Expect the Worst

More than eighty percent of Odyssey’s households now own NovaBoxes. From FBI protection, Mitch connects the strange product names in Andromeda’s secret messages to the buying craze the children have uncovered. He concludes that Novacom has been testing whether its device can influence people’s choices. Selling cola, chips, and birdhouses is not the true goal; these small experiments reveal how effectively the NovaBox can alter behavior.

One more name in the files gives Mitch a way to test his theory. Glenn Claremont is running for county commissioner but has only a tiny share of the vote, while his opponent appears certain to win. Mitch predicts that Novacom will influence NovaBox users to vote for Claremont. Agent Bourland finds the idea alarming but insists that a theory will not be enough to build a legal case.

Monica confronts Bennett Charles about what the NovaBox does to the brain. Charles reluctantly admits that the technology is imperfect and that users’ improved abilities may deteriorate later. He calls it a small setback but cannot name anyone trying to correct it. Monica realizes that Andromeda does not care whether the box genuinely helps people as long as it can make them obey. When she threatens Charles, he reminds her that he possesses evidence of her own crimes.

On election day, the impossible prediction comes true: Claremont wins in a landslide. Mitch regards the result as proof that the NovaBox is being used to alter minds. Bourland begins pursuing subpoenas, search warrants, and possible broadcasting violations, determined to make the case strong enough to survive in court. Mitch is frustrated by the slow process and hopes that someone in Odyssey can act before Novacom’s plans advance further.

Alex, Cal, and Mandy also want to stop the NovaBox. At a meeting of their Wonderworld Detective Club, Cal proposes disabling the Novacom tower on Tom Riley’s land because all the satellite dishes point toward it. Mandy refuses to join such a dangerous plan, and Alex warns that climbing the tower and pulling wires is reckless. Cal nevertheless announces that he will go alone the following night.

Agnes Riley’s improvement collapses. Tom finds the stove dangerously hot and Agnes’s hand burned, and for a moment she does not recognize her husband. When she asks him to take her home, she means Hillingdale Haven rather than the farmhouse. Heartbroken, Tom brings her back to the hospital. He blames himself for trusting Novacom and for allowing the company to build its tower on his property. In his grief and anger, he tells Whit that he wishes he could tear it down with his own hands.

Whit seeks help from Jack Allen. Every effort to expose Novacom seems to end in defeat, and Whit fears that the worst has not yet happened. He asks Jack to gather friends for sustained prayer. Jack and Joanne have already been praying, and they agree to bring the others together.

That night Alex follows Cal to the tower, intending to stop him. Cal climbs anyway, leaving Alex below with a walkie-talkie. Near the top, he sees a man running into the woods and notices something strange. Before he can explain, Tom arrives and urgently orders Alex to flee because the tower has been rigged to explode. When he learns that Cal is still high above them, Tom takes the radio, tells Cal to climb down, and helps him jump the final distance. The tower explodes as they try to escape.

Alex escapes with cuts and bruises, while Cal injures his ankle and remains unconscious when an ambulance takes him away. Tom suffers a head injury and briefly loses consciousness, but he has saved Cal’s life. Afterward Tom remembers pacing inside his house but cannot recall why he went to the tower or what happened there. The police find reason to believe he planted the bomb and arrest him, even though neither Tom nor Whit knows who actually caused the explosion.

While Jack, Connie, Aubrey, Whit, and their friends pray, defense attorney Michael Frasier advises Tom to plead guilty and argue that Novacom’s treatment drove him temporarily insane. Frasier believes this strategy could free Tom and expose the company, but Whit objects because Tom may be innocent. Tom’s missing memory leaves him unable to say with certainty that he did not do it.

At the trial, prosecutor Frank Pierce portrays Tom as a vengeful man who deliberately destroyed the tower after Novacom harmed Agnes. The prosecution shows that fertilizer of the type used in the bomb was stored in Tom’s barn. Whit is forced to repeat Tom’s angry statement that he would pull down the tower if he could. Each fact appears damaging when separated from its setting, and the prosecution rests its case while Tom’s friends continue praying that the truth will become clear.