It had been a tense morning at the Baltimore State Hospital. The trainee's badge still felt too new, his shoes too clean for this wing. He walked down a corridor with cells with inmates behind iron bars until he stood before the last one which instead had glass that separated the cell from him.

Inside, she was already waiting.

Annibala Lecter stood perfectly still in the center of her cell, the soft lamplight catching the gleam of her eyes behind the thick glass. Not seated. Not reading. Simply waiting.

She smiled, not warmly. “Morning.”