فصل 73

Chapter 73

KRENDLER COULD not have asked for better coverage. The ninetieth birthday of the FBI was combined with a tour for newsmen of the new crisis management center. Television news took full advantage of this unaccustomed access to the J.

Edgar Hoover Building, C-SPAN carrying former President Bush’s remarks in full, along with those of the director, in live programming. CNN excerpted the speeches in running coverage and the networks covered for the evening news. It was as the dignitaries filed off the dais that Krendler had his moment. Young Razor Cut, standing near the stage, posed the question: “Mr. Krendler is it true that Special Agent Clarice Starling has been suspended in the Hannibal Lecter investigation?”

“I think it would be premature, and unfair to the agent, to comment on that, at the moment. I’ll just say that the Inspector General’s office is looking into the Lecter matter. No charges have been filed against anyone.

CNN caught a whiff too. “Mr. Krendler, Italian news sources are saying Dr Lecter may have received information improperly from a government source warning him to flee. Is that the basis of Special Agent Starling’s suspension? Is that why the Inspector General’s office is involved rather than the internal Office of Professional Responsibility?”

“I can’t comment on foreign news reports, Jeff. I can say the IG’s office is investigating allegations that so far have not been proven. We have as much responsibility toward our own officers as we do our friends overseas,” Krendler said, poking his finger into the air like a Kennedy. “The Hannibal Lecter matter is in good hands, not just the hands of Paul Krendler, but experts drawn from all the disciplines of the FBI and the Justice Department. We have a project under way that we can reveal in due time when it has borne fruit.”

The German lobbyist who was Dr Lecter’s landlord furnished his house with an enormous Grundig television set, and tried to blend it into the decor by putting one of his smaller bronzes of Leda and the Swan on top of the ultramodern cabinet.

Dr Lecter was watching a film called A Brief History of Time, about the great astrophysicist Stephen Hawking and his work. He had watched it many times before.

This was his favorite part, where the teacup falls off the table and smashes on the floor.

Hawking, twisted in his wheelchair, speaks in his computer-generated voice:

“Where does the difference between the past and the future come from? The laws of science do not distinguish between the past and the future. Yet there is a big difference between the past and future in ordinary life.

“You may see a cup of tea fall off of a table and break into pieces on the floor. But you will never see the cup gather itself back together and jump back on the table.”

The film, run backward, shows the cup reassembling itself on the table. Hawking continues: “The increase of disorder or entropy is what distinguishes the past from the future, giving a direction to time.”

Dr Lecter admired Hawking’s work very much and followed it as closely as he could in the mathematical journals. He knew that Hawking had once believed the universe would stop expanding and would shrink again, and entropy might reverse itself. Later Hawking said he was mistaken.

Lecter was quite capable in the area of higher mathematics, but Stephen Hawking is on another plane entirely from the rest of us. For years Lecter had teased the problem, wanting very much for Hawking to be right the first time, for the expanding universe to stop, for entropy to mend itself, for Mischa, eaten, to be whole again.

Time. Dr Lecter stopped his videotape and turned to the news.

Television and news events involving the FBI are listed daily on the FBI’s public Web site. Dr Lecter visited the Web site every day to make sure they were still using his old photograph among the Ten Most Wanted. So he learned of the FBI birthday in plenty of time to tune in. He sat in a great armchair in his smoking jacket and ascot and watched Krendler lie. He watched Krendler with his eyes half closed, holding his brandy snifter close under his nose and swirling the contents gently. He had not seen that pale face since Krendler stood outside his cage in Memphis seven years ago, just before his escape.

On the local news from Washington, he saw Starling receive a traffic ticket with microphones stuck in the window of her Mustang. By now the television news had Starling “accused of breaching U.S. security” in the Lecter case.

Dr Lecter’s maroon eyes opened wide at the sight of her and in the depths of his pupils sparks flew around his image of her face. He held her countenance whole and perfect in his mind long after she was gone from the screen, and pressed her with another image, Mischa, pressed them together until, from the red plasma core of their fusion, the sparks flew upward, carrying their single image to the east, into the night sky to wheel with the stars above the sea. Now, should the universe contract, should time reverse and teacups come together, a place could be made for Mischa in the world. The worthiest place that Dr Lecter knew: Starling’s place. Mischa could have Starling’s place in the world. If it came to that, if that time came round again, Starling’s demise would leave a place for Mischa as sparkling and clean as the copper bathtub in the garden.