The characters still belong to TH, and all disclaimers apply.
I hope you enjoy this chapter and the arrival of the GD.
Chapter 4
Lecter
Exactly one week after the surprising call from Margot Verger, Dr. Hannibal Lecter completed all the arrangement that he needed to return safely to the US, including the rental of several houses and two sets of passports for himself, Clarice and an infant boy.
He returned via Cathay Pacific Airlines and carried a large amount of cash skillfully strapped to his body. He chose to fly from Hong Kong to Vancouver, and entered Canada with a US passport that identified him as Dr Hendel Larson, MD. When asked, he declared he specialized in DNA research.
In Canada he rented a car and drove to San Francisco, then flew to Lexington Kentucky for an overnight visit with an old friend. The next day he flew to Washington CD.
Upon his arrival to Washington, he was picked up by the complimentary car from the Radisson Plaza at Mark Center where he had reservations for the first day of his stay. The hotel, while first class, was one where he could maintain a low profile and it was located just 10 minutes from National Airport, which served is purposes.
As soon as he changed his clothes he treated himself to the pleasure of shopping. His first stop was at a car dealer, where he purchased a "previously owned, dealer certified" vehicle. While his preference was a luxury car, he refrained for the occasion and instead, picked up an indistinctive SUV, a Ford Expedition this time, silver-gray in color with plenty of room in the back for paraphernalia.
Once in possession of his vehicle he had a quick lunch; then drove to the Springfield Mall, there his first stop was at Chesapeake Knife & Tool where he picked up a few of his favorite Spyderco knives and some field glasses. Thus armed, he began to feel at home again. His next stop was at Sprint where he secured and activated two cell phones with hands free kits and additional portable car chargers, placed one phone in his pocket and kept the other in a box for the purpose he intended.
The proceeded to Linen's and Things where he purchased four sets of 100% Egyptian cotton sheets, in pure white -two for each of the double beds, and several sets of their best quality towels as well as a variety of bathroom furnishings.
He drove to Williams Sonoma at the Fair Oaks Mall for his pans, knives, and kitchen utensils. He was surprised to see they now carried a full line of Reidel glasses and from the Someliar line, brought four of each Montrachet and Burgandi , for the water glass he had to buy Riedel Vinum because they didn't have it in the Somalier line, the lines both had the same look, the quality, however was different, but the doctor reasoned that water is water regardless and the glasses would do. He bought Linen Napkins and placemats, kitchen towels, pot holders, and a variety of other kitchen furnishings.
He couldn't bring himself to buy any of their dishes or flatware because even for everyday they didn't meet his expectations, but he had still plenty of shopping to do, so he went to Macy's and purchased 4 sets of Gorham "Studio" Stainless Flatware and after delicate consideration, 4 place sets of Wedgwood "Oberon" fine china, one serving dish, 3 soup bowls and a service set.
Satisfied with the domestic furnishings, he turned his attention to other immediate needs for the next few days. He went to the woman's department and bought assorted items of silk underwear.
As he predicted, the woman at the register was totally uninterested in the nature of the purchases.
None of the distinctive clothing he favored would do for the lifestyle he planned for the next few weeks, where, in fact, the main goal was to look indistinctive.
He scanned the mall directory and headed for the Gap, there from the woman's section he picked two pair of clean cut khakis size 2, a few "favorite T" shirts in various colors and one crossover V neck dress. The clothes seemed abominable to him, but he was aware this is what America wore everyday and what would make them "blend".
Then he moved on to the men's department and picked similar abominations for himself and a thick terry robe. As an afterthought he picked two pair of female pajama bottoms and matching tops, a pair of shorts with a waist string that could be used for jogging, a small terry robe -the only item he found acceptable, and a pair of sleepers.
In contrast with the salesperson at Macy's this one was helpful an alert. While she was checking the items she asked him if he needed a gift receipt.
"I don't know," he responded, intentionally looking somewhat bewildered, "the airline lost our luggage three days ago, I guess I'll need a receipt to get our money back."
