Jack looked at her for a moment. Then he looked for a spot to sit down. He slowly crouched down onto an overturned washbucket, then looked back at Max.

"Is it really that bad out there?" He grimaced at his own ignorance. "I've been out of the loop for a long time." Most of his information came from the news, and everyone knew that couldn't be trusted. When he had quit, he had quit- cut every thread, pinched off all contacts and sources. Jack was regretting that now.