Margot Cleary (book)

## Margot

**Margot Cleary (book)** is a main character in the *The Power (book)*. She is the mayor of Seattle and the mother of two kids.

## Character Story

#### Ten Years to Go

*This section is a detailed plot of this book chapter and **contains spoilers.** Click to expand.*

Margot Cleary, the city mayor, discusses with Daniel Dandon, the state governor, whether or not the videos getting posted online of women and girls sprouting electricity from their hands are fake, and whether or not the schools should shut down for the day. She reluctantly agrees to shut down the schools.

Then Margot hears from her ex-husband, Bobby, that their daughter Jocelyn has been caught fighting with a boy and injuring him. Jocelyn tells Margot that she’s had this power now for six months. Margot asks Jocelyn to show her, even though Jocelyn warns it will hurt.

She does, and Margot feels a jolt of pain that seems to spread throughout her body. She recalls a recent report from the CDC saying that these electrical jolts target the pain centers of the brain, making it hurt even more. Then, she feels something in her collarbone, and afterwards Margot knows she has the power, too, and “she remembers that maybe she has always known it and it has always belonged to her”.

#### Nine Years to Go

*This section is a detailed plot of this book chapter and **contains spoilers.** Click to expand.*

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”.

#### Eight Years to Go

*This section is a detailed plot of this book chapter and **contains spoilers.** Click to expand.*

Elsewhere, Margot goes on a morning television show with her daughter Jocelyn to discuss the use of powers. They bring up how Jocelyn ended up hurting a boy, Laurie Vincens, after she realized she had her powers. Jocelyn attributes this happening to her lack of control over her powers at the time.

Margot then advocates for creating safe spaces where girls can learn to use and, crucially, to control their powers. She recommends finding girls who have good control to help teach the other ones. Then, she says that they can have a zero-tolerance policy for usage of powers outside of these zones.

One of the interviewers, Tom, sounds skeptical and fearful of this suggestion, but Margot says she thinks it’ll be safer if the girls know to control their powers, especially since there appears to be no cure so far.

Back at the office, Daniel is horrified at Margot’s suggestion on TV. But by the end of the week, Margot has received around a million and a half dollars in donations for her to start her training camps, and before long she’s located a few possible venues like shut-down schools with large gymnasiums.

After a few months, there start to be suggestions that perhaps Margot Cleary should be running for a higher office.

#### Six Years to Go

*This section is a detailed plot of this book chapter and **contains spoilers.** Click to expand.*

At home, Margot is preparing answers for questions on why she should be elected governor. Alan, someone helping on her campaign, helps her prep.

Meanwhile, Jocelyn has been attending NorthStar camp to learn how to control and use her powers for the last two years. Today, Jocelyn introduces Margot to her boyfriend, Ryan. They then go upstairs and start to fool around. Ryan has a genetic abnormality that caused him to grow a skein and he survived it. Ryan has a small amount of power, but he has it.

Back downstairs, Margot continues to prep. She tells herself that she wants this position to be able to help Jocelyn and advocate for her, however, deep down she knows the “real reason is that she can’t stop thinking of the look she’d see on Daniel’s face if she got”.

#### Five Years to Go

*This section is a detailed plot of this book chapter and **contains spoilers.** Click to expand.*

Before the big debate between Margot and Daniel, Daniel’s campaign manager, Morrison, gives him some encouragement. The debate starts, and Morrison notes that Margot seems to be getting the upper hand. At the commercial break, Morrison encourages Daniel to be more aggressive. As Daniel starts going for more of an attack, Morrison notices Margot tense up. She seems to be struggling to control her hands. Finally, when Daniel suggests that she doesn’t care about her daughters, Margot lets out a small jolt of electricity that causes him to stagger.

The rest of the debate continues as normal, and following the debate, Margot apologies for what happened. The polling suggests that people are appalled by what happened.

However, after voting day comes and the final votes comes in, it seems people actually did like her show of strength. Margot wins.

Margot suggests Jocelyn to break up with Ryan, showing her reports that Ryan has been frequenting extremist sites and posting under a false name about planning terror attacks. Jocelyn insists that Ryan is a good person, but Margot tells her that the FBI dug up this stuff, hinting that the Department of Defence is vetting her for a possible senatorial run.

