Exactly as Planned

Aubrey and the others continue praying for Cal, who remains unconscious in the hospital, and for the truth to emerge at Tom Riley’s trial. Defense attorney Michael Frasier begins by arguing that Tom destroyed Novacom’s tower while temporarily insane. He intends to show that the company deceived Odyssey, harmed Agnes, and drove Tom to attack the symbol of that harm. Whit is troubled by a defense that assumes Tom did something Whit does not believe he did.

Because Frasier considers Whit’s public opposition to Novacom a weakness in court, Whit is not called to testify for the defense. Instead, he returns to the destroyed tower with Alex and asks him to describe the night of the explosion once more. Alex explains that Cal saw someone running down the hill shortly before Tom came running toward Alex. Cal never identified the first person as Tom. Whit realizes that two people may have been present - the person who planted the bomb and Tom, who arrived in time to warn the boys.

In court, former Andromeda accountant Dwight describes discovering that the corporation had secretly moved millions of dollars into illegal radio-station takeovers around the world. After he alerted the FBI, he and his family entered witness protection. His account shows the enormous reach of Andromeda’s attempt to control broadcasting.

Monica Stone then testifies at the risk of incriminating herself. She admits that she tapped Eugene’s telephone, followed his research disc to Jason, stole it, and sent its contents to Bennett Charles. That information allowed Novacom to finish developing the NovaBox. Monica has made no agreement to reduce her own punishment; she has chosen to expose what she helped the company do.

Mitch appears publicly and explains Operation Think Tank. After finally decoding Andromeda’s records, he has found minutes from its secret board meetings. The documents show that the company encouraged Eugene’s work in converting brain waves to radio waves, then planned to reverse the process so radio waves could influence the brain. Armitage Shanks protested the new direction and was overruled. Mitch believes that protest led to Shanks’s death.

The records also reveal how carefully Andromeda has manipulated events in Odyssey. It arranged the tower on Tom’s land, drew Whit into opening a second shop in Connellsville, and watched for an opportunity to acquire the Imagination Station. After learning from the dangerous black-box tests in Odenton, its researchers combined the stolen machine with Eugene’s research to create the NovaBox. They first tested their control subtly through shopping choices and the local election.

Andromeda knew that the NovaBox’s beneficial effects would fade and could leave users worse than before, but Charles dismissed the harm. Once the scheduled launch occurred, he said, people would no longer need individual boxes. The tower system itself would carry the signals. Frasier uses this evidence to argue that Novacom’s technology could have affected Tom’s actions as well as Agnes’s health.

While the testimony continues, Whit and Alex search the woods near the ruined tower. They find a recently used fire ring and a torn piece of blanket like those provided at the Timothy Center. At an empty cabin, Whit discovers fertilizer matching the material used in the bomb and signs that someone has been living there. The occupant returns: Arthur Dent, who proudly announces that he has saved the world.

Whit brings Arthur and the physical evidence to the judge. Arthur confesses that he destroyed the tower in order to stop Novacom’s plan. With a new suspect and evidence supporting the confession, the judge clears Tom and dismisses the case against him. Tom’s friends give thanks for the answer to their prayers.

Public anger turns against Novacom as people learn what the NovaBox has done. Families bring their devices to be destroyed, and one father reports that after the box briefly improved his daughter’s math, she has become unable to perform even simple addition. The FBI raids Novacom’s offices with a search warrant. Jason and Mitch help Agent Bourland uncover records that could send many of the company’s leaders to prison, but Bennett Charles slips out the back door before agents can catch him.

As Whit takes Tom home from jail, Tom asks to visit Cal in the hospital. Cal has regained consciousness and remembers what he saw from the top of the tower: its wires were loose and connected to nothing. Arthur has destroyed a decoy. Tom recalls seeing someone near the tower before the explosion but still cannot remember enough to identify that person.

Arthur explains that Andromeda’s launch was meant to transmit the technology through a worldwide network of towers by satellite. The signal was designed to work over broad areas without NovaBoxes in individual homes. Although Arthur believes destroying Tom’s tower ended the threat, Cal’s discovery proves otherwise.

Whit and Tom reason that Novacom abandoned the exposed tower and moved the true equipment elsewhere. Because Odyssey’s satellite dishes pointed in the same general direction, Whit looks beyond the ruined tower and notices Forest Mountain, where many older transmitters serve Odyssey, Connellsville, and Odenton. It would be an ideal hiding place for Andromeda’s real installation.

At Novacom, the agents find repeated references to a launch date. Mitch has left unexpectedly to meet Connie, even though he remains in witness protection and Charles is missing. Then Bourland discovers a schedule that identifies the launch date. It is not some distant deadline - it is today.