Story so far
As mayor, Jahns enforced the cleaning laws without taking pleasure in the deaths they required. She could not bear to watch cleanings, returning afterward to mourn, and did not know what cleaners saw through their visors. After Holston’s death, she set out with Marnes to interview Juliette for sheriff. The journey took her far below the levels she had visited for years and strengthened her determination to appoint Juliette despite Bernard Holland’s interference and growing influence.
Jahns learned about Juliette’s family losses and mechanical ingenuity, promised to seek waivers for her diverted supplies, and agreed to the power holiday that would allow essential generator repairs. The trip also renewed a long-suppressed intimacy with Marnes. Widowed from Donald, she grieved the decades spent alone, then shared kisses and slept in Marnes’s arms. On the return climb they held hands, while she looked forward to elections and imagined Juliette eventually becoming mayor.
After drinking from the canteen carried by Marnes, Jahns collapsed at the nursery, suffering burning discomfort, weakness, and a medical emergency involving blood. She told Marnes she had always loved him and realized that the water contained poison intended for him. Her killing was investigated but legally treated as manslaughter because she had not been the intended victim, an offense carrying five years’ probation and silo service. As Deagan Knox contemplates his own uprising, he uses her long life to measure the time separating it from the old revolt.
Role
The deceased mayor whose appointment of Juliette and death reshaped the silo’s leadership.
Relationships
Marnes — Jahns and Marnes acknowledged a longstanding love shortly before she drank poison intended for him.
Juliette — Jahns recruited Juliette as sheriff and enabled the generator repairs through a power holiday.
Donald — Donald was Jahns’s late husband, whose memory continued to influence her.
Sources — 84 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 1
- Holston requests the mayor after entering the holding cell.
Chapter 2
- Jahns is the silo’s mayor.
- Jahns sometimes sits in the empty holding cell at night to enjoy its outside view.
- Jahns tells Holston she does not want him sent outside for the sake of a clearer view.
- Jahns says no mayor since the uprising has sent more people to cleaning than she has.
- Jahns says she takes no pleasure in sending people to cleaning.
- Jahns says Holston knowingly broke the law.
- Jahns presses Holston to say whether he will clean the sensors.
Chapter 5
- The mayor helps Deputy Marnes handle Holston’s procedural duties after Allison is confined.
Chapter 8
- Jahns begins knitting a cotton sweater while watching the outside view.
- Jahns must select a new sheriff after the death of her previous sheriff.
- Jahns offers to promote Marnes to sheriff.
- Jahns feels jealous of Marnes’s admiration for Juliette.
- Jahns decides to visit Juliette in person with Marnes to assess her as a sheriff candidate.
- Jahns says her journey is a personal getaway rather than an election campaign.
- Jahns has not traveled much below the fortieth level for a long time.
- Jahns fears that the silo will not survive long without her.
Chapter 9
- Jahns plans to descend halfway through the silo in one day, with stops along the route.
- Jahns visits Juliette’s father to understand why neither father nor daughter has visited the other for nearly twenty years.
- Jahns realizes that cleanings stimulate travel and trade throughout the silo.
- Jahns reaches the twentieth floor with Marnes in just over two hours.
- Jahns has an implant inserted at birth that has never been removed.
- As mayor, Jahns signs a congratulatory letter and birth certificate for every birth.
- Jahns takes Marnes’s hand while listening to Dr. Nichols describe his family’s losses.
- Jahns wonders whether personal feelings are influencing both Marnes’s nomination of Juliette and her own support for it.
Chapter 10
- Jahns has not visited the deeper portions of the silo for a lifetime.
- Jahns has traditionally sought IT approval for her nominations by wire.
- Jahns says IT has never rejected one of her nominations.
- Jahns had considered Holston a potential successor as mayor.
- Jahns treats the lack of formal complaints against her preferred candidate as permission to interview her for sheriff.
- Jahns rebukes Bernard for disclosing her confidential candidate list.
