"Eventually, their memory will deteriorate so much that they won't be able to function," the medic said.
"How many Strays have you met?" Nora asked Cor. In her Siren days, she had seen a lot of them. They were always confused and weary, and they never lasted long in the Games.
“Not many.” Cor admitted. “And never at… that stage.” he added, looking at the medic. “But basically, this is the same as derezzing them just dragging it out and without being present for it.”
"From what I've heard about Cyrus," Nora said, "he seems to… enjoy watching his victims suffer."
The medic nodded. "I'd say he was planning some sort of disc harvesting, as well."
Cor nodded at Nora’s comment, agreeing that Cyrus was a very disturbed program but froze for a moment at the mention of disc harvesting. “Why would… To what purpose?” he forced himself to ask, though he had a suspicion… and the thought caused a cold ball of code to settle in his stomach.
"Discs can make very effective weapons," Nora said. "They could be used for building an arsenal. They also sell for enormous amounts on the black market, though I doubt Cyrus needs the bits." She, too, was nervous. She knew that there had been secretive studies about discs, to look at code that a User had written, to try to replicate it.
Cor nodded, knowing all of those options and hearing Nora list them didn't make him feel any better. “Yeah… I don't think that he’d go to the black market.” he nodded. “But if he just wanted the discs, it would be easier to just take them. Why this whole… issue of locking a program's memory just to get the disc?” he asked, more thinking aloud than anything. “There’s got to be something else. Something we're missing…”
"If a disc is separated from its program for long enough, the disc loses its memories, as well," the medic said. "It's the closest you can get to wiping it."
Nora's spine went cold. Wiping it?
Cor closed his eyes and sucked in a pained breath, feeling like someone had just landed sucker-punch to his stomach, at the medic’s words. That sounded a lot more like Cyrus and with so many wiped discs… His earlier suspicion seemed more likely. “Is there anything we can do to help?” he finally managed to ask weakly.
The medic shook his head. "I'm at just as much of a loss as you. I don't even know what to do with them." He gestured around to the dopey programs. "We can hardly send out a bunch of Strays on the streets. It's a good thing the Games aren't still around, or they'd all be massacred."
"Maybe that's the point," Nora said, as a thought hit her. "Maybe Cyrus wants them to be killed…"
Cor tensed his jaw and rubbed the back of his neck. “That wouldn't surprise me.” he admitted. He looked out at the crowd of soon-to-be-lost programs. If this keeps up, Cyrus could get enough discs… Especially if it's not just this club he’s hit. he sighed thoughtfully. “They need to be kept somewhere safe.” he pointed out, giving Nora an uncertain glance.
Nora had been thinking along those lines. Cor's Recogniser hideout had briefly crossed her mind, but trying to herd a bunch of mindless programmes across the Outlands was too daunting a prospect for her.
"We could keep them in the old Games arena," she said. "It's big, and we can get them there easily."
“That’s a good idea. And we can check on them every once in a while, make sure they're ok.” Cor smiled softly, grateful for her alternative. Besides getting them to his Recognizer, there was also the issue of the natural dangers that came with being off-grid… and those were hard enough to handle for any sane program, even if they were prepared. “What do you think?” he asked, looking at the medic.
"I think that's a great idea," the medic said, bestowing a rare smile on them and sticking out his hand. "I'm Achilles."
"Nora," Nora said, reaching out and shaking his hand somewhat awkwardly; it was a rare gesture for her, one of almost too much formality.
Cor smiled faintly and nodded, a little relieved that so far things were going smoothly as far as handling the situation. “I’m Cor and that's Markus.” he added, gesturing towards the bartender.
"Hi!" Markus said with a little smile.
Nora, meanwhile, was looking around, wondering how on earth she was going to get all these programmes to the Games arena. She could always call… but no, she didn't want to, couldn't. But it was her only choice, wasn't it?
"I'm going to have to ping someone," she said, a pained expression coming over her face. "I'll be right back." Let's get this over with.
