CHAPTER 10: Stay for a while, I have loved you for so, so long.
Night in the heart of St. Petersburg, the old city artfully lighted. The Winter Palace rising from the dark square, floodlit, soaring into the black sky.
Off-shore eddy wind walks royal, alone in his kingdom, around the Alexander Column and down the narrow streets.
Limousines are backed up at the Alexander Theater, St. Petersburg's most elegant opera house. A pair of tourists stopped to watch the opera lovers go in. At that moment a black Jaguar Saloon whispered up to the curb. A doorman hurried to open the car.
A man, slender and elegant in white tie, got out and handed out a woman. The sight of her raised an admiring murmur in the crowd around the entrance. Her hair was black, curly, fastened with long ornamental straight pins; emeralds flashed sea-green at her throat. She wore a long dinner gown, narrowly but deeply décolleté beneath an exquisite beaded jacket. There was an air of absolute stillness around her.
Just before the houselights went down the lady and her escort came through the crimson curtains into their ornate box beside the stage and took their seats. The gentleman took a champagne flute from a waiter's tray saying "Добрый вечер. Благодарю." (Good evening. Thank you.) and handed it to the lady, then took a glass himself.
A tall brunette, madly attractive, came up to them.
"Добрый вечер, Ганнибал." (Good evening, Hannibal.)
In Russia it is not common to address a person by their title. Dr.Lecter has not got a patronymic name and he is used to the Russians often calling him by his given name.
"Здравствуйте" (Hello.) the doctor said. The brunette waited with a slight inclination of the head, until Dr Lecter had to make the introduction.
"Beatrice, позволь познакомить тебя с Олегом Погудиным, серебряным голосом России." (Allow me to present you Oleg Pogudin, The Silver Voice Of Russia.)
The young gentlemen bent over Clarice's hand and pressed his lips to it. Her expression didn't change.
"Вам приходилось раньше видеть "Годунова?"" (Have you seen "Godunov" before?) the young man asked.
"О нет, я вижу оперу впервые" (Oh no, I'm afraid it'll be the first time I see the opera.) Starling said, her smile only polite.
"Уверен, Вы получите огромное удовольствие, Beatrice. Это настоящая русская классика." (Oh I'm sure you'll enjoy it. It's a real Russian classic.) Pogudin said with a charming smile. "Мы с Вашем мужем много говорили о русском балете, а также о русском романсе. Поверите ли, он знает обо всем этом даже больше, чем я!" (Your husband and I talked a lot about The Russian Ballet Tradition and also about The Russian Romance. By god, he knows about all this even more than I do, can you imagine that?)
At that moment someone called the romance singer from behind and he gracefully excused himself. The gentleman turned to his lady and, taking some reading in her eyes, smiled, his teeth very white: "I could never entirely predict you. My impression was that you were quite an admirer of his. "Не уходи… Побудь со мною… Я так давно тебя люблю…" (Don't go away...Stay for a while...I have loved you for so, so long.) I particularly remember that delicious tear on your cheek, when you first heard it."
The pair returned to their seats. Eyeing the first rows beneath them, the woman said absently:
"These tedious little fools."
Her escort was silent. The light went down. The lady seemed to be in perfect control of herself. But when the gentlemen glanced at her sidelong, he nevertheless asked quietly:
"Clarice, what is the matter?"
Starling's eyes swept over the house restlessly, before she answered coldly: "Nothing is the matter, Dr; let's enjoy the Godunov, shall we?" and turned away.
As soon as the lights came up for the first intermission, Hannibal Lecter spoke again:
"Clarice, something definitely worries you. I also believe that the very cause of your worry is our little lamb being left without your all-seeing eye."
She brought her face close to his.
"May I ask you not to seek for patterns? Thank you."
Lecter found the shine of champagne's drop on her lip intensely arousing. "I will not, Clarice." A beat. "Shame".
She glanced at him with indifference. "Mmmmm?"
"Clarice. It'll be the first time I've left the opera without seeing it up to the end." He stood up. "After you."
Starling needed no second bidding.
As soon as they got into the Jaguar, she drew him closer and wrapped her exposed arms around his neck: "Thank you, Doctor."
"See if it never happens again".
"That I promise you".
Lecter's hand rested on her thigh. He moved it up slowly as Clarice kissed him possessively and ran her hand over his chest.
"I wonder, Clarice, I wonder if you still have the .45 on your leg beneath the gown" – He breathed.
Starling withdrew slightly, not taking her eyes off his red lips.
"There's only one way to find out."
The dark man came out of nowhere, passing them, hardly pausing in his stride, his fingers scrambling inside the doctor's coat. A very improbable scenario for a street dip, even in St. Pete. Clarice Starling saw the stranger twisting away, then there was a blow-like low movement between the two of them. The whole scene took mere seconds and there the man was going away, free and unhurt. Starling was behind Dr Lecter almost instantly.
"We cannot let him go."
Lecter did not turn around to face her.
"He won't get far. I sent a knife through his femoral artery. He'll bleed out." And after a pause: "Bring the child and my briefcase, then call the driver. I'll wait."
His wife was about to rush inside their Petersburg's cream-colored house, when saw a blood drop land on the cobblestone pavement under the doctor. Slowly, she went around to face him, only to see a massive wound in his stomach.
"Oh dear" Starling said. Her husband bent over briefly, breathing hard, then tried to straighten up, but his knees were going. "In the house" Starling said in an unnaturally calm voice. She helped him inside and up the stairs. Thank God the staff was taught to come out only at a bell's ringing. She urged him to lie down. Obviously, Hannibal Lecter was in a state of semisyncope, otherwise he'd have already taken over control.
Nevertheless, he said quietly:
"They've found us. Book a flight to Rio. Pay only by cash. Take my briefcase. I'll join you shortly".
"No." was all Starling said as she moved to grab some medicines, when felt her arm seized in a terrific grip.
"Listen to me" Lecter hissed. "Mason drinks their tears like a fine wine---literally. He will not kill him outright. He'll watch him grow; he'll build the inner rages inside the child's mind. If you want it to happen, stay."
Starling's jaw twisted.
"Leave some medicines. If the wound had been lethal, I'd have already bled out by now. Do like I said."
She quickly walked over to the closet and brought all the medical equipment. She composed it on the bed near his lying form. At that moment a tiny whimpering came from the downstairs. Starling bent over her husband. Their lips brushed. Before the kiss could deepen, he pulled her away. "Go."
In the Beginning Harris created 'Silence of the lambs'. And Harris said: 'Let there be a book" and there was the book. And Demme saw that the book was good; and he invited Hopkins over there... Many years passed, and then the Lecterphiles appeared.