Extraordinary Rendition

40

AS ALWAYS, ALI HUSSEIN appeared to grow younger each time Byron Johnson saw him. Somehow the dark pockets in which his eyes were set-the dominant feature of his face when Byron first saw him in Miami-had noticeably lightened. He had also become more talkative, almost light-hearted. He wanted to know more about news in the outside world, including news about himself. “Was I on CNN this week?” he once asked. He had more questions about his case. He was more interested in Byron. Over time, as Ali became more chatty, Byron admired him less.

And he had stopped giving Byron quotations from the Koran and hearing the Imam’s guidance for readings from the Koran. He knows, Byron thought, that I’ve been changing them, that now I’m the only one who holds the messages.

Byron was tense and intense. He leaned toward Ali’s ear. “We will be in court tomorrow. I have asked the judge to throw out the charges against you.”

“How?”

“I was given a video of Jesse Ventura trying to drown you.”

Ali raised his hand to his ear, leaning closer to Byron.

“The government said there were no videos of you. But there is one.”

“I told you that, Mr. Johnson.”

“And I believed you. And now I have a tape.”

“I saw the camera. It was humiliating. I was stripped, I was crying, my body was exposed, I was weak. I thought it was insane that they were filming it.”

“Ali, you have to understand that there’s no way to know what Goldberg will do.”

“Mr. Johnson, he’s an animal. His heart is bad.”

“You don’t want to die?”

“No, I don’t.”

“There’s a way to save yourself without relying on Goldberg. The other side has told me that they want to do a deal with you.”

“What kind of deal?”

“They say they know that the passages from the Koran you gave me, and the ones the Imam had me bring back to you, were codes. They think they’re close to knowing what the codes are, but they don’t know enough.”

“These people are crazy, Mr. Johnson. I never had money, I never took money, I never gave money to anyone.”

“All I can do is convey word for word what their offer is. I have an obligation to do that. You have to decide what you want to do.”

“I want to live, I want to leave here, I want to be in the world again.”

“They are offering you a deal to let you live.”

“And what do they want me to do?”

“To sit and talk with them. To cooperate, by which they mean to tell them everything you knew. People, conversations, money, your relationship with the Imam, names of banks, account numbers.”

“If I do all that, then what?”

“Then, after you give them all of that, they decide whether they will do a deal with you.”

“You mean the idea is that I give away everything first, and they get to decide later. I give, they take, and they can leave me where I am.”

“That’s the way it works.”

“But I don’t know anything, Mr. Johnson.”

“Then you have nothing to give them.”

“Unless I make things up.”

“They would tell me they don’t want you to make things up. And I can tell you that won’t work.”

“They are crazy people, Mr. Johnson.”

“They are the only people you can deal with. For us there are no other people in the world.”

“There is the judge.”

“There is.”

“And what if he does what you’re asking him to do? He sets me free. Then I don’t have these people trying to kill me.”

“Don’t invest too much in him, Ali. He was made a judge by Mr. Bush. He despises criminal defendants. He despises me. He despises you. He doesn’t have an Arab friend.”

“And he’s a Jew.”

Byron paused. In their dozens of conversations, they had never uttered the words “Jew” or “Israel.” It had never occurred to Byron to ask Hussein about his political opinions. In fact, Byron had only rarely heard any of his clients over the years speak about politics or public issues, except on those isolated occasions when a corporate executive let slip words like the “sweaty unwashed masses,” “Obamacare,” or the “newly privileged welfare class.” Byron said, “There are many courageous Jewish judges.”

“I’ve seen the man. He is not courageous. Asking him to do anything for me is like slapping water. Futile.”

“I can’t predict what anyone will do in life, Ali, whether he’s Jewish or an Eskimo.”