It wasn’t like high school where you were clearly in geometry or calculus class. He realized early on that he was going to have to be flexible and jump from discipline to discipline to reach the solution. The buzzer on his door sounded. The nasal blare broke his train of thought and he lost the thread of the problem. Irritated, Tracy threw down his stylus and considered ignoring whoever was disturbing him at—he glanced at the time code in the corner of his tap-pad—9:17 at night. The buzzer sounded again. Hitching the belt of his bathrobe tighter Tracy strode to the door. He tapped the door camera and was stunned and alarmed when Mercedes’ strained face appeared in the screen. He touched the admit icon and the door slid open. Tracy was relieved to see she was accompanied by the plump girl. The next thing he noticed was the stack of folded undress uniforms held by the Infanta. “May we come in? Good, thank you,” Mercedes said in a harried whisper as she darted past. Tracy was acutely aware that he wore only his jockey shorts beneath his tatty old bathrobe.
