"Makes it easier not to worry," Alex corrected. "Liz, Max, Maria. They were all here. The powers that be claim they go home, but how can we know? We don't even know what's going on in the city let alone what's going on outside of it. And I knew someone else..." His eyes flicked down to the tattoo on his inner arm. M. Monroe. "Going home for him would have been worse than staying here."

He sucked in a breath. "So I try not to think about it and keeping myself busy helps me do that. Especially when digging into their systems gets me nowhere."

Government systems, theirs or a foreign nation's, had been a challenge but doable. These systems? He couldn't get anything from.