Shadow Government

By Michael Jon Colucci

A young man grieves over the state of the US government. This novel includes threats, an assassination attempt, an FBI, a sheriff's department, and a police task force takedown of a supposed extreme right-wing militia group, and at least one crooked politician. Of course, within this wide variety of interesting characters, there has to be romance. Oh yes, there is also a Mafia connection, a rogue CIA agent, and perhaps a few more surprises. In the course of three elections, the new party takes over the government. The grieving young man becomes president, and the vice president is a young Native American woman.

This fictional story is based on my life experiences. Some of the characters are real people. Some are not. The personalities of the real people are as I remember them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 6, 2024
• ISBN: 9798891125155

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Prologue

Chapter 1: The Heart of the Awl

Chapter 2: Who Is Michael Christel?

Chapter 3: Shadow Government

Chapter 4: Best Friends

Chapter 5: The United Nations Problem

Chapter 6: The United States Problem

Chapter 7: The Ethnic Problem

Chapter 8: Our House

Chapter 9: Recruitment

Chapter 10: Contemplation Leads to Discovery

Chapter 11: Back to the Mine

Chapter 12: The Gems

Chapter 13: Expect Some Disappointments

Chapter 14: The West Finley Contingent

Chapter 15: The Problem

Chapter 16: The Millionaires

Chapter 17: The Mafia Connection

Chapter 18: Beauty and the Bank

Chapter 19: Carl

Chapter 20: Another Business Meeting / Date with Danielle

Chapter 21: The Mine

Chapter 22: A Visit from a Banker

Chapter 23: Danielle Is Real

Chapter 24: Valery Running Horse

Chapter 25: Can You Get Me Numbers?

Chapter 26: The Strategy Session

Chapter 27: The Big Meeting

Chapter 28: Mr. Mike

Chapter 29: The Rest of the Meeting

Chapter 30: Leaks, Little and Big

Chapter 31: The Curse

Chapter 32: National TV—To Be or Not to Be

Chapter 33: Website

Chapter 34: TV: Yes!

Chapter 35: TV Time

Chapter 36: The Live Interview

Chapter 37: The Rage

Chapter 38: ACLU Lawsuit Debacle

Chapter 39: The Expanded Cadre

Chapter 40: Perhaps a Liberal Interview

Chapter 41: Live Liberal Interview

Chapter 42: Danielle Needs Help

Chapter 43: Truth and Justice Office

Chapter 44: Unexpected Allies

Chapter 45: Val's Interview

Chapter 46: Deb's Interview

Chapter 47: The Face of Truth and Justice

Chapter 48: Assassination

Chapter 49: Ron's Interview

Chapter 50: Danielle's Interview

Chapter 51: Geoff's Interview

Chapter 52: CIA Threat

Chapter 53: Katrina's Interview

Chapter 54: The Capture

Chapter 55: Chris Visits Val

Chapter 56: Captain Smith Visits Mike

Chapter 57: Tyler's Interview

Chapter 58: The Black SUV

Chapter 59: Prepare for Election

Chapter 60: The First Election

Chapter 61: The Weddings

Chapter 62: The Midterm Election

Chapter 63: The Presidential Election

Epilogue

Cast of Characters

About the Author

cover.jpg

Shadow Government

Michael Jon Colucci

ISBN 979-8-89112-514-8 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89112-515-5 (Digital)

Copyright © 2024 Michael Jon Colucci

All rights reserved

First Edition

Library of Congress

Copyright Office

Registration Number: TXu 2-349-584

Effective Date of Registration

December 12, 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Dedicated to my best friends:

Bill Ealy

Brenda Terry

But mostly to my absolute best friend,

My wife, Adria.

Happiness is being married to your best friend.

Prologue

A writer should write about what he or she knows. I was taught that in my college creative writing class. It's probably the best thing I took away from my first college experience. This fictional story is based on my life experiences. Some of the characters are real people. Some are not. The personalities of the real people are as I remember them. As usual in a book, there is a disclaimer that the names were changed to protect…? Some of the names of the characters were not changed. But I won't tell you which ones. If you know them, you'll recognize them by their personality.

Did you ever read a book that was so complex that you lost track of the characters? Joe Doe was mentioned in chapter 6 and then again in chapter 21. Could you remember who he was? I have a little surprise in this book. There's a list of characters at the end of the book with a description of who they are. It's there so you can refer to it when I don't mention them for a few chapters.