Chapter 11
- Jahns becomes determined to persuade Juliette to accept the sheriff position despite opposition.
- Jahns has run unopposed in the last few mayoral elections.
- Jahns worries that Bernard could become mayor or control the silo through other officials.
- Jahns stays overnight in a separate guest room from Marnes at the upper gardens.
- Jahns finds being alone with Marnes calming and natural.
- Jahns does not consult a priest.
- Jahns feels that her late husband Donald still watches her and motivates her to be good.
Chapter 12
- Jahns skips her planned tour and lunch at the ninetieth-floor farm.
- On the second day of the descent, Jahns feels renewed rather than exhausted.
- Jahns asks to see Juliette at work before the planned interview.
- Jahns signed the mandate requiring uninterrupted full power.
- Jahns proposes a power holiday in memory of people who clean.
- Jahns proposes reducing IT’s power consumption for a week of maintenance.
- Jahns recognizes that Marnes had been attracted to her before she married his best friend.
Chapter 13
- Jahns questions Marck about Juliette while visiting the mess hall.
- Jahns thinks Marck is kind and gentle.
- Jahns admires Juliette’s ingenuity after hearing about the pump assignment.
Chapter 14
- Jahns fears the alternative sheriff candidate would take more direction from the thirties than from her or the Pact.
- Jahns wants closer communication between her office and Mechanical.
- Jahns promises to request retroactive emergency waivers to legitimize Juliette’s diverted supplies.
- Jahns agrees to begin arranging the power holiday the following morning.
Chapter 15
- Jahns finds climbing back up the silo physically exhausting.
- Jahns grieves for both her dead husband and the decades she has spent alone.
- Jahns recognizes that escaping the sight of Holston and his wife helped motivate her trip to Mechanical.
- Jahns begins to understand why some grieving people might volunteer for cleaning.
- Jahns shares kisses and sleeps in Marnes’s arms at the midlevel deputy station.
- Jahns has not slept with a man in her arms for decades.
- Jahns prolongs breaks on the final day of climbing because she dreads seeing Bernard and ending the trip.
- Jahns brings Juliette’s contract to IT for a signature.
- Bernard addresses Jahns as Marie.
Chapter 16
- Jahns and Marnes hold hands openly during the dark portions of their climb home.
- Jahns drinks water from the canteen carried by Marnes.
- Jahns worries that returning home will restore the old distance between her and Marnes.
- Jahns believes Juliette could eventually make a good mayor.
- Jahns feels renewed enthusiasm for the coming elections.
- Jahns suspects Marnes refused promotion because becoming sheriff would prevent a relationship with her.
- Jahns stops at the nursery to use the bathroom and see Juliette’s father.
- Jahns experiences severe burning discomfort while relieving herself.
- Jahns becomes so weak after using the bathroom that she considers staying overnight at the nursery.
- Jahns has an apparent medical emergency involving blood as staff examine her legs.
- Jahns cannot swallow the water Marnes gives her during her collapse.
- Jahns tells Marnes she has loved him for as long as she can remember.
- Jahns realizes that the water she drank contained poison intended for Marnes.
Chapter 19
- Jahns has been killed, and her death is under investigation.
- Jahns requested that Holston be remembered for his service rather than merely as a cleaner.
Chapter 22
- Juliette says Jahns was previously married.
- Juliette suspects respect for Jahns’s previous marriage motivated keeping her relationship with Marnes private.
Chapter 23
- Jahns’s death is legally treated as manslaughter because the poison was intended for Marnes.
- The accidental killing of Jahns carries five years’ probation and silo service.
Chapter 28
- Juliette believes Jahns and Marnes may have loved one another, based on her reading of Marnes.
Chapter 30
- Jahns could not bear to watch cleanings and would instead visit the following morning to mourn.
- Jahns did not know what the cleaners were seeing through their visors.
Chapter 49
- Knox uses Jahns’s long life as a measure when imagining the time separating the earlier uprising from his own.