"No way!" said Will Graham resolutely.
"We were invited, Will." sighed Jack. "The Australians are really impressed by our results in the pastmonths and want us to give a speech on their conference about serial killers." He gave Will another significant look. "I will give the speech, but I need you there. They will want to speak with you."
"I am not a fan of flying, meeting people and being examined in general." retorted Will.
"They've got us business class plane tickets, the flight won't be uncomfortable." Jack ignored the rest of Will's objections.
"No."
Jack take a few minutes to consider the attack strategy.
"What if I got Doctor Lecter to come with us? Would that change your mind?" He said slowly.
"What? He has his patients and-"
"What if he accompanied us," Jack interrupted him. "would you go?"
Will was looking at the pens on Crawford's desk for a while and then slowly nodded. There is no chance that he will want to leave his practice for three weeks just to sunbathe in Australia.
Will was sitting at the plastic chair at the airport and still couldn't believe it. Jack actually persuaded the Australians to get them another ticket and Doctor Lecter agreed. He sighed and took a sip of water. It was quite hot today. And we're flying somewhere even warmer.
"Hello, Will." said the familiar voice possessing the suave and mysterious accent.
"Hello, do-" Will looked up and gasped. Doctor Lecter was not in his three piece suit. His upper body was covered only by a shirt, two buttons undone so his chest hair were slightly visible. No vest, no tie.
Of course he won't wear all those layers in this weather when he's flying to even greater hell, you idiot. Will was trying to recover. Which was a little bit difficult regarding all those disturbing dreams he was having lately about Dr. Lecter. He had never thought he could be gay before but recently began to question his sexuality. The right answer to his sexuality was apparently: Hannibal Lecter.
"Sorry, notusedtoyouwithoutsuit." mumbled Will, returned eyes and took another sip of water.
Before doctor could reply, Jack joined them and they headed to check-in.
The flight started pretty uneventfully. Will was pleasantly surprised by the seats in business class and also by the food they got. He managed to hide a laugh when he found out that Doctor had prepared his own food for the flight. Of course he had.
Doctor Lecter obviously packed a lot of books for the trip and now was reading one of them. The language was not English and Will considered asking what it was but then decided not to. He didn't want to start staring on Hannibal's chest again. If only the shirt was tighter. Dammit stop these thoughts. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
When he woke up the plane was shaking violently. It was dark outside which meant they were over the Pacific somewhere. Doctor was no longer reading and he was frowning a little bit. Jack also looked concerned. Outside the window was raining and he saw lightings in not comfortable distance.
When he later thought about it, that was all he remembered. Only the flight, not the fall. No trying to save himself from the shock of cold water and the swimming to a close island - or did they by some miracle crashed on this island and survived? He had no idea.
The present was not nice. Nine passengers from the business class, including Will, Hannibal and Jack, woke up in a big cage made from thick wood. They were missing shoes and had some minor bruises but that was not the main concern. The main concern was of course the cage itself and the natives guarding it. Dark complexion, clothes covering only their genitalia, a necklace and spears.
There were only a couple of them as this was obviously not the village but some kind of ceremonial place. There was a great open space in front of the cage, the best view to it from a throne now empty and the near chairs.
The natives didn't react to English or anything they tried to tell them, but they have them water and food - fruit, vegetable, nuts, insects,... but no meat. They saw the natives to roast a pecari pig in a nearby fire and then eat it but they didn't look even considering to share the meat with the prisoners.
The fellowship of prisoners introduced themselves to each other, agreed which corner will be the toilet and discussed what the natives want to do with them and when they will be saved. The rest was mainly the businessman and seemed to believed that the government would be here every minute. They also relied on Jack a lot.
Will noticed that Hannibal was silent most of the discussion. He helped to examine the injuries as he was the doctor of their group but didn't join the conversation very much. Will at first wanted to ask if he's okay, even though the cage didn't offer much privacy, but then started to watch the doctor more closely and understood. Hannibal wasn't paying much attention to their group because he was intently observing the natives. He also didn't look as much concerned as amazed. Interesting.
They woke up in the morning. Now it was late afternoon and something was about to happen. Natives started coming and sitting in a big circle around the space in front of the cage. It took an hour.
A lot of observations were done in this hour. Women also covered only their genitalia. Each man was paired with only one woman. This pairing was done by the two necklaces they both wore and that looked the same. These necklaces were made from bones, shells, little rocks, and a lot of other material and actually looked quite magnificent. The men held the upper hand in the society. The man higher in the social hierarchy sat on a chair and his woman on the ground next to him. The man lower in the hierarchy sat on the ground next to his women. And then there were younger natives, women without the necklaces and children. They made groups on the sides and were obviously in the lowest place of the hierarchy.
The king with his retinue and their wives came in last. He sat on the throne with his wife kneeling next to it. The two chairs on his left and right were also quite interesting and were taken by two big, muscular, and dangerously looking men, their wives kneeling next to them as well. The king was obviously strong, but not so much as the two men next to him. However he his eyes held the smart and sharp look possessed only by the extremely intelligent men.
He said a couple of words and the whole tribe went silent.
This was the moment for the fellowship of prisoners to try to talk to anyone, but when Jack started he was silenced by strong warning hit to the cage.
King asked something and a couple of natives stood and lined in front of him. He picked one of them - actually the one looking the weakest. He put down his necklace and gave it to his woman. The fire on one side was started. Then they opened the cage shortly and took out the weakest of the fellowship, one of the businessmen named Mark. With their spears and numbers was impossible to resist.
"Please, please..." managed Mark. "I...I am an American citizen!" he cried desperately and dropped to his knees.
The chosen native looked disgusted. King said something and Mark was pulled back to his knees. Obviously a fight should began.
The 'fight' was over quickly after a few strikes. (The fellowship of prisoners except Hannibal were shouting the whole time but nobody was paying attention to them). Mark was now on the ground whining unable to move. A primitive knife made of stone was thrown next to him. The chosen native kneel next to Mark, took the knife and thrusted it to Mark's chest next to his heart. Mark screamed and the native used his hands and retrieve the heart as the tribe cheered.
The native then begin eating the raw heart. Two of businessmen vomited.
The king was, of course, paying attention of the process but also looking at his prisoners. Most of them were weak and maybe even shouldn't deserve the opportunity to live, but it was a tradition. Few of them were... well, not so weak. But the tall man. The tall man was interesting. He did not shout, did not stare in horror, he was truly interested in what is happening. Now he was watching intently the devouration of the heart. The king was looking at his eyes and suddenly the man raised his eyes from the heart and looked directly into king's eyes while his lips curved a small smile. The only interesting one of them, he will fight as the last one.
Thanks to margobeta for beta-reading!
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