The characters that you recognize, belong to the genius of Thomas Harris, and are used here with admiration and not for profit
Again, thanks for reading this fiction, especially to those who took the time to comment.
I'm away from home this weekend, in an effort to get this chapter to you ASAP, I'm posting it unedited and un-spell checked [the spell module is not loaded in this computer.]

Adam, Chapter 3
Someone's Watching

Clarice and Pearsall walked back to the car in silence, once he started the engine, Pearsall asked,
"How does he look to you, Starling?" Pearsall was rarely prone to chat, and seemed genuinely concerned about her impression.
"He is very cute, Mr. Pearsall, I don't know anything about infants, but he seems to be tiny for a full term baby."

"Dr Lecter was not a big man, Starling" commented Pearsall, and the past tense felt like a slap on her face…Did they really think he was dead?...did they know something that she didn't?

Clarice felt a painful knot in her stomach, but was not about to ask any questions. Pearsall continued,
"I wouldn't worry too much about his birth weight, he must at least 5 lbs, because that's standard "take home" weight; they grow just fine on this side; once they are born, that is."

"I'd like to stop and buy some baby books, Mr. Pearsall; I want to read ahead, to make sure I'm up to par. I never dealt with newborn before."

"Great idea, I'm sure you'll be fine, as a father of three, I can tell you babies are rather sturdy, and have survived inexperienced mothers from the beginning of time; just look out the window, and remember that everyone you see was a baby once. Heck! Even Hannibal Lecter and Hitler were somebody's baby boys. So, by all means read the books, then rest reassured that you are perfectly capable to care for an infant. Common sense always does the trick and you have plenty of that."

Their next stop them was Barnes and Noble, where she bought several infant care books, including the seemingly outdated one by Dr. Spock.
From there they drove to the rented house in Alexandria, a three-bedroom, one level cottage, in a lovely, quiet area surrounded by woods, totally secluded, and prettier by far than the brownstone she shared with Ardelia. In addition to the bedrooms, there was a living room/dinning room and an ample kitchen that opened to a large Family Room.
One of the bedrooms was now the nursery. It was furnished with crib, a bassinet, a changing table, a dresser, all the kinds of baby paraphernalia, mobiles, lamps and decorations that matched the bumper and comforter set in the crib.

The kitchen was equipped with a variety of items she was not familiar with but assumed some were used to sterilize the nipples and rings and another was a baby monitor. There were boxes and boxes of formula and disposable diapers, and a variety of boxes containing nursery items.
A huge box, already opened that contained something called a Travel System, which at closer inspection turned out to be a fancy stroller with an additional module to hook up the infant/car seat to either the stroller or the included "stay in the car" base.
Inside the huge box there were several others boxes, obviously containing different parts of the unit, Clarice looked for the one that contained the infant/car-seat and base module; she wanted to take it with her, so she could set the base in the mustang and learn how to hook up and remove the seat with ease.

Before they left she picked up the phone receiver and noticed that the line was dead. There was no cable box either.
She brought up the issue with Pearsall, adding that if the Bureau wanted to keep her whereabouts secret then it would be best it they made arrangements to have the phone and cable lines connected using a Bureau account that couldn't be traced back to her.
"I'll need a cable modem connection from the cable box as well." She added, knowing, that he would not argue.
Pearsall called immediately from his own cell phone and made the arrangement,
"The phone will be switched on directly from the main." He announced, "And the cable people will be here tomorrow between 8 and 10 AM to connect the lines."

When they arrived back to FBI Building, Pearsall, helped her move her items to the mustang, and they shook hands. Starling had the uncanny impression that they might not see each other again.

"Good luck, Starling. You made the right choice. I think." He sounded uncharacteristically emotional. "Your resignation will not be effective until tomorrow night, I'll be out of town but I expect Mr. Noonan will want you to drop off your weapons and ID by his office tomorrow and sign your resignation before you leave your office. We'll send our movers to the Townhouse to finish packing up your stuff and bring it back to the cottage. You don't have to go to the office until later on tomorrow to pick up your stuff and drop the ID and paraphernalia. Don't forget the decoder cell phone."

"Thanks Mr. Pearsall, it'll do. And good luck to you too." She meant it.

On her way back, in an impulse and while she still had her ID, she stopped and bought an automatic weapon not unlike the one she carried daily and small pistol. She didn't want to be unprepared.
Next she drove to Union Station. Parked the car, and there, from one of the Public Phones called the numbers of the Swiss banks, verified the amounts in the accounts and changed the passwords.
There was no way she was going to do that from her home phone, even after she had sweep it for bugs endless times, for all she knew they could have planted a bug on her home phone right that very morning.

Then she went to a branch of her bank and used the ATM to transfer all her savings into her checking account, then went to the teller in person, and withdrew almost the entire contents of the checking account, leaving just a nominal amount so the account would remain open.

On her way home then, she stopped at BabiesRus and picked up two baby carriers, size small; the kind that strap to the mother's body and the baby fits snugly against her chest, she bought a variety of whimsical toiletry items, some mobiles and other toys with baby safe mirrors which she found interesting. She picked up two entire layettes and endless additional items of newborn clothing that she found irresistible, and a little hat for him to wear on his way home from the lab. Clarice Starling was somewhat awed by everything she saw. Altogether she left with five bags of assorted items in addition to the carriers.

Once in the Townhouse, she took her own laptop out of the closet, where it had been practically since she bought it; in what she considered an inexplicable whim, considering that she used mostly the one issued to her by the FBI equipped with all the sophisticated features provided by the Bureau.
She had used hers only a few times, and now was glad to have it. It was equipped with a wireless network adapter card and dial up modem that she had configured both when she first got it.

From her own laptop, she went in the Internet to shop for a Swiss bank where she could set up a new numbered account. Once she did, she would transfer there half of the funds in the two original account, as a preventive measure in the event that they had managed a loophole through which they could siphon out the funds in the event that "something" happened to her.
Once she found a Financial Institution with a long history of reliability and confidentiality, she opened a numbered account with the minimum $50.000 which she transferred from one of the equally anonymous accounts set up for her by the Bureau.
That done, all she had to do was wait the required 24 hours before the account was active and she could then transfer more funds. She had them hold the Debit card for now. She had yet to find an address where she wanted them to mail it.

That done, Clarice, took the Travel System out of the box, and carefully read the instructions. The car seat had a base that needed to be set up and attached to the car, and the baby carrier/infant car seat would then lock on to it. Then she took the whole paraphernalia to her car and started the installation.
"I might need an SUV of a Minivan," she thought to herself, immediately rejecting the thought of a Minivan, in favor of an SUV. "The Mustang won't do anymore. I need something with more room for "baby stuff" and easier access to get him in and out."
She finished the installation and checked that the stay in the car base was firmly set, then locked the seat onto it and practiced removing it and replacing it back on the be base.
She decided that she was as set as she'll ever be.

So involved was she in the preparations, that she failed to notice that she was being closely observed by a bearded man, quietly watching from inside a car parked at a short distance across the street.

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to be continued