Chapter 1

The Heart of the Awl

Michael Christel sat on the top of a hill overlooking the beautiful vista below him. But the beauty of that which was distant belied the ugliness of what was close. What was close, were his thoughts. His thoughts were black—sad—depressed. He was here to sort out those thoughts. But he wanted to be in a beautiful, serene environment—free of turmoil, free of the ugliness of the world in which he lived. He had a desire to battle his demons in an arena of his own choosing, one of beauty, of tranquility, and far removed from the turmoil of the world down below.

Michael was in Idaho. The state of Idaho has eighty mountain ranges. It has some of the most spectacular scenery in the United States. The Bitterroot Mountain Range is possibly the most recognized name among those ranges. But Michael was atop an obscure peak in the Coeur d'Alene Mountains in the Northern Panhandle of Idaho, west of the Bitterroots, but considered part of the Bitterroot Range. Paradoxically, he was in one of the most beautiful locations in the United States, yet his thoughts were ugly. That is why he came to this location—for the beauty and tranquility, the exact opposite of where his mind was focused. He wanted to juxtapose his thoughts with his location to better ponder his future, his intent, and his destiny. He wanted peace and light to counterbalance the turmoil and the dark. Although his thoughts were intensely world-changing, he didn't think that he was capable of bringing them to fruition.

The Coeur d'Alene Mountains are part of the Northern Rocky Mountains, located in the northern Idaho panhandle. The city of Coeur d'Alene is the county seat of Kootenai County. The city has a population of around 40,000, so one might consider it a large town or a small city. It's about twenty-five miles from Spokane, Washington. Few people have heard of Coeur d'Alene. But it is a beautiful place in which to live. That is why Michael Christel chose to keep it as his place of residence. It was obscure. It was unknown. It was beautiful. Michael lived close to, but outside the city limits. It was only a few minutes' ride down the mountain on the Grouse Meadow Road to Interstate 90. From there, he could go anywhere.

Before the white men came, the area was inhabited by the Schee-Chu-Umesh Indians. They hunted in the mountains and fished in the rivers and lakes. When the French fur trappers arrived in 1795 the Indians impressed them with their sharp trading skills. They said of the Indians that they had the Heart of An Awl (an awl being a commonly used sharp leather tool), and the French translation being Coeur d'Alene. Coeur d'Alene was given its name by those French traders referring to the sharp trading skills of the local Indians.

If you have ever worked in leather, you have most likely used an awl. It is a pointed, sharp tool. But just before the needle point is an opening in which to thread the thick filament that is used to sew the leather. The awl is thick as far as needles go because it has to be very strong. But the point is sharp enough to go through the leather. That point is the heart of the awl. The town of Heart of the Awl was established in 1879 with the French name of Coeur d'Alene.

The Coeur d'Alene area had been a mining community in the 1800s. There were a lot of gold stampedes back in those days. But the Coeur d'Alene stampede in the winter of 1883 and the spring of 1884 was important in those parts. The area was unknown, with no way to get there because it lacked roads or trails. In winter the snow is deep, up to twenty feet high. But over five thousand men participated in the stampede. What they cared about at that time was gold. What they didn't care about was what was unknown at the time; that the mines produce most of the lead, zinc, and silver that is still mined in Idaho. And of course, as most of those in that type of stampede, they ignored the possibility of death because of the harsh weather.

Eventually, the stampede gave out and the gold miners moved out of the area or they died there. Those miners included a man named A. J. Pritchard who it was claimed was left hanging from a tree. A. J. Pritchard had come from Spokane after discovering some gold there. He and his partner, Bill Keeler, found more gold in the Coeur d'Alene area. They returned to Spokane. While Bill abandoned his partner, AJ convinced a number of other men that there was gold in those parts. A number of men traveled to Coeur d'Alene with him. When they didn't find gold, they returned to whence they had come and they told others that they had hung A. J. Pritchard from a tree. But AJ was right and they were wrong. The Pritchard legend wasn't real. Legends are built from a little bit of fact and a lot of imagination. They really didn't hang him. It was just the story they told when they returned to justify their supposed gullibility. If they had a little more faith, they would not have taken on the mantle of gullibility. Pritchard had stayed after the others had left and he really did find gold. A widow had staked him and he prospected until he found what was later named The Widow's Claim. Of course, the part of the widow could all be attributed to the Pritchard legend just as the supposed hanging had been.

Pritchard himself was actually an honest man. He didn't deceive anyone. He had already found gold. He brought his acquaintances there so they could share in his good luck. But they didn't. So they considered him a liar. But he wasn't. Pritchard did get rich. He was so rich in fact that he really didn't have to work anymore. He hired a young man to take care of his claim, a man named Gabriel.

