The characters belong to T.Harris. I just borrowed them to expand the endless possibilities.

Thanks for taking the time to read this fiction. Specially those who commented on the contents and responded to my inquiries about the lenght of the chapters.
I think you are going to enjoy this one.

Chapter 7
Hello, Clarice

The doctor spent two days watching the house. During that time he didn't see anyone else in the vicinity and there was no indication that Clarice was being watched, but like her, he feared that she was under some kind of electronic surveillance, even when her sweeper had indicated otherwise.

At night, he could see her move around the house with the baby snuggled against her, inside the over the shoulder baby carrier, in what appeared to be an effort to provide him with the human contact that he lacked inside the incubator.

Later on, during the late feeding, he would get closer to the windows and observe her talking to the infant while she fed him, occasionally kissing his head and playing with him while she changed him, while she softly nudged his tummy with one finger and cooed.

On the afternoon of the third day, he decided to make his move.

He set up for her cottage at about 4 PM, not concerned about the traffic and listening to a classic station in the car radio, when the News Break bulletin interrupted Hayden's Trumpet Concerto.

"At about 4:10 Eastern time, a massive car explosion took the life of FBI Section Chief Clint Pearsall. Mr. Pearsall, who was in Kentucky in official capacity, was driving a car assigned to him by the local branch of the Bureau.

Local and Federal authorities are investigating the explosion, which appears to have been triggered by a device connected to the ignition system. There are some speculations that the act was in retaliation for the raid on the Feliciano Fish Market less than a year ago, that resulted on the death of Evelda Drumgo, the widow of the late Dijon Drumgo, one of the leaders of the drug distributors net known as the "Trey-Eight Crips".

Clarice Starling, who actually pulled the trigger that ended the life Evalda Drumgo, is no longer affiliated with the FBI and possibly a target as well.
The FBI declined to comment regarding the possibility of providing protection for former Special Agent Starling

The Bureau experienced two other losses today when senior DNA investigator Dr. Janice Duncan (36) was the victim of a hit and run driver when she stepped off the curb outside her house in Alexandria. The late Dr. Duncan a mother of three was the wife of Congressman Joseph Duncan of Virginia.

The third casualty was Dr. Alice Benning, a DNA researcher with a PhD from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Benning was fatally wounded during an apparent robbery attempt while she walked to her car in the parking lot of a Safeway supermarket in Arlington, and was pronounced dead on arrival at Northern Virginia Community Hospital just two miles from the scene."

The Doctor's jaw was set in the characteristic slight overbite that he adopted when deep in thought. With his right hand he patted the Harpy in the pocket of his light jacket. He expected some action, and wondered if Clarice was watching the News.

Around 5:20 PM, the Doctor parked his Expedition about three city blocks from the cottage, and walked the distance while he examined the territory for evidence of physical surveillance. It took him only a few minutes to spot the car, parked like his own, amid the trees surrounding Starling's cottage.

It was still light on that evening in early may, and Hannibal Lecter was grateful for the trees that darkened the entire area making it easier for him to move unnoticed.
He calculated that the two occupants of the car were working the 4 to 12 shift and leaned against a tree waiting for the opportunity to eliminate them one by one.
He waited for about an hour, with his proverbial calm, until one of the men got off the car and walked into the surrounding wood. The Doctor assessed, correctly, that the man was looking for a spot to relief himself, and he followed.

The rest was easy and the Doctor managed to slit the man's throat, without getting as much as a spot of blood on his jacket.

He didn't want to wait until for the remaining agent to become concerned and report to his central office that he was going in search of his partner, so he decided to approach the issue head on.
The man was sitting on the passenger seat, window open, reading a porno magazine and drinking coffee from a Styrofoam cup.

"Excuse me sir," Hannibal said in a friendly voice, "there is a fellow indisposed out there in the woods that asked me to fetch you, he seems quite ill."

The man put down his magazine and coffee, nodded in acknowledgment followed the Doctor.
After a few steps and once completely out of view, Dr. Lecter pointed to the left and calmly said: "this way please", then, turned to face the man and cut his jugular with a fast single swipe of the Harpy; then cleaned the blade against the man jacket and went back to the surveillance vehicle.

