Heaven's Wager
Encyclopedia
Heaven's Wager is the first novel written by American
author
Ted Dekker and his third published. It was first released in 2000 by WestBow Press
.
Kent Anthony signing a multi-million dollar contract for a remarkable banking security system that he has developed. While on a business trip to seal the details, he receives a phone call telling him that his wife is seriously ill. He arrives at the hospital just to see his wife die before his eyes, terminating his happiness. Worse, he later learns that his bosses have taken advantage of his absence from the meeting to take the credit, and twenty million dollars, for his program.
Kent vigorously fights to re-claim his fortune, but the legal battle appears useless. About a month later, his son, Spencer is killed by a hit-and-run driver, making Kent inconsolable. In a scene mirroring another near the beginning of the book, he walks past a homeless man on his way to work, no longer so confident. An offhand comment from the man leads Kent to jokingly entertain the notion of using his system to steal twenty million dollars from the bank, but he soon becomes engrossed with the idea, plotting every detail over the next few months. He meets up with a former colleague, Lacy, and considers giving up his plan for her, but in the end curtly informs her that he is going to steal an outrageous amount of money and leave for good. "It's either this or suicide," he breaks down, and she reluctantly agrees to secrecy.
A great deal of the novel is spent on Kent's "perfect crime
". Posing as a morgue
attendant, he steals a bullet-riddled body and transports it to the bank, where he uses a "backdoor" in the security system (about which only he knows) to steal twenty cents from one hundred million accounts each. The program that he accesses leaves no trace, and he installs a virus onto each account from which he steals designed to return the twenty cents if the customer complains. After depositing the embezzled millions into separate banks, Kent leaves the corpse and sets the bank on fire, staging an attempted robbery and arson
. The press believes Kent to be the victim of the "murder", and no one even suspects that money has been stolen.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
Ted Dekker and his third published. It was first released in 2000 by WestBow Press
Thomas Nelson (publisher)
Thomas Nelson is a publishing firm that began in Scotland in 1798 as the namesake of its founder. Its former US division is currently the sixth largest American trade publisher and the world's largest Christian publisher. It is owned by the private equity firm Kohlberg & Company...
.
Plot Overview
The novel opens with protagonistProtagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
Kent Anthony signing a multi-million dollar contract for a remarkable banking security system that he has developed. While on a business trip to seal the details, he receives a phone call telling him that his wife is seriously ill. He arrives at the hospital just to see his wife die before his eyes, terminating his happiness. Worse, he later learns that his bosses have taken advantage of his absence from the meeting to take the credit, and twenty million dollars, for his program.
Kent vigorously fights to re-claim his fortune, but the legal battle appears useless. About a month later, his son, Spencer is killed by a hit-and-run driver, making Kent inconsolable. In a scene mirroring another near the beginning of the book, he walks past a homeless man on his way to work, no longer so confident. An offhand comment from the man leads Kent to jokingly entertain the notion of using his system to steal twenty million dollars from the bank, but he soon becomes engrossed with the idea, plotting every detail over the next few months. He meets up with a former colleague, Lacy, and considers giving up his plan for her, but in the end curtly informs her that he is going to steal an outrageous amount of money and leave for good. "It's either this or suicide," he breaks down, and she reluctantly agrees to secrecy.
A great deal of the novel is spent on Kent's "perfect crime
Perfect crime
Perfect crime is a colloquial term used in law and fiction to characterize crimes that are undetected, unattributed to a perpetrator, or else unsolved as a kind of technical achievement on the part of the perpetrator....
". Posing as a morgue
Morgue
A morgue or mortuary is used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification, or removal for autopsy or disposal by burial, cremation or otherwise...
attendant, he steals a bullet-riddled body and transports it to the bank, where he uses a "backdoor" in the security system (about which only he knows) to steal twenty cents from one hundred million accounts each. The program that he accesses leaves no trace, and he installs a virus onto each account from which he steals designed to return the twenty cents if the customer complains. After depositing the embezzled millions into separate banks, Kent leaves the corpse and sets the bank on fire, staging an attempted robbery and arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
. The press believes Kent to be the victim of the "murder", and no one even suspects that money has been stolen.