one 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,
you 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, "you 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. "O.K. 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?"
"I--"
"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 s
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