"Certainly, dear," the Queen said calmly. "Would I lie to Sir
Kenneth?"
Malone was still talking. "The thing that set me off this noon was
something you said, Sir Andrew," he went on. "You said there weren't
any sane telepaths--remember?"
Burris, incapable of speech, merely nodded.
"But according to Her Majesty," Malone said, "we had every telepath in
the United States right here. She told me that--and I didn't even see
it!"
"Don't blame yourself, Sir Kenneth," the Queen put in. "I did do my
best to mislead you, you know."
"You sure did!" Malone said. "And later on, when we were driving here,
she said the spy was 'moving around.' That's right; he was in the car
behind us, going eighty miles an hour."
Barbara stared. Malone got a lot of satisfaction out of that stare.
But there was still more ground to cover.
"Then," he said, "she told us he was here at Yucca Flats--after we
brought him here! It had to be one of the other six telepaths."
The psychiatrist who'd muttered: "Impossible," was still muttering it.
Malone ignored him.
"And when I remembered her pointing at you," Malone told Burris, "and
remembered that she'd only said: 'He's right there,' I knew it had to
be Logan. You weren't there. You were only an image on a TV screen.
Logan was there--in the room behind the phone."
Burris had found his tongue. "All right," he said. "Okay. But what's
all this about misleading us--and why didn't she tell us right away,
anyhow?"
Malone turned to Her Majesty on the throne. "I think that the Queen
had better explain that--if she will."
Queen Elizabeth Thompson nodded very slowly. "I--I only wanted you to
respect me," she said. "To treat me properly." Her voice sounded
uneven, and her eyes were glistening with unspilled tears. Lady
Barbara tightened her arm about the Queen's shoulders once more.
"It's all right," she said. "We do--respect you."
The Queen smiled up at her.
Malone waited. After a second Her Majesty continued.
"I was afraid that as soon as you found poor Willie you'd send me back
to the hospital," she said. "And Willie couldn't tell the Russian
agents any more once he'd been taken away. So I thought I'd just--just
let things stay the way they were as long as I could. That's--that's
all."
Malone nodded. After a second he said: "You see that we couldn't
possibly send you back now, don't you?"
"You know all the State Secrets, Your Majesty," Malone said. "We would
rather that Dr. Harman in San Francisco didn't try to talk you out of
them. Or anyone else."
The Queen smiled tremulously. "I know too much, do I?" she said. Then
her grin faded. "Poor Dr. Harman," she said.
"Poor Dr. Harman?"
"You'll hear about him in a day or so," she said. "I--peeked inside
his mind. He's very ill."
"Ill?" Lady Barbara asked.
"Oh, yes," the Queen said. The trace of a smile appeared on her face.
"He thinks that all the patients in the hospital can see inside his
mind."
"Oh, my," Lady Barbara said--and began to laugh. It was the nicest
sound Malone had ever heard.
"Forget Harman," Burris snapped. "What about this spy ring? How was
Logan getting his information out?"
"I've already taken care of that," Malone said. "I had Desert Edge
Sanatorium surrounded as soon as I knew what the score was." He looked
at one of the agents holding Logan.
"They ought to be in the Las Vegas jail within half an hour," he said
in confirmation.
"Dr. Dowson was in on it, wasn't he, Your Majesty?" Malone said.
"Certainly," the Queen said. Her eyes were suddenly very cold. "I hope
he tries to escape. I hope he tries it."
Malone knew just how she felt.
One of the psychiatrists spoke up suddenly. "I don't understand it,"
he said. "Logan is completely catatonic. Even if he could read minds,
how could he tell Dowson what he'd read? It doesn't make sense."
"In the first place," the Queen said patiently, "Willie isn't
catatonic. He's just _busy_, that's all. He's only a boy, and--well,
he doesn't much like being who he is. So he visits other people's
minds, and that way he becomes _them_ for a while. You see?"
"Vaguely," Malone said. "But how did Dowson get his information? I had
everything worked out but that."
"I know you did," the Queen said, "and I'm proud of you. I intend to
award you with the Order of the Bath for this day's work."
Unaccountably, Malone's chest swelled with pride.
"As for Dr. Dowson," the Queen said, "that traitor--_hurt_ Willie. If
he's hurt enough, he'll come back." Her eyes weren't hard any more.
"He didn't want to be a spy, really," she said, "but he's just a boy,
and it must have sounded rather exciting. He knew that if he told
Dowson everything he'd found out, they'd let him go--go away again."
There was a long silence.
"Well," Malone said, "that about wraps it up. Any questions?"
He looked around at the men, but before any of them could speak up Her
Majesty rose.
"I'm sure there are questions," she said, "but I'm really very tired.
My lords, you are excused." She extended a hand. "Come, Lady Barbara,"
she said. "I think I really may need that nap, now."
* * * * *
Malone put the cufflinks in his shirt with great care. They were great
stones, and Malone thought that they gave his costume that necessary
Elizabethan flair.
Not that he was wearing the costumes of the Queen's Court now.
Instead, he was dressed in a tailor-proud suit of dark blue, a white-
on-white shirt and no tie. He selected one of a gorgeous peacock
pattern from his closet rack.
Boyd yawned at him from the bed in the room they were sharing.
"Stepping out?" he said.
"I am," Malone said with restraint. He whipped the tie round his neck
and drew it under the collar.
"Anybody I know?"
"I am meeting Lady Barbara, if you wish to know," Malone said.
"My God," Boyd said. "Come down. Relax. Anyhow, I've got a question
for you. There was one little thing Her Everlovin' Majesty didn't
explain."
"Yes?" said Malone.
"Well, about those hoods who tried to gun us down," Boyd said. "Who
hired 'em? And why?"
"Dowson," Malone said. "He wanted to kill us off, and then kidnap
Logan from the hotel room. But we foiled his plan--by killing his
hoods. By the time he could work up something else, we were on our way
to Yucca Flats."
"Great," Boyd said. "And how did you find out this startling piece of
information? There haven't been any reports in from Las Vegas, have
there?"
"No," Malone said.
"Okay," Boyd said. "I give up, Mastermind."
Malone wished Boyd would stop using that nickname. The fact was--as
he, and apparently nobody else, was willing to recognize--that he
wasn't anything like a really terrific FBI agent. Even Barbara thought
he was something special.
He wasn't, he knew. He was just lucky.
"Her Majesty informed me," Malone said.
"Her--" Boyd stood with his mouth dropped open, like a fish waiting
for some bait. "You mean she knew?"
"Well," Malone said, "she did know the guys in the Buick weren't the
best in the business--and she knew all about the specially-built FBI
Lincoln. She got that from our minds." He knotted his tie with an air
of great aplomb, and went slowly to the door. "And she knew we were a
good team. She got that from our minds, too."
"But," Boyd said. After a second he said: "But," again, and followed
it with: "Why didn't she tell us?"
Malone opened the door.
"Her Majesty wished to see the Queen's Own FBI in action," said Sir
Kenneth Malone.