Sheep's Clothing

Agent Bourland examines the empty place in Whit’s End’s basement where the Imagination Station stood. Whit explains how Aubrey and Erica were trapped in the library while thieves entered through the secret tunnel. Erica’s involvement is especially troubling because her father has taken Arthur Dent’s former position at Novacom. Whit believes Novacom desperately needs both the Imagination Station and Eugene Meltsner’s radio-wave research to complete its technology. Now that the machine has been stolen, Eugene’s research is the one vital piece still beyond the company’s reach.

In Alaska, Monica Stone continues pretending to be Paula Jarvis, a missions-board intern. She jokes with Jason as he unsuccessfully tries to light a gas fireplace with sticks, and Jason enjoys her company. Pastor Walter Madison is less comfortable. Details on Paula’s résumé do not fit her answers, and she claims not to know a longtime missionary whom Walter believes she should have encountered in Suriname.

When Walter steps away, Monica secretly calls Bennett Charles. She says she has studied Jason and is earning his trust while searching for a package from Eugene. She is confident Eugene would send his missing computer disc to Jason and even suggests that Jason may be falling in love with her. Charles impatiently orders her to stop wasting time and find it.

The package arrives at Walter’s radio station, forwarded from Ecuador. Inside, Jason finds a computer disc and a note from Eugene. He immediately asks Walter to lock it in the station safe and tell no one. Walter then voices his suspicions about Paula. The missions board has confirmed that it sent a real woman by that name, but Walter still finds the visitor’s mistakes disturbing. Jason thinks there is an innocent explanation and invites Walter to dinner so that he can get to know her.

During dinner Monica carefully encourages Jason to talk about his life and future. Jason admits that he was once engaged but ended the relationship because the woman did not share his Christian faith. He hopes eventually to settle down and raise a family, perhaps in Odyssey. Monica presents herself as someone with similar hopes, and Jason grows increasingly interested in her. Walter tests her story with more questions. She contradicts her biography about where she grew up, then agrees that she remembers a blueberry festival in Walter’s Ohio hometown. Walter knows that the town actually holds a strawberry festival.

The next morning Monica returns for a ring that she claims to have left behind. Calling it a precious gift from her late grandmother, she asks Jason to place it somewhere secure. Jason agrees to store it for her. Unknown to him, the ring contains a tracking device, and Monica expects him to hide it in the same safe as Eugene’s disc.

Walter contacts Paula Jarvis’s family to verify more information and learns that the real Paula is still at home. A woman from the missions board had told her that the Alaska trip was canceled. At the same time, Whit receives a call from that board and learns that Eugene had urgently requested Jason’s mailing address. Whit realizes that Eugene sent the research disc to Jason and calls to warn him.

Using the signal from the ring, Monica locates the station safe and begins opening it. Charles calls again, and Monica reveals that she had tapped Eugene’s telephone before he disappeared. She overheard him ask the missions board for Jason’s address, which convinced her the disc would come to Alaska. Monica quickly breaks into the safe, but Walter catches her. He exposes the errors in her false history and reveals that he has spoken to the real Paula. Monica drops the disguise, threatens Walter, ties him up, and takes Eugene’s package.

Whit reaches Jason by telephone and explains that the disc contains Eugene’s research into Andromeda’s radio-wave experiments. Novacom has every other component it needs, including the stolen Imagination Station. Whit specifically warns Jason to watch for Bennett Charles and a red-haired woman named Monica Stone. Jason recognizes the description and rushes to the station, where he finds Walter bound and the disc gone.

Jason catches Monica at the airport before her flight to Chicago. She returns the physical disc but calmly tells him that she has already sent its contents electronically from the radio station. Without the weapon or other proof, she doubts that Walter’s accusation can hold her. Monica insists that the technology will be used for wonderful purposes and that her deception will eventually be worthwhile. She also admits that as she came to know Jason, some of her affection became real.

Jason refuses to overlook what she has done. Monica claims that they are alike because both fight for what they believe, but Jason knows their methods and purposes are not the same. She warns him that every part of the operation has been planned and that it is far larger than he understands. Jason is equally determined: now that Novacom possesses Eugene’s research, he will return to the fight rather than let the company carry out its plan unopposed.