Even as Allie serenely watches the unfolding crisis along the Bessapara border, she understands what still needs to be done. She says, “The world is trying to get back to its former shape. Everything we’ve done is not enough. There are still men with money and influence who can shape things to their will” (330). Meanwhile, Allie sees that Tatiana, driven solely by paranoia and anger, must be eliminated. Coolly, Allie uses her skein to compel the president to slit her own throat. Against the panic in Bessapara over what seems like the president’s suicide, Allie agrees to step in as interim president.

Jocelyn, Senator Cleary’s daughter, is now a member of the NorthStar expeditionary force sent to Bessapara. She fears that the women’s army is growing more and more dependent on Glitter. She goes rogue and breaks into Darrell’s massive drug-making complex but is caught. Darrell, still unable to entirely control the skein, tries to kill Jocelyn himself but fails—his aim is clumsy and the charge is too small and wild. But the women who work in the factory now realize that Darrell has stolen Roxy’s skein. Infuriated, they descend on him.