Gabriel had been prospecting but hadn't found any gold of his own. But he was a hard worker and an honest man. Pritchard recognized his qualities and hired him to work his mine shaft at the young age of twenty-two. He was strong so Pritchard forgave him for his youth and trusted him to do the right thing. He paid him a better-than-average wage. Gabriel, being grateful, mined the shaft honestly for Pritchard, until the gold ran out.

Pritchard took the gold to the assay office about once a month. From time to time, when there was an exceptionally good month, Pritchard rewarded Gabe with 10 percent of what he got from the month's haul. That was beside his regular wage. Gabe had become like a son. And AJ wanted to take care of Gabe's future. Gabriel would just add the bonus to his other savings in the bank. He didn't really need to spend much.

Pritchard didn't have any family so to speak. He and his family had abandoned each other. He was considered a recluse and the rest of his family would have nothing to do with him. His wife had left him and he was alone in Coeur d'Alene.

Finally, Pritchard, with all his wealth, moved to his ancestral home in the town of Bosbury in Herefordshire England. Pritchard had been appreciative of the work that Gabriel had done. He let him stay on the property. Thanks to the above-average wage and the bonuses that Gabriel had been paid, he had saved quite a bit of it. And it had been garnering interest for many years.

Working with AJ all those years, he had been provided a place to live in the log cabin with AJ, and AJ took care of the food. Gabriel did all the cooking, so AJ considered it an even trade because as he told others, he couldn't even boil water. Gabriel was able to live comfortably off the income of his savings investments.

In his will, Pritchard deeded to Gabriel the mine and the property on which it was located. He also left him with a comfortable sum of money. So he left Gabriel in an even wealthier position than that which he had been enjoying. After Pritchard died, Gabriel had indeed become a man of means. He also never had to work again and he lived on the generosity of his benefactor. He had the property and a good income from what Pritchard had left him and from his savings. Gabriel Christel lived out his life peacefully in the beautiful mountain area close to what was to become the city of Coeur d'Alene.

As he approached middle age, he was lucky enough to find Emma Louise Bloem. As a man of means, Gabe had educated himself. He began to enjoy the cultural events of the town. At one of those social events, they met. Emma had a sweet spirit. She was quiet, demure, and very graceful. After some time and a careful courtship, Gabe, being somewhat of an isolationist thought that they could be kindred spirits. She was not so involved with the day-to-day busybody stuff that seemed to preoccupy many of the women in town. And she did like the quiet, peaceful life. He could indeed provide her with that. He proposed, she accepted, and they married. They lived on the property in the hills, in the same log cabin. It was sturdily built and Gabe had expanded it to include a bedroom with its own fireplace separated from the living area. He had also added a separate cooking area. So the dining and living area with its warm fireplace was a comfortable area in which to entertain friends. The cabin was close enough to town to continue attending the cultural events that they both loved. Emma was not a woman that rode on horseback. So they would take the buckboard into town, enjoying the beautiful lake scenery along the way.

Being the type of folks that they were, they naturally gravitated to a weekly gathering of what one might call religious folks. They were mostly Lutherans. Years later those folks would get a preacher and establish the first Lutheran church in the area.

After a year of marriage, Gabriel and Emma Louise were blessed with a son. He knew that his father, Harold, had chosen for him the name of the messenger angel. During his self-education, Gabe had learned that his name meant man of God in Hebrew. He was proud of that and strived to live up to his name. Gabriel started a new family tradition. He also named his son after an angel, the warrior angel, Michael. He knew that it meant who is like God. To understand the phrase, it is expanded to he who is like God.

We know biblically that Lucifer was the closest to being like God until the fall of the angels. He thought that he was so close to being like God that he wanted to be above God according to the prophet Isaiah in chapter 14 of the modern Bible. There were no chapters when it was written. Although the names Gabriel and Michael didn't sound similar (except for what might be considered the suffix), the meanings were similar. Gabriel hoped that Michael would name his son Gabriel and that the tradition would continue. But they certainly didn't want a Lucifer in the family tree. The way to institute a tradition is to say, This will be a new tradition. That's pretty simple. Say it enough times and it becomes self-fulfilling. Those involved want to be part of a tradition. Gabriel hoped this new tradition of naming sons after the grandfather would continue for many generations.