The keys were still in the ignition and the Doctor took a rubber glove out of his left pocket and removed the key with his gloved right hand. Then he opened the trunk, examined the contents and once he was satisfied with his interpretation of what he found in there, he got in the car and backed it further into the woods, adjacent to the area were his victims laid.
Then took the time to place them both back in the car, one behind the driver's seat the other on the passenger seat.

Whistling, he went back to his truck. It was only 7:30PM and almost dark.

When the Doctor reached Starling's new abode, she was feeding Adam, sitting in what had become her "feeding chair" in the family room, Dr. Lecter took the opportunity to enter through the back door, the kitchen door as it were, which he found easy to open, then waited in the unoccupied third bedroom, until she finished feeding and burping the baby.
Hannibal Lecter had never visualized Clarice as a mother and was touched by the peaceful domesticity of it all, yet not surprised at the way Clarice adjusted to "motherhood".
From the window he had seen her moving around the house carrying the baby and talking to him, but it was not until he heard her cooing that he was hit by the full impact of her motherly feelings.

Once burped, she brought Adam to the nursery to change his diapers, and as it was her routine, she safely strapped him to the changing table. Adam lifted his arms slightly then and she nudged him gently and teased him with soft, loving words. His maroon eyes were fixed on hers, and to her amazement, every time she nudged his stomach he lifted his arms as if to touch her. She giggled and cooed and took off his diaper, disposed of it in the adjacent basket and reached for a new one, which she placed on a corner of the changing table, she cleaned him, diapered him, and slipped him in stretch terry sleeper. Once he was thus dressed, Clarice leaned over that baby's face and cooed, smiling,

"You are so cute! Yes, you are"

The air she exhaled when she cooed took his breath away and he wiggled with delight and blinked giggling, while he inhaled. She laughed and leaned closer still, this time whispering
"I love you so much!" The baby immediately grabbed hold of her hair and pulled it.
With her head down, Clarice attempted to release his grip and when she turned her head thus, saw the bearded man reflected in one of the baby proof mirrors of the mobile that she had attached to the changing table.

He was leaning against the door observing them intently. Regardless of his beard, she recognized the eyes that haunted her dreams and felt simultaneously relief and panic. Mostly panic that he would speak and be immediately recognized by people she believed had her under surveillance.
Her eyes reflected her panic when she turned to him, with one finger urgently across her lips urging him to be silent, and the other hand waving on the air pointing the ceiling and then to her ears and then emphatically moving here finger against her lip, in an effort to warn him that they might be watched and he shouldn't speak.

He lifted his hand to indicate he understood and she breathed out a sight of relief. Then reached out for him with her hand extended, signaling him to approach; when he was close enough she took him by the hand and drew him toward the changing table, pointing at the baby. He nodded while she released the strap, took hold of the baby's left hand and showed it to the Doctor.

He nodded again, ever so slow, to acknowledge that he understood, and she then picked up Adam and pointed toward the door, he nodded. Clarice looked around the room and picked a tiny fleece jacket with a hood and dressed the baby in it.

The Doctor then picked a baby blanket that lay on the rail of the yet unused crib and together they moved toward the front door.

On her way out, Clarice picked up the infant/car seat, but the Doctor stopped and looked alternatively at her and the seat, his head tilted to the side and one eye closed ever so slightly; then with one hand he made a vigorous sweeping motion back and forth across the seat. It was then that Clarice realized the only object she had not swept for surveillance bugs was the baby seat.

She gave the baby to the Doctor and removed the CPM-700 from the closet, turned it on, waved it across the infant seat and the device lit like a Christmas tree. For a moment she was paralyzed, then looked at the Doctor with undisguised admiration, put on her jacket, got the small shopping bag still containing the two weapons she had purchased and showed the contents to the Doctor, he nodded and signaled to bring them along.

She took the weapons out of their boxes and strapped them to her body as she had done for the past 9 years. I took seconds.

She stopped momentarily and pointed to her laptop laying on a table. The Doctor nodded in acknowledgment, gave her the baby, removed two rubber gloves from his pocket and put them on, examined the laptop for less than a minute and nodded with satisfaction, then turned it over and expertly removed the Hard Drive and put it on his jacket pocket, the gloves went back on the pocket as well, and gestured to Clarice to give him back the baby; she picked both her hand bag and the CPM-700 and they walked out the door.

