Excerpt from THE COUNTERFEIT by Ralph DeFalco:
Nolan floated up out of a dark silent sea and regained consciousness. He turned his face toward a light and began to hear voices from a distance.
“How much?”
“She said the whole packet. Full dose.”
“People react differently.”
Then, much nearer, as a whisper in his ear, “Just open your eyes. Slowly. Look down.”
Nolan opened his eyes in narrow slits and shied away from the blazing light.
He lowered his head and opened his eyes a bit more.
“There you are. Welcome back,” said the soothing voice near to him. A woman. A stethoscope he barely saw but he could feel came away from his chest. “Relax. Breathe normally. Just look down.”
Nolan opened his eyes a bit wider and found the painted concrete floor at his feet awash in light. He shook his head and tried to rise only to find he couldn’t move. His eyes adjusted and he saw he was tied to a chair, not uncomfortably, but securely. His vision cleared and he saw that duct tape bound his wrists to the arms of the chair, his ankles to its legs.
“Relax, no one is going to hurt you,” a man’s deep voice said. “You are restrained only for your own protection. This is a bit disorienting.”
“Where am I?” Nolan asked.
“You’re in a safe place.”
“Who are you?”
A soft chuckle. “All the usual questions. As to who I am, we’ll get to that.”
Nolan twisted in his chair and tugged against his bonds.
“Why am I being held prisoner?” Nolan looked up and then turned away from the fierce light. He planted his feet and tried to lean forward. He could see nothing in the shadows. He sensed there were more people in the room, but the man speaking to him was only five or six feet away. Maybe not too far to lunge at him and make contact.
“You are not a prisoner. You’ll be released soon enough. As to who I am, let’s just say I’m one of many who are not happy with the situation in our country.”
Nolan’s mind steadied. The fog was clearing. He needed to stall, needed time to think his way out of this.
“Unhappy? I don’t see why,” Nolan said. “People are working, and we’re making our contribution to a world of plenty for all. Our unwise debt is being paid off. Our government has benefited greatly from the assistance of the commissioners and advisors here, as have American businesses and industries. We can all now see the way ahead in a partnership of peace and prosperity.”
“You’re not very convincing,” the voice said. “Though I do recognize the approved politically correct thoughts. Look, let’s stop this. We don’t have much time.”
“Who are you?” Nolan shouted. “Why did you bring me here? What do you want from me?”
“We are Americans. The government and its pet-dog media call us Radicals. We’re military officers who will keep faith with our oath to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We’re prepared to defend this country, even at the risk of our lives. We’ll use every means of resistance and we will take back our country.”
Nolan heard the steel in the man’s voice.
“You’re here because we chose you very carefully,” the man said. “You were a highly trained, one might even say gifted, intelligence professional in the navy. Those skills don’t atrophy. We know what you did during the war. We’ve talked—quietly—to people you served with, both officers and enlisted. To say they gave you high marks would be an understatement.”
“Who did you talk with?” Nolan asked.
“Don’t act the fool, Commander. No names here. We intend to protect their names and yours. We checked your personnel record. You’ve been all but isolated for two years. You’re alone. Divorced. She’s remarried. No contact. No children. No constant or close friends. Your parents are dead—”
Nolan sucked in a deep breath. The news hit him in the gut. Despite all his years of resentment and separation from his parents, he felt a pang of remorse.
“—and the risk to others is almost nonexistent.”
“Risk of what?” Nolan asked.
“Of reprisals. But I’m getting ahead of myself. For about a year now we’ve been exploiting the intelligence from one of our most successful operations. We finally got inside their firewalls, and from there, with a little help from our friends, we got access to the Department of Homeland Security database and more. It didn’t take much for the gang at Homeland to become the American Gestapo. It’s our own Ministry of Security thanks to the help of their cadre of Chinese advisors.”
The deep voice was silent for a few moments and then continued. “Homeland has tremendous power, even more since they now conduct full-on domestic surveillance. Add all the stuff the National Security Agency sucks up every day, and now it’s NSA along with the FBI, state police, local cops, the social media snoops... you know what we’re up against.”
