The Rendition Read Online Free PDF

Remember that one-star had us kickedoff the installation when we wanted to interview his son about drug trafficking, and how mad I was? You said the guy had problems enough, give him a break.
    I’m real surprised Detective Solomon knows about the muggings even though Mom never told anyone. They must’ve gotten it from the junkie, from Kraus. Kraus knew I was in the army. Mom all alone. He thought I was still overseas, which is where I was before I got temporary duty orders for the 82nd Airborne, which meant I was on my way back to Fort Bragg.
    According to the detective, Kraus picked on older women. They were afraid, so they’d give him what he asked for—fifty, a hundred bucks. He mugged some too, not just Mom. Had to feed his habit. He knew who had money, who got Social Security checks. Mom told him no, speaking her broken English. I can imagine that scene. Made him feel like the worm he was. Good for her. So he waited a week, then mugged her in the vestibule. She didn’t tell me about that, or about the second time. She only told me after the third time. On the telephone. Crying.
    Weekend pass. It’s Saturday night, I go to his apartment, my heart pumping, mad as all hell, ring the bell, wait. When he opens the door, I hit him, push my way in. He’s big, but I’m still able to mop up the place with him. “Never do it again,” I say. He’s on his couch, a handkerchief up to his face, blood on it, staring at me with his little pig eyes.
    He left Mom alone for two weeks, then he took her pocketbook while he held a knife to her throat. Knocked her down, left her lying in the gutter, and told her not to say anything to me or he’d have his friends take care of us both.
    The pistol’s a .38, got it in a hockshop, in Wilmington, North Carolina. Never told Mom I was home that weekend. Saturday night, waiting on the landing just above Kraus’s floor. He doesn’t show. But he comes in Sunday night, and I fire twice, miss once, get him with the second slug. His left knee.
    He never saw who shot him. I figured he’d find it hard to mugpeople from a wheelchair, figured it’d be okay to go back overseas once I got my silver wings. Said goodbye to you, Mom. You baked challah bread, remember? Proud as all hell when I finally got those wings.
    â€œKraus is a piece of shit,” Solomon says. “But he’s filed a complaint that Corporal Klear was the one who shot him. He got a witness to say he saw Corporal Klear in the hallway.”
    When McDaniel finally speaks, that’s when I figure I’m heading off to the military stockade for a good long stretch. “I’d like to point out that Detective Solomon’s remark about this Kraus is irrelevant,” he says. “Citizens can’t take the law into their own hands like this here trooper did.”
    Looking at me, “Klear? Is that your name?”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    â€œWhoever put Kraus out of commission,” Solomon says, “did everyone a favor.”
    â€œThat’s not the way we do things in this country,” McDaniel says.
    I knew Sergeant Aubrey liked me, and he’s just staring, can’t believe it, I guess. Knows I’d made it into Special Forces, knows how this would mean the end of everything.
    â€œYou have a warrant for Corporal Klear’s arrest?” the sheriff asks, breaking the silence.
    Detective Solomon nods. “I do.”
    McDaniel stands up then, checks his watch. I still don’t know who he is and I find it funny how he’s giving orders to everyone. He suggests we take a break for lunch even though it’s only eleven thirty. Out in the hall, he says there’s a cafeteria around the corner, and he and I can go there.
    Couldn’t know in that cafeteria I’d make a decision that would change my life, and finally end with me buying the Big Farm here in Kosovo, the one with the falling-down barn and broken machinery. That