They had not spoken one single word.

The Doctor silently pointed to the direction where he had parked the Expedition and led the way without a word. Then placed his own finger across his lips indicating he was still not certain it was safe to talk; Clarice nodded.

Once they got to the truck he opened the one of the back doors and pointed to the infant car seat, locked into its on base; an arrangement similar to the one she had in the mustang.
"He's been doing his homework," she though.

Gently, he placed the baby in the car seat and strapped him in, verifying that he was securely fastened.
Then opened the passenger door for Clarice and she got in. He walked then around the truck and took his seat behind the wheel.
He didn't turn on the engine, instead, turned to Clarice and said softly,
"I hope I didn't startle you." He smiled.

She was still speechless and slowly shook her head 'no" while she reached out for his left hand and examined the reattached thumb.
In a pensive voice she then said,
"I'm still afraid that this is in part a ploy to capture you. And I want you to know I am not part of it."
"I know," he said softly, running his finger on her hand.

"Have you watched the news, Clarice?"
"Not today," she paused, "something I should know?" she was whispering.
He nodded and told her about Pearsall and then about J. Duncan, A. Benning whom, due to their area of expertise he figured were somehow connected to the project.
Clarice listened without a word, her jaw set, while her eyes fixed on his were huge and wheeled with tears.
Only then she remembered the envelope from A. Benning.
"Dear God!" she exclaimed still whispering while she rummaged through her bag "A. Benning gave me an envelope during the few minutes we were alone, she told me it was important, she said that everything I needed to know was there.
At the time, I thought they were instructions for baby care," she said as if apologizing, while she continued to dig in her bag, until, triumphantly dug out the envelope and showed it to Lecter, then she opened it, removed a couple of pages and run her eyes quickly over the text.
"We can't read this here," she announced showing him the papers, "the writing is too tiny, and we are going to need more light, and at this point I guess it can wait until we are safely away from here."

"You are both in great danger, Clarice" he said firmly
She nodded, while a single tear run down her face. "They are all dead…" she muttered in disbelief.
The so called monster reached out with his index finger and softly whipped off the tear.
"I have some evidence that tonight they were going to set your cottage on fire and incinerate the both of you."
"What?...How do you know?"

He told her about the surveillance car and the men in them and the cans of gasoline he had found in the trunk.

Clarice Starling leaned toward him; when she spoke her tone was professional, yet both urgent and concerned, but not about the men he killed

"Did you leave any fingerprints? Did you touch anything with your bare hands?"

"Nope… used gloves"

Clarice sighed with relief, then leaned toward him,

"I need to borrow your gloves and a flashlight, I have to go and check on that car and the bodies out there, we want to know their affiliation, and what type of surveillance and communication equipment did they carry."

He opened the glove compartment and handed her the flashlight, then dug in his pocket for the gloves.

"Do you have any contact weapons, Clarice, a knife …?
Her Harpy was clipped to the right pocket of her jacket, without removing it she pointed to the clip there.
"A Civilian?" the Doctor was impressed.
"No, I followed your example and bought a Harpy." She was all business, "the Civilian is in my bag."

"I would like to accompany you?"
Clarice pointed to the baby
"We can't leave him along in the car and it would be too cumbersome to have him there with us."
"On the way here I purchased an additional sling infant carrier, this one can be worn on the back. I'd rather come with you, Clarice".

Reluctantly, she agreed, for his benefit mostly.
Together, covertly aided by a small flashlight, they followed the instructions for the sling and ultimately the baby was strapped to the Doctor's back.
He went back to the car and retrieved another flashlights from the center console.

"You watch my back while I inspect the stuff, it should take about 10 minutes, tops."

She checked the two bodies for Id's and weapons and once satisfied she left everything the way she found it. Then she opnened the trunk and examined the contents, she found a device that she checked thoroughly and then moved along past the cans of gasoline, and found a box of ammunition, she checked the contents and took it with her.

Then she turned to the Doctor.

"I'm through here,"

"Let's get going then."

Once they took their places back in the car, the Doctor turned on the engine and they started their trip home.

Clarice didn't ask him where they were going, wherever it was, she was certain it was safe.

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to be continued...
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please let me know how am I doing.