Extraordinary Rendition by Paul Batista

Author:Paul Batista
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Extraordinary Rendition
ISBN: 9781938231247
Publisher: Astor + Blue Editions Llc
Published: 2012-09-24T04:00:00+00:00

There was a broad plaza outside the grim, fortress-like building that housed the U.S. Attorney’s Office in lower Manhattan. At one side of the plaza was St. Andrew’s Church. Across from the attractive brick church was the Municipal Building, and next to the church was the old federal courthouse. Scattered over the plaza were food trucks with open sides through which an astonishing variety of foods was served: Italian sandwiches, falafel, Chinese food, pastries. There were metal chairs and tables all over the plaza, and in the summer umbrellas made the outdoor space colorful. For more than fifteen years, through hundreds of different cases and investigations and trials, Hal Rana had often treated the plaza as his outdoor office. He had met there with other lawyers, government witnesses, Secret Service agents, and even journalists.

Hal Rana didn’t enjoy seeing or speaking with Andrew Hurd. In the months they had been dealing with each other, Hurd had never asked him whether he was married or had children or whether he played or was interested in sports. For his part, Hal was profoundly wary of Hurd. Although he had trained himself to make few assumptions about other people, he was certain that Hurd harbored contempt for him because of his background and his manners—once he had overheard Hurd refer to him as a “towelhead.”

The session in front of the grand jury had made Hal Rana even more uneasy than the earlier sessions Hurd had attended. On those days when Hurd was himself a witness, Rana didn’t like the instructions Hurd gave him as to what to ask and what answers to elicit.

And it troubled Hal Rana that he had participated with Hurd in lying to the grand jury that morning.

“What next, Mr. Hurd?” There was an edgy, impatient contempt in his tone. He knew his voice had adopted that haughty inflection of a British aristocrat.

“You cut a grand jury subpoena for Christina Rosario.”

“Who is Christina Rosario?”

“She’s Byron Johnson’s girlfriend.”

“What do you think she knows?”

A slim Latino man with a gold stud through his left nostril put a slice of pizza on the table at which Hal Rana and Andrew Hurd sat. The plaza was crowded, and there were only a few open seats.

“Hey, fella,” Andrew Hurd said.

The man, his hand on the metal chair as he prepared to sit, looked surprised. “Excuse me?”

“You can’t sit here.”

Hal wondered what the source of Andrew Hurd’s personal power was. He had an unnerving way of looking right into people’s eyes. He wore gray suits even in hot weather; he had a mustache. He was, simply, different, in an old-fashioned, authoritative way. The slender man picked up the paper plate that the slice of pizza had already drenched and walked away.

Hal Rana repeated: “And what does she know?”

“She knows what I tell her she knows.”

Hal paused, looking out at the colorful lunchtime crowd in the sunny plaza. A hot breeze blew, stirring fragments of paper and plastic cups. “You know, Mr. Hurd, it’s one thing to ask me to have a government agent—you—mislead a Grand Jury.

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