Jocelyn tearfully agrees to break things off with Ryan. Margot consoles Jocelyn, saying she understands that she’s frustrated about her fluctuations in power that make her abnormal, just like Ryan is abnormal. Margot reassures her that they can find some way to fix her.

By now, NorthStar camps are serving as funnel for girls going into the army and straight into active duty, with NorthStar camps collecting a “bounty” for each girl. It has made Margot Cleary popular with the army since it was her program.

#### One Year

*This section is a detailed plot of this book chapter and **contains spoilers.** Click to expand.*

(Four invitation cards from President Tatiana Moskalev, dated June 15, addressed to Senator Margot Cleary, Mother Eve, Roxy and Tunde.)

In Bessapara at a party at the President’s mansion, Tunde interviews Senator Cleary about the situation in Moldova. Margot explains that she supports President Moskalev because she was the democratically elected leader of her country. However, Tunde suggests that Margot’s interest is in ensuring that the exiled House of Saud (Awadi-Atif) doesn’t regain power in Saudi Arabia, thereby threatening the U.S. access to their oil.

Afterwards, he turns off the video for the interview, but he leaves the audio running. Margot then suggests to him that if he hears anything about what UrbanDox has planned, that he could make a lot of money by coming to her with that information. As Margot walks away, she thinks about how Tunde is so successful as a reporter because of how attractive he is.

Margot then goes to greet Tatiana Moskalev, who is seated on a golden throne. As they talk, Tatiana asks for U.S. assistance in their war against Northern Moldova. They are currently losing because they were betrayed by some men in Bessapara who told the North where their troops would be. Tatiana says that they may have to “alter” their laws to ensure they can root out the traitor and is hoping the U.S. will support them by staying out of their affairs.

Tatiana also says she is considering employing some NorthStar girls in their fight. As Margot thinks it through, she considers how the deployment of the girls in Bessapara would help to convince the UN to allow other deployments of NorthStar girls in places such as Saudi Arabia (where the U.S. has oil interests) by having a successful test case elsewhere. Securing that deal would be very beneficial for Margot (both in terms of her level of influence and possibility of profit).

Margot agrees to help convince the President of the U.S. that non-intervention is the right way to go. On her way out of the party, she bumps into Tunde who seems rushed and a little panicked.

#### Can’t Be More Than Seven Months Left

*This section is a detailed plot of this book chapter and **contains spoilers.** Click to expand.*

Jocelyn is still in Bessapara. After the attack on NorthStar, Margot sent Jocelyn to a therapist to work out trauma regarding the attack. However, Jocelyn hasn’t disclosed the truth of what really happened to the therapist because the therapist works for NorthStar and she doesn’t know if it’s safe to talk to her. Instead, they talk about Ryan. Ryan managed to get back in touch with her and has continued to insist that he had never posted or said any of the things that Margot claimed he did. Jocelyn knows that her mother has a habit of lying so much nowadays, so she believes Ryan.

Meanwhile, online Jocelyn has been reading various accounts of the atrocities in Bessapara where men are being raped and murdered and having experiments performed on then. Someone named Tom Hobson has been reporting on it and how the U.S. is stationed there so that Margot Cleary can export Glitter to be sold at a markup in the United States. Jocelyn thinks about how getting doses of Glitter has finally helped her to regulate her powers instead of having the abnormal highs and lows and other women don’t seem to experience.

#### Here It Comes

*This section is a detailed plot of this book chapter and **contains spoilers.** Click to expand.*

In her office, Margot gets a call that Jocelyn has been found in the woods, barely alive. Margot is horrified to hear the news, thinking of Jocelyn as a child. She wonders “how can we stop it happening again” and she thinks about how the “old tree [of power] still stands” and how it needs to be blast to pieces.

Margot advises the President that the United States must appear strong and send them a message that the U.S. is capable of and willing to escalate things. The President brings up rumors that the terrorists have ex-Soviet chemical weapons.

At that moment, all the parties (UrbanDox, Margot, Awadi-Atif, Mother Eve) are poised and ready for a fight.