The Heaven Trilogy (56 page)
Beyond the window he could see the east guard tower, stoic against the blue sky. Cadione turned back to the man before him. His chest felt as though a vise had screwed down on his heart for the duration. The visitor sat cross-legged now, swinging one leg over the other, his hands folded on his lap.
“This is true? All of it?”
“Every word, Father.”
The fan continued its swishing high above, drying the sweat gathered on Padre Cadione’s neck. “You believe that God is capable of such a thing today, then?”
“I know it, Father!” The man stood to his feet and spread his hands wide. Cadione leaned back in his chair. “His love is greater than the greatest love man can imagine. The most extravagant expression of love is but a dim reflection of his own! We are made in his image, yes?”
“Yes.” The padre could not help but smile with the man.
“You see, then! The greatest passion you are capable of only hints at his love.”
“Yes.” He nodded. “But how is it possible for a man to experience God in such a way? The experiences you speak of are . . . incredible!”
The visitor dropped his hands. “Yes, but they are real. I know.”
“And how do you know?”
The light glinted off the visitor’s eyes, and he smiled mischievously. “I know because I am he.”
Padre Cadione did not respond immediately. He was who? The man in the story? But that was impossible! “You are
who?”
“I am he. I am Kent Anthony.”
The father’s heart missed its rhythm. “Kent? Your file says your name is Kevin. Kevin Stillman.”
“Yes, well, now you know the whole story, don’t you? There are certain advantages to changing identities, my friend. It is the one thing they permitted me to keep when I confessed. A small consolation. And of course, I had to confess—you understand that, don’t you? I
wanted
to confess. But there is no use living in the past. I am a new man. And I rather like the name.”
The father’s mind spun. “So then, you say that you personally glimpsed heaven? That this whole wager of Lucifer’s was over your soul? You say heaven bent over backward to rescue your soul?”
“You think it is presumptuous?” the man said, smiling. “It is no less so than the challenge over your soul, Father. You just do not see it.” He lifted a hand to make a point. “And I’ll tell you something else. Everything is not what it seems. I knew early on that the vagrant in the alley was a man of dreams, but I did see him once, and I am not sure to this day whether he was real. But he was not an angel, I can assure you.”
“You’re saying he was sent from hell, then?”
“Can you think of a reason why not? Now, the others—I believe they were from heaven. I cannot be sure, of course. But the Scriptures do say that we entertain angels without knowing, do they not?”
“Others?”
“Cliff. I could find no record of him in the employment files when I looked for him at the end. And the detective. Detective Pinhead. There is no record of a Jeremy Lawson at the Seventh Precinct. I always suspected there was something with those two. Perhaps even Bono at the bar.”
A knock rapped on the door.
“That seems . . .”
The man grinned wide. “Impossible? Not all things are what they seem, my friend.”
“What happened to the money? To the bankers?”
“Borst and Bentley? Neither work for the bank now. I told the bank everything, of course. Last I heard they were wrapped up in court battles over the bonus money. They cannot win. And no bank will hire dishonest men. I pity them, really. As for the money, I liquidated everything and returned the money to each and every account from which it was taken, twenty cents at a time. Using ROOSTER, of course. Only the authorities and a few officials at the highest level even know what happened. The bank insisted I keep the $250,000 recovery fee. I tried to give it back, but they said I had earned it by exposing Borst and Bentley. And by developing AFPS, of course.”
The rap sounded again. “Time’s up, Chaplain.”
“Come in,” Cadione called, keeping his eyes on the man. The pieces to this puzzle locked in his mind, and he stood, frozen by them.
A uniformed guard walked through the door and stopped. “Come on. Let’s go.” The guard waved a night stick in Kent’s direction. “Back to the cell.”
The prisoner named Kevin, who was really Kent—Kent Anthony—turned to leave, still smiling at Padre Cadione.
“And what of Lacy?” Cadione asked, ignoring the guard.
Kent smiled. “I’ll be up for parole in two years. If all goes well, we plan to be wed then. Maybe you could do the honors, Father.”
He nodded. “Yes. And Helen?”
“Yes, Helen. You will have to meet Helen someday, Padre. She was not always the kind of woman she was in this story, you know. Her life story will make you weep. Perhaps someday when we have more time, I will tell you. It will make you see things differently. I promise.”
