Cor blinked, a little surprised that she guessed that but nodded slowly. “Ye… Yeah. I'm pretty good at code.” he admitted softly. It was almost getting to be painful not getting involved as much as he was really able to.
Nora straightened slightly. "Well, Cor, I'm hiring you. I need someone to sift around in the storage room code."
“What?” Cor looked at her with wide eyes. It wasn't hard to tell she was being serious and making this decision was more out of emergency than business. But he couldn't deny that this chance was very tempting. “I… I can take a look.” he nodded, sincerely wanting to help.
Nora's shoulders relaxed at his agreement. She was glad he was here to help.
"We need to watch these programs," she said. She was curious that none of them had noticed that the elevator was closed yet.
“Do you want Markus and… the other bartender to watch them or do you want to stay?” he asked, sharing her concern. “If I’m going to take a look at the storage area’s code, I need one of you to go with me.” Cor reminded her since the code key was not in his disc. Even if he was able to hack his way in, which he wasn't sure of, it would be too suspicious to try.
Nora looked around. "Markus can go with you. I'll find tonight's bouncers and we'll watch the programs." She walked over to the bar. "Markus, can you go down to the storage room with Cor?"
Markus nodded, giving Cor an easy smile. "Yeah, sure."
“Alright.” Cor nodded, turning towards Markus. “Lead the way.” he smiled back a little awkwardly. Markus seemed like a nice enough program but Cor just didn't know him well enough yet. Though it was a bit of a relief that Nora wasn't coming with them. It would make it easier for him to do closer to his best with someone who didn't know him.
Markus slipped out from behind the bar. "We'll use the service elevator." He walked to the back of the club, under the DJ booth, and pressed his code key against the wall; a hidden door slid sideways, revealing a very spacious elevator. Markus stepped in.
Cor followed, a little impressed about seeing these employee-only areas, though he didn't say anything even as the elevator doors closed them in. I still don't understand… Why drug End of Line? What's your game, Cyrus? he sighed, leaning against one of the walls, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
"Are you all right?" Markus asked, his eyebrows contracting. He didn't like to see programs be down or sad.
“Hmm?” Cor hummed, looking up at Markus. “Oh, yeah, I'm alright. Just thinking about… the whole situation.” he admitted.
"It's alright." Markus' face widened into a smile, a true, genuine one. "I hope it'll be okay. Nora is very capable. How do you know each other?"
“I know she is.” Cor chuckled. “Umm… We ran into each other at the lower bar before End of Line reopened and spent the night talking and even danced a little.” he said as his lines briefly flickered pink.
Markus smiled understandingly. He knew a lot of programs had a crush on Nora. "You're very lucky. Nora doesn't usually let programs be friends with her." He didn't even know if he was Nora's friend.
The elevator pinged softly and slowed to a stop, the doors whooshing open. Markus stepped out. Stretching ahead of them was a dimly lit, round corridor, a service tunnel.
"The vault's just down here," Markus said. "We usually bring it up through this elevator anyway."
“I noticed. She's… She's a very private program.” Cor nodded as he thought about Nora and how she wasn't exactly a social butterfly like Skye or even Astra. Though he honestly preferred that fact about her.
He looked up as the elevator ride ended and followed Markus into the tunnel. “And there’s no other way down here?” he asked seriously, almost sounding analytical as he looked around. He was very on guard, practically acting as he normally did when he was Black Light, though he doubted there was a reason to be.
"Just the main elevator, but you have to have a code key to access it," Markus reassured Cor. He continued walking down the tunnel, footsteps echoing softly.
"The room is this one," Markus said, stopping in front of a plain-looking door; there was a small access screen next to it. He pulled out his code key and unlocked it. "Do… uh… whatever it is you have to do. I don't really understand code," he said with a small smile.
“Good. Good to know.” he nodded, walking into the room, still on full alert. “Then, can I count on you to stand guard and watch my back?” Cor asked as he slipped on his code protective gloves. He wasn't going to take any chances if Cyrus really was involved.
Markus nodded. "The console is just inside the door."
Cor gave a small, grateful, smirk before he turned to access the code. His eyes went hard as he focused on every piece of data, analyzing whatever he could to get answers.
Markus stood there, silent, a watchful guard.
Meanwhile, Nora was noticing something odd. The drunk programs, the ones with wide eyes, were slowing down their frenzied dancing, becoming limp, silent. Even Skye seemed oddly tired.
Cor was thankful that Markus was there but he didn't drop his guard as he worked. It wasn't that he didn't trust Markus, Nora obviously trusted both of them and that was enough for him, but there was something about this whole thing that made him uneasy. “Hey, Markus. Do you know when this door was opened last? When the energy was brought up for the night?” he asked, brows furrowed as he reread the data.
"When I started my shift," Markus answered. "Just a few microcycles ago."
“That’s what I thought.” Cor nodded, copying the data to a spare cube. “We need to show this to Nora. Someone else has a code key to this. But it's not in the system.” he said, frowning deeply.
"What?" Markus asked, turning around, his eyebrows furrowing. "But I thought… you're sure it's not in the system?"
Meanwhile, Nora, having spotted Skye's mane of white-blonde hair in the listless crowd, made her way through the programs to the usually excitable program. Skye was blinking confusedly, a half-smile on her face. "Hi, Nora," she slurred.
This was drunk, but not a drunk Nora had seen before. Was it an effect of the energy, she wondered.
Cor nodded, looking at the cube thoughtfully. “I’m sure. Every other code key has an ID tag telling which program it belongs to. This one doesn't.” he explained as he started walking back to the elevator. “But that’s not the only thing that worries me about it.”