Nine Years to Go

**Nine Years to Go** is the second chapter of *The Power (Novel)*.

## Plot

#### Allie

The night of Mr. Montgomery-Taylor’s death, Mrs. Montgomery-Taylor had discovered the body and then proceeded to the police station to report Allie. However, that night the calls had started pouring into police stations all over with reports about girls using their powers, and they were too overwhelmed to chase Allie down.

For the next 82 days, Allie hitchhikes north. At first she has no problem getting rides, but soon cars avoid her, seemingly out of fear of what powers she might possess. The voice in her head encourages her to keep moving forward. As the travels, Allie thinks about her bad and progressively worse caregivers, starting with someone she was instructed to refer to as Aunt Rose and ending with Mrs. Montgomery-Taylor.

In the next town she goes to, she sneaks into the aquarium and looks at the tank full of electric eels. She reads up on how they use their power to interfere with the signals in the brain, causing other fish to swim into their mouths. Allie thinks about how she’d like to learn to control her skill like that as well, and the voice in her head propels her to keep travelling forward.

Allie soon comes across the Sisters of Mercy Convent, a convent located next to the ocean. There, the women are delighted to find the crucifix in her bag. They take her in, and they offer her a warm bed and food. Soon, other girls arrive, in need of shelter and counsel. The sister there soon put up bunk bed in their previously empty rooms, start scheduling classes and starts handing out chores to be done. Meanwhile, at the convent, the displaced girls share their stories. When the girls ask Allie about herself, she lies. She tells them that her name is Eve and that her family left her because they were afraid she’d hurt her brothers.

While the girls test out their skills on one another, Allie is more subtle on it, trying to practice on people without them knowing it. She thinks about what the eels are capable of and tries to replicate those skills, giving girls small headaches or a leg cramp. They don’t know it’s her, and when a group of girls gets ready to depart the convent, they invite Allie along, but she declines.

Allie finds that she’s happy at the convent. She asks the nun with darker-colored skin, like hers, whether she could stay here forever. Sister Maria Ignacia tells her that she would have to become a nun if she wants to stay her whole life. Allie is hurt by this response, thinking about how no one ever wants her to stay.

One day, Allie overhears the nuns arguing about whether the girls’ powers. Sister Veronica believes they could only be from the Devil and wants to kick them out. As she hears this, the voice in Allie’s head tells her that the world needs a “prophet” and that if she wants to stay at the convent, then she needs to own it.

#### Roxy

After her mother’s murder, Roxy’s father is determined to exact revenge on Primrose, the person who ordered the hit. He tells this to Roxy’s half-brothers — Ricky (the oldest), Terry (the middle one) and Darrell (the youngest) — all of whom are the sons of Bernie’s wife. Roxy is the odd one out.

However, Primrose is dangerous, and they need to be ready for him. Bernie asks to see what Roxy can do, and she shows them her power. Soon, he finds other friends with daughters around her age that Roxy can practice with and teach, so they have more firepower. They discover that Roxy is the strongest of all of them.

Just before, Ricky offers Roxy some cocaine to clear her head before the confrontation. The plan was to lure Primrose to a warehouse with the help of Weinstein, a guy they thought sold him out. Instead, Primrose shows up with a bunch more guys than they’d anticipated. She sees Primrose kill Terry.

Angry and afraid, Roxy feels the electricity in her hand as she lights up an iron walkway, causing three of Primrose’s men to go down. When two guys try to grab her, she takes them both down with just a touch. Then, when Primrose tries to get away, Roxy chases after him. As she zaps Primrose, he pleads with her, saying that Bernie came after him first. Roxy kills him.

#### Tunde

After Tunde puts his video online, he gets a call from CNN offering to buy the video. He asks for $5,000 and they immediately agree. After that, he goes around looking for more footage, and CNN buys it off of him. He soon tells his mother that he’s going to take some time off of school.

Needing more and better footage, Tunde travels to Riyadh, where two 12-year-old girls had been killed after being found practicing their powers together. An uncle had gathered his friends to punish them, and they were killed. The night of Tunde’s arrival was the first “great riot” as hundreds of women fought back. Carrying his camera, he found a group of women headed to the riot and told them that he was harmless and there representing CNN. One of the women, Noor, instructs him to strip to show that he doesn’t have any weapons, and then they permit him to travel with them.

As they walk, Noor talks about how women aren’t permitted to drive in their country. She then touches a car and uses her powers to rev up the engine as she encourages Tunde to film it as it explodes. When Noor passes by an old woman, she touches her hand to the old woman’s and shows her how to awaken her powers. Tunde is able to see how the power can be passed and awoken from the young women to the older women.

That night, Noor leads Tunde into an apartment and sleeps with him. The riots continue. 12 days later, Tunde is on his way out of Riyadh, the government has fallen and the King is dead.

#### Margot

With news around the world of riots and women taking over entire cities, Margot and Daniel are in a conference room with about 20 other people to discuss what needs to be done. Daniel is concerned about the dangers of having women as governmental employees who have this power, and he wants all the women to be tested in case they’re hiding their powers.

At home, Margot tells Jocelyn not to tell anyone about her powers, including Jocelyn’s father or her sister Maddy. When Jocelyn stays with Margot one weekend by herself, the two practice their powers together. Jocelyn has been frustrated by her power levels fluctuating and wants to learn to control it. Meanwhile, Margot needs to learn to keep it under control for the purposes of the testing.

Soon, Margot is called in for the “state-wide mandatory testing for the presence of a skein, or the electrostatic power”, which is a requirement for government employment. Daniel has determined that positions involving contact with children or the public are not suitable for those with the power. The test works by triggering “her autonomic nervous function with a series of low-level electrical impulses” and the skein will eventually automatically respond with a jolt.

As the woman runs the test, Margot can feel her body wanting to respond. The machine does ten impulses and Margot watches as she tests negative for each one. She walks away, relieved.

Later, Margot meets with Daniel and Arnold, Daniel’s budget guy. She thinks about how easily she could kill both of them right here in this conference room, and she thinks about how she has “big plans”.

## Trivia

*(e.g. observations, cross-references, 'useless knowledge')*