“I would like that,” the chaplain heard himself say. But his mind was spinning, and he was finding it difficult to concentrate.
The prisoner turned at the door and winked. “Remember, Father. It is true. Every last word is true. The same challenge has been cast over your soul. You should ponder that tonight before you sleep. We are all Jobs in one way or another.”
They led him out, still smiling.
Padre Cadione staggered to his chair and sat hard. It had been a long time since he had prayed more than meaningless words. But that was about to change.
Everything was about to change.
TED DEKKER is known for novels that combine adrenaline-laced plot twists with the supernatural and the surreal. He is the best-selling author of multiple titles including
Obsessed, The Circle Trilogy (Black, Red, White), Thr3e, Blink,
The Martyr’s Song series (
Heaven’s Wager, When Heaven Weeps,
and
Thunder of Heaven
) and the co-author of the best-selling series
Blessed Child
and
A Man Called Blessed
. Raised in the jungles of Indonesia, Ted now lives with his family in the mountains of Colorado.
The Circle
Fleeing assailants through an alleyway in Denver late one night, Thomas Hunter narrowly escapes to the roof of an industrial building. Then a silent bullet from the night clips his head and his world goes black. When he awakes, he finds himself in an entirely different reality . . . a green forest that seems more real than where he was. Every time he tries to sleep, he wakes up in the other world, and soon he truly no longer knows which reality is real.
Never before has an entire trilogy—all in hardcover format—been released in less than a year. On the heels of
The Matrix
and
The Lord of the Rings
comes a new trilogy where dreams and reality collide. Where the fate of two worlds depends on one man: Thomas Hunter
Each book in the trilogy is also available in abridged (CD) and
unabridged (CD and cassette) editions.”
Discover more at
TedDekker.com
A Novel of Good, Evil, and All That Lies Between
Imagine answering your cell phone one day to a mysterious voice that gives you three minutes to confess your sin. If you don't, he'll blow the car you're driving to bits and pieces. So begins a nightmare that grows with progressively higher stakes. There's another phone call, another riddle, another three minutes to confess your sin. They cycle will not stop until the world discovers the secret of your sin.
THR3E is a psychological thriller that starts full-tilt and keeps you off-balance until the very last suspense-filled page.
This novel is also available as an abridged CD audio edition.
Discover more at
TedDekker.com
Also Available from Ted Dekker
The future changes in the
BLINK of an eye...or does it?
Seth Borders isn't your average graduate student. For starters, he has one of the world's highest IQs. Now he's suddenly struck by an incredible power—the ability to see multiple potential futures.
Still reeling form this inexplicable gift, Seth stumbles upon a beautiful woman named Miriam. Unknown to Seth, Miriam is a Saudi Arabian princess who has fled her veiled existence to escape a forced marriage of unimaginable consequences. Cultures collide as they're thrown together and forced to run from an unstoppable force determined to kidnap or kill Miriam.
An intoxicating tale set amidst the shifting sands of the Middle East and the back roads of American,
Blink
engages issues as ancient as the earth itself...and as current as today's headlines.
Discover more at
TedDekker.com
Also Available from Ted Dekker
B
LESSED
C
HILD
By Ted Dekker and Bill Bright
The young orphan boy was abandoned and raised in an Ethiopian monastery. Now he must flee those walls or die. But the world is hardly ready for a boy like Caleb. When relief expert Jason Marker agrees to take Caleb from the monastery, he opens humanity's doors to an incredible journey filled with intrigue and peril. Together with Leiah, the nurse who escapes to America with them, Jason discovers Caleb's stunning power. But so do the boy's enemies, who will stop at nothing to destroy him. Jason and Leiah fight for the boy's survival while the world erupts into debate over the source of the boy's power. In the end nothing can prepare any of them for what they will find.
A M
AN
C
ALLED
B
LESSED
By Ted Dekker and Bill Bright
In this explosive sequel, to
Blessed Child,
Rebecca Soloman leads a team deep into the Ethiopian desert to hunt the one man who may know the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. But Islamic fundamentalists fear that the Ark's discovery will compel Israel to rebuild Solomon's temple on the very site of their own holy Mosque in Jerusalem.