"Then I better give you a gift receipt as well, in case you want to exchange some of the items"
"Thank you, good thinking!" he responded,
He drove back to the hotel, took short nap and a long shower, and then drove to the house he had leased from Hong Kong through a Virginia Real State Agent.
The house, about 40 miles from DC in suburban Virginia, was just as he had expected and suited his purposes remarkably well.
A medium size cottage with slate roof and a wraparound porch nestled among woods in the middle of an 8.5 acre property completely hidden from view, fully fenced and accessible only through a winding road from the main entrance. It had a total of 4 bedrooms, 2 full and 2 half bath, a living room, a family room and a huge eat in kitchen with an a decent stove and a work island, a laundry room adjacent to the kitchen, plus a full size finished basement, satellite dish, with satellite Internet access, and ample privacy.
Once he verified that everything was working, the water running and the whole house ready for occupancy, and confirmed that, as per his request the phone had been connected, he checked on the phone book for the nearest UPS Store, drove there and under another bogus name backed up by an equally bogus driver's license credible enough to stand a background check, he opened one of their mailboxes complete with a mail address and 24hr access. That done, he drove towards the Townhouse at 337 Tidal, in Arlington Virginia, parked reasonably near and waited.
Back in the Townhouse, Clarice Starling was considering her next move. After she set the baby seat base in her car, she went back in the townhouse and fought her craving for a glass of Jack Daniels, ultimately common sense prevailed and she poured herself a cup of tea instead; then began to read one of her baby care books.
Half way into the first book, she finally accepted the fact that she would better concentrate after she dealt with the one subject that never left the confines of her consciousness: Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
If she had any regrets, and she definitely did, they mostly concerned her attitude towards him at the kitchen at the Chesapeake, especially after he asked his "famous" question.
As she did innumerable times before, she regretted her choice of word in her answer, and wondered as to the nature of her own motive when she handcuffed herself to him.
She had screwed up. Plain and simple.
In her stubborn failure to acknowledge corruption within the Bureau, she had failed to appreciate the fact that HE was the only one who actually gave a dam about her. Now he was gone…forever… and she wanted him back.
The only one man she had ever been attracted to in the real sense of the word…The only person she could fully trust; and she had managed to simultaneously reject him and place him in a position where he had to mutilate himself rather than hurting her.
"Good going, Starling," she chuckled bitterly, "now, you'll get him back in infant form…"
Not only was she convinced that the doctor would not come back to her, she also suspected that she was under some kind of surveillance and IF he did show up, they'd be on him like mold on cheese.
"So little faith in me, Clarice," said the voice that lived inside her head, "after all this years, you still don't trust my ability to avoid capture?"
"I just hope you still have the knack!" she responded mentally.
She feared that he would not come and she feared he'd come and get captured; she knew it was a lose/lose situation and it was tearing her apart.
Eventually, her practical side took over, and she tried to concentrate in the issues at hand; specifically, her lack of baby skills and her constant concern that the new house might be wired for surveillance. She was confident that they wouldn't be stupid enough to bug her home, knowing fully well that she was one of their best surveillance expert and could easily find and deactivate the devices, whatever they could be, but still…
Clarice felt that Barney was her trump card, the one to use if she needed help with the baby, or ultimately to attempt to contact Dr Lecter if she so decided. And then she went full circle, concerned that the Bureau had thought about that first and the baby was a ploy to lure Lecter back.
Her first impulse had been to take the child, jump on a plane and fly to some yet unknown destination where she could hide him and raise him with some semblance of normality, but, thanks to the book she was reading, she found that that it is customary to keep newborns away from crowds until they are one to three months old, to give their immune system time to adjust. This baby, didn't even had his mother's immunity to protect him, …he had no mother.
"Poor little baby" she though, "he is the real innocent victim of the whole mess."
She forced herself to get back to the book, the more she learned, the more she would relax and be more attentive to any nuance that might insinuate danger.