As Michael was growing older, Gabriel would tell him that he hoped he would follow this tradition, naming the sons for the grandfathers, thus retaining the names of angelic beings.

He would tell Michael, This is a new tradition that I have started. I named you after an angel. I would be honored if you would name your son after me. I hope your son will continue that tradition, naming his son after you, and that it will continue for many generations. He repeated this to Michael many times.

Chapter 2

Who Is Michael Christel?

Michael's great-great-great-grandfather Gabriel Christel had acquired a portion of that fabled land around Coeur d'Alene. It had been willed to his ancestor; it was thought by some wealthy Englishman. But the family didn't understand the connection between a gold prospector in Idaho and an English nobleman. There were legends associated with the story but they were a bit murky and a century and a half old. The property was on the side of a hill. There was a mining cave and the family had lengthened the shaft from time to time digging forward or sideways at a fairly steep angle.

Occasionally a small amount of silver was found, but it wasn't the family's preoccupation. It was more of a hobby. The fact is, Michael's predecessors had dug down and around and had made side tunnels leading off in different directions. The deepest shaft was estimated to be a quarter mile beneath the surface.

The approximately five hundred original acres on which it was located were passed on to Gabriel Christel's son, Michael Christel.

The family had an odd method of naming sons. They were not named after the father, but after the grandfather. It was a family tradition and its beginnings had been lost. No one knew why they did it. They just wanted to do it. They seemed to be obsessed with naming their first-born sons after archangels of the Bible. We know of Michael. We know of Gabriel. But who in their right mind would name their son Lucifer? So the name Lucifer was missing in from the family tree. They were Protestants and not Catholics so the name of Raphael was also missing in this lineage from the great-great-great-grandfather Gabriel; there was Michael, the great-great-grandfather; Gabriel, the great-grandfather; Michael, the grandfather; Gabriel, the father; and finally, Michael, of whom this is written.

Michael had a small but comfortable cabin on the property, which had been passed down through five generations of Gabriels and Michaels. The cabin had not been passed down, only the property. Michael had built the present cabin himself while in his early twenties. There had been a decrepit log cabin from years past. It really was not inhabitable but he used it to sleep in while he built his new home on weekends and whenever he had time off from work. Much of the time he spent in his rented room in town. But while he was working on his new home, he inhabited the old cabin which was a few hundred yards from the old mining shaft.

Michael occasionally spent time in the shaft just to reflect. He would sit just inside the opening and wonder if there was still gold inside, or even silver, mostly hidden from the picks and shovels of bygone days. Once in a while, he would take a flashlight and a small pick to the end of one of the tunnels, continuing the family hobby. He would pick a little at the walls, then he would inspect the walls for clues of possible treasure, but there were no clues. No treasure was to be found, at least not on the surface of the walls of the mine shaft. On this particular day, he had tried his luck, and as he had expected, failed. He had gone back outside to admire the scenery.

He was still relatively young to be thinking of changing the world. That's where his thoughts were leading. But in his position, he knew that he could do nothing. At his age, twenty-six years old, how could he possibly affect the world? And there was a conundrum. How could he work at changing the world and still be serene? Changing the world would be tumultuous. It had nothing to do with serenity. He desired peace and serenity. But even more, he desired a world of truth, justice, of fairness, and of good, instead of evil.

Biblically, he realized that the dream was impossible. Only after the Great Tribulation could this come to be. So he sat on the mountain and pondered. We don't know the time of the End Times. We should recognize it as it approaches. Yet all generations of Christians seem to think that it will begin in their lifetime. God wants the world to be a good place. If we could change the world in that direction for a while, it would be good.

One might consider Michael a recluse. Idaho is known as the state of choice for reclusive survivalists. I guess that's being polite. Let's rephrase that. Idaho is known as the state of choice for a bunch of nuts living up in the mountains far away from a civilization that they don't trust and they would just as soon blow away. Who knows why Idaho got that reputation? It is a beautiful, majestic state. But it is not very populated. The northern part of Idaho is mountainous. There are many lakes and it is replete with beautiful forests. It serves as home to survivalists, white supremacists, and others who hate the government and wish to harm it. There are places in which the whacko folks can hide. And they do. Because of its attributes, it attracts the crazies.

Michael Christel was not one of those. And Coeur d'Alene was not one of the favored locations of the reclusive. It was too popular. It was a place people wanted to visit because of its natural beauty. It wasn't a good place for the recluse to hide.

