Her body wants something, and she is denying it.The itch of it, the pressure of it, is across the front of her torso, down through the muscles of her stomach, into her pelvis, around her buttocks.It is like simply not passing water when your bladder asks you to.It’s no wonder that the baby girls can’t do it.It’s a wonder they’ve found any adult women at all with this thing.Margot feels herself want to discharge, and doesn’t.The machine clicks onto its tenth setting.It is not impossible, not even nearly.The humming cuts off.The fans whirr and then are silent.Margot tries to look disappointed.No dice, huh?The technician shrugs.Margot tucks one foot behind the other ankle as the technician removes the electrodes.I never thought I had it. She makes her voice crack just a little at the end of the sentence.Daniel will look at this report.He’ll be the one to sign off on it.Cleared, it will say, for government work.She twitches her shoulders and lets out a little barking laugh.And there’s no reason now not to put her in charge of the program rolling out this test across the major metropolitan area.Not a reason in the world.She’s the one who signs off on the budget for it.Who agrees the informational campaigns explaining that this technology will keep our sons and daughters safe.It’s Margot’s name, when you come right down to it, on the official documentation saying that this testing equipment will help save lives.She tells herself, as she signs the forms, that it’s probably true.Any woman who can’t stop herself from discharging under this mild pressure is a danger to herself, a danger, yes, to society.You can see it on the internet.Boys dressing as girls to seem more powerful.Girls dressing as boys to shake off the meaning of the power, or to leap on the unsuspecting, wolf in sheep’s clothing.The Westboro Baptist Church has seen a sudden influx of crazy new members who think the day of judgment is coming.I know it’s not your fault, says Daniel.It’s bold, yes, it suggests a strategy of radical openness about the current state of protection, of treatments, of the potential for any future reversal.She feels the fizz building as he speaks.She has enough power within her to take Daniel’s throat in her grip and pinch him out with one blast.She’d have plenty left to deliver Arnold a blow to the temple, knock him cold, at least.It wouldn’t take much effort.She could do it quickly enough that there’d be no sound.She is in a high and lofty realm, a place where the lungs fill with ice crystals and everything is very clear and clean.It scarcely matters what is actually happening.She could kill them.That is the profound truth of it.She can smell its sweet chemical aroma.Nothing that either of these men says is really of any great significance, because she could kill them in three moves before they stirred in their comfortably padded chairs.It doesn’t matter that she shouldn’t, that she never would.What matters is that she could, if she wanted.The power to hurt is a kind of wealth.She speaks quite suddenly, across Daniel, sharp like the knock at a door.Don’t waste my time with this, Daniel, she says.He’s not her superior.He’s talking as if he could.She says, You and I both know that no one has an answer yet.If you’ve got a