Cadence laughed aloud and concluded that the IAC might be a great way to mess with people.

“There are a few other things that you need to be aware of. You’re going to need to know how to do a Full Pause, which is the same as a Full Off, only you’re going to think Pause instead of Off. However, that’s going to be problematic for you because I can’t push you out of Pause the way that I can everyone else. I can’t push you out of Off either,” Aaron explained.

“Why not?” Cadence asked.

“I have no idea, but I think it has something to do with whatever activated in your brain last night. So, any time you’re on Full Pause you can see who is trying to contact you, but they can’t actually access you until you allow them in by ending the Pause or by activating them one at a time. So, let’s try putting it on Full Pause first.

“IAC Full Pause”

“Good,” he said aloud, seeing her flip from On to Pause on his IAC. Then she saw his name light up in her eye and she knew he was trying to contact her. “See that? Just give it the same command as you did before to turn my feed on, okay?

“IAC Aaron On”

“Nice work! You’re a fast learner.”

“You’re too kind.”

“Ah, extra credit,” he laughed. “You can also use the Resume command there instead of On to come out of a Pause, but it really makes no difference. So, Pause is good if you’re going to sleep, or the bathroom, or something where you don’t want others accessing your visuals.”

“Got it.”

“So, if you want to see what someone else is seeing, you have to turn them on first, and then just say their name and Add Visuals. That’s it. And you get full audio with that, too, like a video camera. So, you’ve got me on, and there you go.”

Suddenly, Cadence’s field of vision was fragmented. Her left eye stayed completely as it was before, but now on the top half of her right eye, she was seeing what Aaron was looking at, which was even odder since it was herself. “Whoa!” she said, “That’s crazy!”

“It does take some getting used to. But you’ve got time to practice, and you’ll catch on. So, to turn it off, it’s just the reverse.”

“If I don’t turn it off, can you force me off?”

“Yes, and in fact I had to allow you in. Now, with everyone else, I can override his or her decision to keep someone out. So, if we’re out on a hunt and you need to access Elliott, but he’s being an ass and won’t let you on, I can see that denial pop up and turn it on for you.”

Even as he was speaking, he was sending her a request to access her visuals so she could see what it looked like. “Do you see that?” he asked.

“Yes, what’s the command?”

“You can speak while we’re sitting right next to each other, you know.”

“But this is more fun.”

“Visuals Aaron Allow”

The request had been illuminated and once the access was allowed, it faded into the background so she could see who had access, but it wasn’t drawing her attention away from the visuals themselves.

“Cadence, you haven’t turned my visuals off yet.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t make me do it for you. You get a nasty error signal.”

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“Fine, but how am I going to practice this visual thingy if I can’t see what anyone else is doing?”

“I just want to see that you can give the command. I’ll let you have access again if you want it,” he said. She turned it off. “Thank you. One of the easiest ways to make sure you’re covered on a hunt is to turn on everyone’s and then just turn off the ones you don’t need. So, if you went out with ten members of the team, you could just turn the entire team on and then start turning the people who aren’t present off. It’s the best bet for making sure you don’t miss anyone.”

“What’s the command for that?

“Make sure you’re ready for it because it’s going to be a lot of chatter, just like last night.”

“Okay, I’m ready.”

IAC Full On

Cadence wasn’t sure but she may have sent him a few expletives. When the full team came on, it was unbelievably noisy. Her right eye was flooded with teeny tiny pictures as the other members of the team allowed her access to their visuals. “Good Lord!” she said as she soon had over thirty open screens on her right eye.

“I know it’s a lot. There are a couple of things you can do to make it easier, if you need to have everyone open. You won’t need to very often. Unfortunately, that’s what I’m looking at most of the time.”

“Really? How do you even function?”

“It took a lot of practice. First of all, if you put on these glasses, it will automatically split the field into your left eye as well, leaving you a window at the top to see what is in front of you. However, you get used to looking through everyone else’s visuals as your own, and your brain really is wired to be able to do so after a bit of practice.”

Cadence slid the glasses on. It took her left eye a moment to adjust. “Unbelievable. I’m not sure that’s any better,” she admitted. “What else can I do?”

“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, all right?” 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, 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. He was standing only a foot or so away from him, that intoxicating smell filling her lungs. Aaron bit his bottom lip, and little waves of electricity pulsated throughout Cadence’s body.

“Aaron, just kiss me already.”

He must have been surprised to receive that message; she was equally as surprised that she had sent it. Cadence was shocked by her own boldness, and she wondered if she should try to turn it into a joke. But when he took a step forward, she knew there was nothing to be embarrassed about. He gently moved a lock of hair away from her face, meeting her eyes. He slipped his hands around her waist and she placed her hands on his chest. Aaron 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 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.

“They’re asking where I am at.”

“I understand.”

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

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

Aaron pulled open the door but gave her one last longing glance before his eyes crinkled at the edges and that crooked grin spread across his face. He slipped away so quickly, she could hardly see him go.

Cadence closed the door and slumped against it. 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.