it much easier to aim if she had all of her visuals off so she practiced turning them on and off quickly as she shot at the targets in the gun range.

Once she had gotten used to the weapons and done some target practice, the next step was to use the practice module LIGHTS had available.  This was a simulated walk through, utilizing holograms to represent all three Passels of the Ternion.  So, as she listened to Shane’s instructions, Cadence realized, she would have to determine quickly who was and who was not a Vampire.  If she accidentally shot a Hunter in the simulation, she would receive a 2-point deduction. If she accidentally shot a Guardian, she would be put on probation, sent back through the initial training and mandated to spend at least one week solely on target practice with no module practice. They took shooting Guardians very seriously around here, and she understood why.

The goal was to score at least 30-points on three consecutive turns through the simulation.  Each Vampire kill was worth 5-points and there were twenty Vampires within the five minutes of the module.  The module changed each time so it was not possible to rely on one’s memory to pinpoint where to find the bad guys without risking taking out one of the good guys. 

Once they reached their goal of three consecutive scores of 30 points, they would be allowed to participate in an observation.  This was Meagan’s fourth attempt at completing the modules. She had actually scored above 30 points twice before but not consecutively.  She had shot a few Hunters but never a Guardian. Shane thought, perhaps, she was so worried about shooting a Guardian she wasn’t firing fast enough and hitting the Vampires.  Cadence listened to everything he had to say to her because she wanted to make sure she did the best she could. 

              Meagan entered the simulator first. Cadence was able to access her visuals to observe how she preceded. From the very beginning, Cadence could see some things that she was clearly doing wrong.  She stood next to Shane and they both reacted similarly each time Meagan missed a Vampire or almost took out a Hunter or Guardian. At the end of the simulator, she had scored 25 points. Good, not great, and not good enough to count for one of her three runs.

              Then, it was Cadence’s turn.  She had her choice of weapons, and she chose the Glock. She felt it was small enough that she could raise and aim it with one hand if she needed to, which would make it easier if she ever decided to carry two. For this simulator purpose, however, she was only allowed one, and she couldn’t wait to get started.

              Just before she was about to start, she got a request for visuals from Aaron.  She contemplated ignoring him since it was sure to make her more nervous, but she decided to go ahead and turn it on. She knew that, if she wasn’t successful this round, his feedback would be invaluable. 

She entered through a black door and was given instructions to stand on the X. There was a clock counting down above her and a gentle female voice stating the time remaining.  As the woman approached zero, Cadence’s nervous sensation became excitement. She waited for the woman to say, “You may begin,” and she rounded the corner, entering the simulator.

The first individual that appeared in front of her was dressed all in black and she could tell immediately that this was a Guardian so she did not shoot. However, in the corner of her eye she saw a Vampire appear to leap out from behind a piece of furniture. She shot it, hearing the soft ping from the scoreboard above her.  To her right, another Vampire appeared and she took it out as well.

As Cadence continued to wind her way through the maze of hallways and small chambers, she began to wonder why this was so difficult.  She had reached 30 points within the first 10 seconds of the simulator. Though part of her thought it would be less risky to play it safe and put her gun away, lest she shoot a Guardian or Hunter, she was having too much fun to quit now.  There was one small Vampire hiding beneath a dumpster that she missed, and she was extremely pissed off about it. At the end of her first round, Cadence's score was a near perfect 95.

She exited the simulator to find Shane, Meagan, and Aaron all applauding her performance. “Well done!” Shane said as she placed her weapon on the table and approached them.

“That was amazing!” Meagan concurred.  “I really wish I could get this like you can!”

“Thank you,” Cadence said squeezing her arm. “You’ll get it. You really well.”

Aaron stepped over and put his arms around her, “Unbelievable,” he whispered as he gave her a quick hug.  She couldn’t help but beam at him. Though she was still upset that she had missed that one Vampire, she was proud that she was able to get all of the rest of them.