Yet Michael was an isolationist of sorts. He liked his privacy. He liked the peaceful life. He chose to stay in the location in which his ancestors had lived. And he had a few thousand acres on which to do just that. His ancestors had acquired pieces of adjacent properties from folks who became enamored of city life and wanted to move to town. He did indeed want to live apart from civilization. He did not like what civilization had become. A civilized locality was not a nice place to live. Even Coeur d'Alene had an above-average crime rate. As small as the town was, there was still about one murder a year. Despite its small size, it reminded him of places like New York City, and Los Angeles, and who would want to gravitate to those evil places.

Coeur d'Alene also had its problems, but he liked the area, and this is where he chose to live. The fact that he owned all that gorgeous property was a contributing factor.

His demon was the continuous battle between his peaceful life and wanting to change the world. He wanted to eradicate the evil that he saw in the world. But he didn't want to destroy civilization. His desire was to fix it. He kept telling himself that the dream was impossible.

Although he wanted to be alone, he had to make a living. He had to work among those people that he wanted to avoid. There were good people among them. But for the most part, he just didn't want to be part of the crowd. He didn't fit.

Michael worked as a marketing rep for a computer company that had an office in Boise. His degree was in Computer Engineering from the University of Idaho. You would think that a salesman would have a business degree. But thankfully he got his job despite the fact that he had no head for business.

His job in the northern portion of the state was to sell the company's software. He didn't really enjoy his work. He needed an income and he regarded his job as a necessary evil to that end. It was also necessary for the survival of his company.

As far as he was concerned, those employees who fixed the bugs in the software that he sold were the real heroes of the company. But the company didn't recognize that. The only big rewards went to the sales force. The sales force could lie, cheat, and steal to make a sale. They would get bonuses for that. Although he recognized the dishonesty of most of his peers and the inequity of salaries within the company, he still had to make a living. So he accepted his salary, commissions and bonuses. And he got the big bucks. He sold the products honestly and warned of the potential problems, but touted the expertise of the technical staff to solve those problems. The techies didn't disappoint him.

When a big customer problem was solved, he usually treated the tech guy or gal to a steak dinner at the beef eater's paradise, Wolf Lodge Inn, about ten or twelve miles from his home. It was a little bit past Coeur d'Alene Lake and the view was beautiful as one drove to the Wolf Lodge Inn. Not only did he consider it a reward for his coworkers but a nice respite from his work and a chance to relax and enjoy life with those he considered his partners in the work that he was doing.

He was very much appreciated among the technical support staff because they had always been treated as second-class citizens as far as the sales force was concerned. Mike, as they called him was different. They knew that he respected their expertise and that he usually rewarded them for it. And they appreciated it. But there was something else. There was something about him that made him different from all the other sales reps. It wasn't that he didn't look down on them. It wasn't that he rewarded them for their help. It was that he seemed to have a genuine interest in them and their families. It was as if he was a friend. Sales reps and techies are not usually friends. They noticed that he didn't really associate much with the other sales reps but spent more time with them.

Michael recognized the difference between much of the sales force and much of the tech force. The salesmen were for the most part charismatic but greedy. They had no thought of helping their customers succeed. They were out for themselves. The technical folks were more likely to be honest and had a desire to help people, to solve their problems, to help them succeed. Of course, the attributes of each were what made the company hire them for their respective positions. The irony was that the technical people were more intelligent yet they earned less.

That's the way it is in companies that sell stuff. Actually, that's the way it is in the world. It is the talent of being charismatic that pays off. Have you ever noticed that famous people sometimes act like idiots? They seem to have no brains at all. Yet they are very wealthy. What got them there? Perhaps it was their singing talent. Or perhaps it was a talent to look beautiful or a talent to memorize without knowing what they are saying. They appeal to the worldly. They have a certain charisma. They just look good.

Have you ever watched a particular news anchor for any length of time? They act as if you should know that they are knowledgeable about everything. You begin to realize from mispronunciation of words, geographical mistakes, or inaccurate statements that they make; that they are not the fonts of knowledge that they pretend to be. Nope—their popularity can be linked to two things. Of course, one of those things is that they look good. But the anchor desk is a very small part of the broadcast studio. There in the darkness of the studio, all kinds of things are happening. The anchor doesn't get distracted. He just reads the news. If disasters are happening off camera, he keeps his cool. Those are his talents—looking good and keeping cool.

Consider politicians. They must be charismatic to get votes. But over time, many of them disgust us. Some are dishonest. Some are perverts. Most are liars. We are a funny nation. We distrust and despise our congressman and senators except for those for whom we