Chapter 1
Will shivered in his thick fur coat, hands and legs somewhat restricted by the tight cuts of the fabric entombing him. The Quinpool was standing in the water, the ice breaker silent for the moment while the crew moved around disembarking for the fortnight. The documentary group would be returning after their 15 days are up and they were hoping to gather as much material they could within that short time frame. It would not do good to stay in Antarctica too long, the unceasing white of the snow clad ground were rumoured to drive any human raving mad.
Any other human except Hannibal Lecter it seemed. The world came to know of him the first time when the ship which took him to the Antarctica came back and his family tried to file criminal charges against the captain of the ship as well all the mates present for murder. They insisted till they got blue in the face that Hannibal wasted to be left behind and in spite of repeated requests to board the ship to return, he had refused and had then somehow disappeared before they could forcibly make him do so. A manhunt was mounted, but they did not dare venture too far, the captain not wanting to put his own men in danger over an obstinate suicidal lunatic.
Another ship which was nearby, while this controversy was going on, was asked to check to see if there was any sigh of the said man being still alive, as slim a chance of that happening was. Much to their astonishment, they found Lecter whole and hale, living in an igloo that he constructed himself and sustaining himself on fish that he caught from the ocean, with a random seal every now and then. They found him in the midst of an intense study of the emperor penguins and their migration habitats following their breeding habits. The implement he was using was rudimentary and vague at best, but the unbelievable amount of data that he managed to collect was beyond belief.
This led the crew to make him the offer to take back his data with the promise of better machines and other things he might need in exchange. Hannibal handed them safely collected samples of ice crystals, calcified dirt and penguin leavings as well as a complete paper on what he had found. They went back, sent the things to the appropriate addressee and chaos broke loose in the research world. Hannibal made and in some cases proved some very important facts about how the emperor penguins lived and underwent during their breeding. Hannibal also sent a packet of equally brilliant write-ups on the divinity of penguins in religion and their perceived culture.
His family tried to get him to come back to human habitat, he refused. He stayed and did his research and kept the world’s eye on the penguins as they marched on to and fro, accepting Hannibal as one of their own , seeing how some started to leave him gifts of half bitten fish after he killed one of the notorious and slyest leopard seal the penguins were having a problem over. It was truly fascinating and worth recording for the present and future academia as to how this one single man had managed to infiltrate the black coated animals and somehow managed to become one of their own.
Will, with his crew of scientist and workers, set out to see the Penguin Man at his corner, in his place while he went about his work, doing things that no one else had dared to do till now. His college granted him the necessary funds and they reached Antarctica without any huge mishap to learn as much as he and his fellow scientists could from Hannibal. They had radioed Hannibal prior to disembarking and so he was present there when they touched land. Will was swathed in thick furs, as were everybody else, the wild coldness of the place nipping at any exposed part to claim for its own.
Hannibal was dressed more sombrely. He had on furs too, but they swaddled him, swinging from his body in wide swaths and billowed a bit with each step he took. He had on a fur hat that was black and glistened wetly at the people. His voice was cultured, as if he had just finished giving a delectable lecture on his favourite subject to a studio. Will had seen his pictures from years ago, for now his features were rather obscured due to the ski mask like thing he was wearing over his face. His intelligent and twinkling eyes still shone through, that seemed almost amused at Will’s attempt to see everything as he kept on whipping his head from side to side rapidly.
Hannibal took Will to his cabin, if it could be called that. It was a wooden structure, from the corners and side that was still visible under the huge amount of ice that had been slathered onto it from all sides. Inside it was just one room, with a small kitchen with a wooden stove fit only for the coffee pot that sat over it, a small refrigerator that worked double shift as the sample collection nook as well as the place where Hannibal kept his food. It was so cold out that anything kept out crystallised and the refrigerator was the only place to keep them edible. A small genny was placed near it, which provided electricity for three lights, two of which were placed over Hannibal’s workshop.
The place was spartan, filled with bare essentials, and lots of paper. There sat a laptop on one of the table as well, looking odd for some reason as it had two speaker like things on its side. Will wondered if it even worked. They were on a schedule, so he decided to start with his filming as soon as he could, as they had reached in the morning. Not that it meant much. The sun would be out for the whole day – the benefit of living near one of the poles. Intending to set thing up as quickly as possible, Will turned to Hannibal to ask for specifics and had to take a pause when his eyes widened as the unmasked Hannibal who stood straight with a cutting smirk on his lips. Will silently breathed a small ‘oh’ to himself then.