Cor raised a brow at Nora’s tone, noticing her strong reluctance to go through with her statement. He waited until she was out of earshot and gently nudged Markus. “What was that about?” he almost whispered. A part of him was hoping that she was just going to ping Astra but something in her expression said Nora disliked this program more than she disliked her.
Markus shrugged. "She's probably pinging one of Zuse's old contacts."
Nora, meanwhile, had climbed the stairs to her office. Closing the door, she went to her desk and took a deep breath, hefting a smile onto her lips. Please let this go well, oh please let this go well…
She pressed the button with the name Edison on it, and the screen started pinging. If Nora wasn't so desperate for help, she would have half-wished he wouldn't pick up.
But he did. The screen brightened into a face, dark and handsome with pronounced cheekbones. His black hair was upswept as usual, his eyes a bright neon green, like poison. There was a smile on his face.
"Nora, my darling!" he said, his smile growing wider. "You need to call me more. We don't talk as often as I'd like."
"Hello, Edison," Nora said.
Edison was one of Zuse's former clients; from his seat in Purgos, he ran a shipping business that was as efficient as it was shady, trading in arms, fake discs, and smuggled energy, to name a few. Nora fervently despised him as much as he adored her. If he wasn't in Purgos, she'd have taken him down as Aurora a long time ago.
“Ah.” Cor nodded. “Well, I hope they will help.” he said, looking up towards Nora’s office. If not… Well, they would just have to figure something else out. Unfortunately, I don't have any large transportation equipment in the Recognizer.
"I need your… assistance with something," Nora said carefully, the words falling tightly from her lips, small bites of sound.
"But of course!" Edison said.
Nora took a deep breath. How much should she tell him?
"I need to… ship something," she said. "Could you send three empty trucks to the Silver Tower?"
Edison's smile grew more poisonous. "Yes, of course, darling. Do you want me to throw in any surprises?"
Nora shook her head. She didn't want to be any more in Edison's debt than she had to be.
"I can have them there in two microcycles," Edison said, sipping a glass of energy he had on his desk. "And don't worry about anything in return, Nora darling, seeing your face is all the reward I need!"
Suspicious, Nora thought. People like Edison always needed something in return, be it in one cycle or fifty. He'd pull up this debt one day; she could feel it in her disc.
"Anyway, I've things to do! Call again soon, Nora, I really do miss talking with you." With that, Edison hung up, and what felt like fifty pounds of tension relaxed from Nora's shoulders. Thank Flynn…
"I hope they'll help too," Markus said, glancing up at Nora.
Cor sighed a little and pulled up a seat nearby. This whole night had just been pretty overwhelming. And he’d already had some wild nights, both as Black Light and as himself… though the second was some that he didn't think much about.
Markus pulled out a seat for Achilles, then pulled out his own. Nora came out of her office and made her way down the stairs.
"We should start getting these programmes downstairs," she said as she walked towards them. "A… contact of mine has agreed to send a few trucks so we can transport them."
Cor leaned forward, running his fingers through his naturally messy hair. But he smiled softly when he saw Nora coming back down. “Great. How soon do you think they'll get here?” he asked though he was also wondering how they were going to corral all these programs into the trucks. And what would happen with Nora and End of Line after tonight.
"My contact said two microcycles," Nora said, looking around at the programmes. "We should send them down in the service elevator. There's more room, and the tunnel leads to the base of the Silver Tower."
Cor nodded and stood up, stretching out as he did. “Alright. We’ll have to keep them from wandering off when we get them to street level.” he pointed out, already thinking about how to get everyone into the elevator.
"I could get the driver to back up right against the tunnel entrance," Nora suggested, trying not to be distracted by Cor stretching, his lithe muscularity… "That way, they'll have nowhere else to go."
Markus stood up as well. "That's a great idea! I can go down and wait for the trucks."
"All right," Nora said. "You can do that." Turning to Achilles and Cor, she said, "Let's start rounding them up."