19 The Date Back in his apartment, Brant stepped out of the shower and pulled on his underwear and sweatpants. The shower behind him slid down into the floor and whirred away to another apartment. A panel lowered from the ceiling and closed the niche. Brant wasn’t going to sleep at all tonight. The AI battle had left IAS exposed, and the invasion of the school was coming. Brant flopped on the cot but didn’t turn out the lights. What can I do? He couldn’t even spend the one-on-one time with his students that he wanted. Not with Claudia hovering over his shoulder. Knock knock knock It was the door-to-door salesman hour. Ugh! Couldn’t they just leave him alone? Brant normally would have ignored the knock or at least put a shirt on first, but after today, he was fed up with everything

