The old mechanic's office is filled with junk, but the gridsuit catches Pavel's eye.
"Will you look at this?" He whistles, placing grubby hands on glass.
He doesn't understand why the suit is in a protective case- it's not as if it's worth anything. But more important than that, it's designed for a female program with curves and lots of little circuits. If this suit belonged to someone, she probably had a pretty face to match, and lots of privileges.
Not every program has light-lines like these.
Pavel smiles maliciously, and his reflection smiles back.
"I bet Commander Paige would look ravishing in something like this." His hands trail across the case, feeling for an opening. "We'd have to change the color scheme, of course, but it would look better with orange circuits anyway. She would be so grateful, and it's not like anyone's using it now-"
Pavel finds the edge of the door at the same moment someone activates a disc behind him.
"Don't. Touch that."
The mechanics look up from their work when Pavel shrieks. Nanos later he bursts out of Able's office like he's seen a ghost, screaming for the guards. The little weasel is in such hysterics that Beck has to strain to make out what he's saying.
There was something in that office. An intruder- a program with no light-lines- who put a disc to his throat. Tried to derez him.
Beck shares a look with his co-workers as the guards go in. (A program with no light-lines?) The soldiers return a nano later, shaking their heads.
"There's no one there, sir," one of them reports. "There's a suit, though, that looks just like a program. Are you sure you didn't just see that?"
Pavel's face becomes so scrunched with rage, Beck wonders if his head might explode.
"GET BACK TO WORK!"
Later in the cycle, when things have calmed down, Beck pokes his head into Able's office. For a nano he thinks he sees a shadow across a glass case, but when he looks again it's gone. Everything is undisturbed in the soft blue light.