Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, except for the ones I've made up myself.
Family Blood
Chapter 7: Escape Plan
Jadis set the file back down onto the desk. It had been almost five hours since Matthew's visit. During that time she had briefly looked through the file, just out of mere curiosity. Nothing too impressive she had thought.
Sighing, she returned to the cot and regained the posture that she had been in when he had first saw her. 'Damn it Dr. Lecter and Clarice,' she yelled out in her mind. 'Where the hell are you two?'
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Dr. Lecter walked casually into the hospital where his daughter was being kept. It felt a little strange to be walking free inside the very place that had held him prisoner for eight years of his life. He had long ago promised himself that he would never return here, but there are some exceptions to the rule.
Walking over to the admittance desk, no one recognized him in his simple disguise which consisted of blue contacts and a simple black business suit. It was almost laughable how simple his disguise was and the police all around him didn't even give him a second glance. Confidently walking up to the desk, he reached into his pocket to retrieve something.
The bored woman behind the desk looked up from her computer screen where her game of solitaire was being played. "Good afternoon sir," she said, a fake but friendly smile plastered onto her face. "How may I help you?"
Dr. Lecter held up a fake, yet extremely real looking badge. "I'm Agent Colin Anderson from the FBI. Dr. Nathan Chilton wanted to see me at this time."
The woman nodded. "Alright Agent Anderson, Dr. Chilton's office is on the second floor. His secretary will admit you in. Have a good day sir."
"Likewise to you," Dr. Lecter responded as he tucked the badge away. Walking away, he almost had to laugh at how easy it was to fool her. Instead of the elevator, he headed towards the stairs. There was no one around this area. Making sure that he was safely out of sight, instead of climbing up the stairs he slipped into one of the few doors.
In the room was many television sets with black and white pictures showing various areas of the hospital. In front of it all was a single security guard who had just registered Dr. Lecter's presence. Turning around, the unfortunate guard was met with a chloroform soaked rag to his face. In seconds he was out like a light.
A couple simple button pushes later and the security cameras were turned off.
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Meanwhile, Clarice in her own disguise of brown contacts, a bulging black purse, casual clothes and a baseball cap that hid her hair slipped unnoticed passed the admittance desk and headed at a steady pace towards the stairs. She didn't have to wait long to rendezvous with Dr. Lecter. He was just coming out of the security camera room when Clarice walked by. He fell easily into step beside her.
"They're out I presume?" she asked him in a hushed voice.
"Except for the ones down in the basement, yes," he answered in an equally hushed tone. The night before when they were planning this they had decided that stealth was the way to go for this. The general opinion was that if they went in and used force they would be as good as captured. Just easily slip in and slip out was the plan. Part of that plan was to turn off the security cameras, which was now done.
Clarice and Dr. Lecter made their way towards the basement, a path that had been long ago burned into Clarice's mind. A quick flash of deja-vu struck her as Dr. Lecter unlocked one of the doors leading down there with the key he had grabbed off the security guard. Images of coming down here for the first time with Dr. Fredrick Chilton as a trainee officer for the FBI to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter... She was brought back into the real world by the clicking sound of the door unlocking.
Beyond it was a young orderly and two guards, one of whom was sleeping face down on the desk. The ones that were awake had their backs to the door, watching a basketball game on a television with great interest. The noise from it had drowned out the sound of the lock coming undone. Behind the sleeping officer more televisions, this time security camera footage of the dungeons in the basement glowed silently.
From the other side of the slightly open door Dr. Lecter handed Clarice another chloroform soaked rag. She in turn reached into her purse and pulled out a needle and vial of clear liquid and handed it to Dr. Lecter, who tucked it away into one of his pockets. In his other hand was a rag as well.
Silently, the two snuck up behind the mesmerized orderly and guard and, before they could even sense the new presence in the room, shoved the chloroform drenched rags in their faces, rendering them unconscious.
As Dr. Lecter got the contents of the vial into the needle, Clarice ditched the rags into a smaller pouch inside her purse. "Man," she commented, "I never thought chloroform could be so handy."
Dr. Lecter injected the sleeping guard with the contents of the needle, making sure that he would stay that way for the duration of their brief stay there. "You learn to utilize chloroform in many ways when you're a fugitive," he responded to her comment as she unlocked the door to the cells. "You remember which cell it is?"
Clarice looked over at him. "How could I forget?" she told him before disappearing down the corridor. Dr. Lecter stayed behind to keep watch.
Clarice practically flew down the corridor, desperate to not relive her first trip down here. She forced herself not to think about that now. 'Besides,' she told herself in her mind, 'there's no more Miggs to walk pass anymore.'
Finally reaching the cell, Clarice looked in to find Jadis on the cot, staring at the wall opposite of her, the same position that Matthew Krendler had first seen her in a few hours before. Clarice knocked on the glass barrier. "Hey kid!" she called out to her.
Becoming aware of her friend's presence, Jadis jumped to her feet. "Where the hell were you?!" she asked excitedly, half joking and half serious.
Clarice grinned while using the keys she had gotten off the orderly to unlock the tiny cell. "Desperate to get out of here I take it?" she jokingly asked the young woman.
Jadis waited eagerly for the door to open. "No shit Sherlock! If I spend one more minute in here I truly will go insane," she responded as the door finally flew open.
Clarice handed her the purse. "There are some clothes in there you can wear. I think that it would case some suspicion to see one of the inmates running around free in here," she said.
Jadis seemed a little hesitant. Following her gaze across the hall, Clarice could see why. Reaching underneath her jacket, she took out her gun and pointed it at the staring prisoner that had barely taken his eyes off of Jadis since she had arrived here a day ago. "Look away or you get another hole in your face," Clarice threatened.
It worked. The man looked away out of fear of the woman with the big gun and Jadis quickly changed into the black tank top and green cargo pants in privacy. As she gratefully walked out of her father's old cell she was putting her long dark hair in a ponytail with an elastic Clarice had provided. "Thanks for coming after me," she told her.
Clarice grinned. "Call it returning the favor. Now come on."
With that, the two women ran back down the corridor and met up with Dr. Lecter again. Jadis grinned. "Good to see you again," she said to her father.
"Same to you Jadis," he responded before following them calmly out of the door.
Retracing the steps that two of them had taken just minutes earlier, no one noticed the three individuals walking casually through the hospital on their way out, with the exception of one man near the elevator behind them.
He talked into a tiny microphone in his sleeve. "Yeah, they're on their way out the front door."
The three fugitives walked through the doors to the outside world. Their freedom was short lived however. Once out on the street from behind them a team of police and agents tackled them to the ground. Recovering from the surprise, there was a little struggle from the three as Elaine Parker held out her gun at them. "Hannibal Lecter, Clarice Starling and Jadis Lecter, you're all under arrest," she almost sneered at them. She couldn't hold back a smile of pride from appearing on her face as three of America's Most Wanted were shoved into separate police cars.
As they sped away, Elaine silently muttered to herself, "Halfway there." She know only hoped that the other half of the plan will go off without a hitch.
Instead of the police station as they would normally go, this time the police cars made their way to Quantico.