Dr Hannibal Lecter held his breath when he saw Clarice for the first time since the Chesapeake. She had not changed, aside from being a little thinner and her hair a little shorter. His suspicions regarding the information received from Margot were confirmed when he saw her get off the car with the bags from BabiesRUs, she went in the house and came back out again for a huge brown box in the trunk. The immediacy of the upcoming event became more evident a while later when she came out again to install the base for the infant car seat on the back seat of the mustang.
"This IS the aforementioned plan B," he said to himself, recalling the conversation with Margot, "they are about to victimize her again. As they will the child, who is not even human in their eyes."
Yet, he was pleased, now he could go on with his preparations, he will come back early in the morning and continue his surveillance. He needed a good nights rest to be ready for the exciting new day. With that though he began his drive back "home"
At 7 AM, Clarice was on her way to the rented cottage, while, totally unnoticed, Dr. Lecter followed behind. He was not ready yet to make his presence known, he wanted to give her a few days with the child while he observed her attitude towards the whole fiasco, he enjoyed anticipating her reaction when he finally made his appearance, and wondered if she was finally ready to face her feelings.
Clarice parked in the small clearing beside the house and removed three BabiesRus bags from the small trunk of the mustang along with a medium size, well worn carboard box containing the CPM-700, a surveillance sweep device that has long "lived in her trunk" a reminder of her assignments as a surveillance expert.
The CPM-700 would detect hidden telephone, room or body surveillance devices [bugs], remote signals, computer, fax and telex transmitters, video transmitters, pulsed tracking transmitters and even wide band frequency hopping of "burst" bugs.
"Is this gizmo 100 accurate?...Technically yes," she chuckeld answering her own question, "not accurate enough for my peace of mind, but otherwise good enough for the bureau."
Eventually, she went out and swept inside her car as well and seemed pleased with the results. About 11:30, she called the Cable Company to inquire about the whereabouts of the service man, and was told there had been a short delay and the man would be there momentarily. Fifteen minutes later she saw the Cable man come in and install the cables; he then rang the doorbell and asked where she wanted to cables to come in and gave her the cable box. After he was gone she came out again to get her laptop from the car and went back inside.
Dr. Hannibal Lecter concluded that it was obvious from her actions that she was suspicious of her own superiors. She was beginning to see them for the fraud they were.
For a while, he was undecided as to whether to continue to wait outside the house or go and finish his errands in preparation for "D day". After some inner deliberations he decided for the later and drove back to his new home, went to a local bank and opened a checking account using the same name and identity he had used to secure the UPS box and other such rentals, which was different from the identity used to the lease of the house.
He deposited a few several thousand dollars in the account and was promised he would get a debit card/credit card in the mail in two days. Of course the card would go to the UPS address and that pleased him. His arrangements were well in place
He had not been happy with some of the items he had chosen for Clarice and decided to drive to Baltimore, his own former home ground, where he was sure he'd find finer silk undergarments. While in Baltimore he would treat himself to dinner in a discreet but excellent restaurant. He also planned to get a few bottles of D'Yquem and some of Montrachet. With a little luck they would have something to celebrate.
With celebrations in mind, he wondered if the "good guys" at the Bureau had truthfully explained to Clarice the chances of survival of the baby she was about to receive.
Surely, even in her state of astonished bewilderment she might realize this was the first human clone of record and there were no statistics or data regarding the expectations of survival rate, complications, or immunity issues
She was taking home a human guinea pig in the shape of a tiny newborn entirely made up to his own image.
"I wonder what she'll name him." He said to himself. In one the baby passports that the Doctor had secured for the infant, the name appeared as Adam Larson, it had seemed appropriate to him to name him Adam, made by God. What else could one name a child not born of human parents? In the other passport the child's name was Emmanuel, for equally symbolic reasons. He smiled at the memory of the fun he had finding a photo of a newborn that looked dark and indistinctive to use in the passport
And they call me a monster?" he sighed
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I hope you enjoyed the chapter.