Nolan shook his head and tried to flex his wrists. “That still doesn’t explain why you kidnapped me.” He felt tightness in his legs. “What’s this got to do with me?”
“I’ll get to that soon. We’ve been able to get just so far with what we can do with their network data. We suspect—no, we’re virtually certain—that one or more of our planning cells have been penetrated, and we think they have a great deal more intelligence about us. They keep it in another compartment for security. It’s likely a program with special access and is closely held within a tight circle. That’s probably one of the reasons they haven’t moved against us—not enough critical mass yet to make the argument to strike.”
Nolan sensed other people moving around him, and then the deep voice continued.
“So, to borrow a phrase, ‘We don’t know what we don’t know.’ That’s why we need to get someone inside Homeland.”
Nolan nodded. “So, with this wild-ass scheme of yours, your chosen someone—that would be me, right? I’m supposed to walk into Homeland, get a job working in the cafeteria, and do some James Bond thing.”
“No,” the man said. “You’ll be brought in as a senior leader in Homeland with a proven track record of uncovering criminal activities, anti-Americans, Radicals, and domestic terrorists. So good, in fact, that you’ve been anxious for a special posting in Washington. To play in the big leagues, so to speak.”
“And just how is that supposed to work?”
The voice said, “Show him.”
A hand reached around Nolan and dropped a photo in his lap. He took a glance and shook his head.
“What is this, some kind of joke?”
“Look again, Commander. Look very closely.”
A hand reached around Nolan and dropped a photo in his lap. He took a glance and shook his head.
“What is this, some kind of joke?”
“Look again, Commander. Look very closely.”
Nolan looked down at the photo and saw himself, his younger self. I was heavier then. I’ve lost a few pounds. Brown hair, parted on the left, regular haircut. A little long. When did I ever have it that long? On leave? Then again, there was something about the brown eyes, and he realized: This is not my photograph!
“Who is this?” Nolan demanded.
The voice came out of the darkness behind him.
“Your brother.”
From Ralph DeFalco’s new novel, THE COUNTERFEIT by Ralph DeFalco (2026, Lost Coast Press) Reprinted with permission from the publisher.
In the near future, China wins the Pacific War that leaves the United States vanquished and bankrupted. Beijing is plotting to make a puppet of the next US President, in command of a corrupt and hypocritical government that has created two Americas: one of ease, affluence, and influence; and one where people struggle to survive. Now paroled military officers and ordinary Americans are beginning to fight back. Their audacious plan is to put a spy into the highest reaches of government. Philip Nolan, Commander, US Navy, survived the war and captivity as a POW. Paroled in Chicago, Nolan agrees to infiltrate the Internal Security Division—America’s Gestapo—and replace his look-alike brother as the head of a vast secret police network built to intimidate, arrest, and imprison the government’s critics. As treachery and political intrigue swirls around him, Nolan is pulled into a whirlpool of deceit and foreign intrusion. Hidden in the corridors of power, Nolan risks capture, torture, and death as he works undercover to aid the rising Resistance. The Counterfeit is a gripping dystopian thriller that explores the themes of loyalty, identity, and the struggle for freedom in a world where truth is a rare commodity and courage is the ultimate weapon.
Dystopian | Thriller Crime | Thriller Political [ Lost Coast Press, On Sale: April 7, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781935448563 / eISBN: 9781935448556 ]
Dr. Ralph L. DeFalco III is a historian, a writer, a lecturer, and a retired national security intelligence professional whose career spanned five decades. He achieved the rank of captain during 25 years in the United States Navy and later served as a civilian intelligence professional on the Pentagon staff of the director of naval intelligence. Ralph is a graduate and former faculty member of the National Intelligence University and the College of Naval Command and Staff of the U.S. Naval War College, where he served as Fleet Professor. He earned his doctoral degree at Georgetown University.
Ralph has studied and published widely on topics ranging from military history and geopolitics to foreign affairs and applied ethics. He is a contributing author to the two-volume work, The Central Intelligence Agency: An Encyclopedia of Covert Ops, Intelligence Gathering, and Spies and his numerous essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in various websites and publications, including Naval History Magazine, International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, National Strategy Forum Review, and H-net.
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