Convent walls are thick, and convent women are clever, and when Mother Eve warns them that the apocalypse is near at hand and only the righteous will be saved, she can call the world to a new order.The end of all flesh is near, because the Earth is filled with violence.Therefore, build an ark.That is all they want.There are days that follow one after the next after the next.While Jocelyn heals, and while it becomes clear that she will never fully heal, and while something hardens in Margot’s heart.She appears on the television to talk about Jos’s injuries.She says, Terrorism can strike anywhere, at home or abroad. She says, The most important thing is that our enemies, both global and domestic, must know that we are strong and that we will retaliate.She looks down the camera lens and says, Whoever you are, we will retaliate.She can’t afford to look weak, not at a time like this.It’s not long after that when the phone call comes.They say there’s been a credible threat from an extremist group.They’ve gotten hold somehow of pictures from inside the Republic of the Women.Pasted them all over the internet, saying they were taken by a guy we all know has been dead for weeks.Probably Photoshopped, can’t be real.The North is already threatening Bessapara with missiles over it.Margot says, We should do something.The President says, I don’t know.I feel like I should extend an olive branch.And Margot says, Believe me, at a moment like this you need to appear stronger than ever.If that nation has been assisting and radicalizing our homegrown terrorists, we must send them a message.The world must know that the United States is willing to escalate.If you hit us with one jolt, we will hit you with two.The President says, I can’t tell you how much I respect you, Margot, for the way you can carry on, even with what’s happened.Margot says, My country comes first.We need strong leadership.There is a bonus in her contract if NorthStar deployments around the world top fifty thousand women this year.The bonus would buy her a private island.There is a thought in those days.It is that five thousand years is not a very long time.Something has been started now that must find its conclusion.When a person has taken a wrong turn, must she not retrace her steps, is that not wise?After all, we’ve done it before.Different this time, better this time.Dismantle the old house and begin again.When the historians talk of this moment they talk about tensions and global instability. They posit the resurgence of old structures and the inflexibility of existing belief patterns. Power has her ways.She acts on people, and people act on her.When does power exist?Only in the moment it is exercised.To the woman with a skein, everything looks like a fight.And can you call back the lightning?Or does it return to your hand?Roxy sits with her father on the balcony, looking out at the ocean.It’s nice to think that, whatever happens, the sea will always be here.Roxy remembers when those hands were the most terrifying thing in the world to her.Suppose so.Roxy says, with a smile in her voice, Learned your lesson, have you?I should kill you, really, says Roxy.Can’t afford to be soft, girl.That’s what they keep telling me.Maybe I’ve learned my lesson.Took me long enough.At the horizon, there is a flash across the skyline.Pink and brown, although it is nearly midnight.Bit of nice news, she says.I think I’ve met a bloke.Yeah?