20 Must-Read Thriller Novels

Chapter 5-1

Chapter 5

Malone opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Not even air.

He wasn't breathing.

He stared at Burris for a long moment, then took a breath and

looked again at Her Majesty. "The spy?" he whispered.

"That's right," she said.

"But that's—" He had to fight for control. "That's the head of

the FBI," he managed to say. "Do you mean to say he's a spy?"

Burris was saying: "… I'm afraid this is a matter of importance,

Dr. Dowson. We cannot tolerate delay. You have the court order.

Obey it."

"Very well, Mr. Burris," Dowson said with an obvious lack of

grace. "I'll release him to Mr. Malone immediately, since you

insist."

Malone stared, fascinated. Then he turned back to the little old

lady. "Do you mean to tell me," he said, "that Andrew J. Burris is

a telepathic spy?"

"Oh, dear me," Her Majesty said, obviously aghast. "My goodness

gracious. Is that Mr. Burris on the screen?"

"It is," Malone assured her. A look out of the corner of his eye

told him that neither Burris, in Washington, nor Dowson or any

others in the room, had heard any of the conversation. Malone

lowered his whisper some more, just in case. "That's the head of

the FBI," he said.

"Well, then," Her Majesty said, "Mr. Burris couldn't possibly be

a spy, then, could he? Not if he's the head of the FBI. Of course

not. Mr. Burris simply isn't a spy. He isn't the type. Forget all

about Mr. Burris."

"I can't," Malone said at random. "I work for him." He closed

his eyes. The room, he had discovered, was spinning slightly.

"Now," he said, "you're sure he's not a spy?"

"Certainly I'm sure," she said, with her most regal tones. "Do

you doubt the word of your sovereign?"

"Not exactly," Malone said. Truthfully, he wasn't at all sure.

Not at all. But why tell that to the Queen?

"Shame on you," she said. "You shouldn't even think such things.

After all, I am the Queen, aren't I?" But there was a sweet, gentle

smile on her face when she spoke; she didn't seem to be really

irritated.

"Sure you are," Malone said. "But—"

"Malone!" It was Burris' voice, from the phone. Malone spun

around. "Take Mr. Logan," Burris said, "and get going. There's been

enough delay as it is."

"Yes, sir," Malone said. "Right away, sir. Anything else?"

"That's all," Burris said. "Good night." The screen blanked.

There was a little silence.

"All right, Doctor," Boyd said. He looked every inch a king, and

Malone knew exactly what king. "Bring him out."

Dr. Dowson heaved a great sigh. "Very well," he said heavily.

"But I want it known that I resent this highhanded treatment, and I

shall write a letter complaining of it." He pressed a button on an

instrument panel in his desk. "Bring Mr. Logan in," he said.

Malone wasn't in the least worried about the letter. Burris, he

knew, would take care of anything like that. And, besides, he had

other things to think about.

The door to the next room had opened almost immediately, and two

husky, white-clad men were bringing in a strait-jacketed figure

whose arms were wrapped against his chest, while the jacket's

extra-long sleeves were tied behind his back. He walked where the

attendants led him, but his eyes weren't looking at anything in the

room. They stared at something far away and invisible, an

impalpable shifting nothingness somewhere in the infinite distances

beyond the world.

For the first time, Malone felt the chill of panic. Here, he

thought, was insanity of a very real and frightening kind. Queen

Elizabeth Thompson was one thing—and she was almost funny, and

likeable, after all. But William Logan was something else, and

something that sent a wave of cold shivering into the room.

What made it worse was that Logan wasn't a man, but a boy,

barely nineteen. Malone had known that, of course—but seeing it was

something different. The lanky, awkward figure wrapped in a

hospital strait-jacket was horrible, and the smooth, unconcerned

face was, somehow, worse. There was no threat in that face, no

terror or anger or fear. It was merely—a blank.

It was not a human face. Its complete lack of emotion or

expression could have belonged to a sleeping child of ten—or to a

member of a different race. Malone looked at the boy, and looked

away.

Was it possible that Logan knew what he was thinking?

Answer me, he thought, directly at the still boy.

There was no reply, none at all. Malone forced himself to look

away. But the air in the room seemed to have become much

colder.

The attendants stood on either side of him, waiting. For one

long second no one moved, and then Dr. Dowson reached into his desk

drawer and produced a sheaf of papers.

"If you'll sign these for the government," he said, "you may

have Mr. Logan. There seems little else that I can do, Mr.

Malone—in spite of my earnest pleas—"

"I'm sorry," Malone said. After all, he needed Logan,

didn't he? After a look at the boy, he wasn't sure any more—but the

Queen had said she wanted him, and the Queen's word was law. Or

what passed for law, anyhow, at least for the moment.

Malone took the papers and looked them over. There was nothing

special about them; they were merely standard release forms,

absolving the staff and management of Desert Edge Sanatorium from

every conceivable responsibility under any conceivable

circumstances, as far as William Logan was concerned. Dr. Dowson

gave Malone a look that said: "Very well, Mr. Malone; I will play

Pilate and wash my hands of the matter— but you needn't think I

like it." It was a lot for one look to say, but Dr. Dowson's dark

and sunken eyes got the message across with no loss in

transmission. As a matter of fact, there seemed to be more coming—a

much less printable message was apparently on the way through those

glittering, sad and angry eyes.

Malone avoided them nervously, and went over the papers again

instead. At last he signed them and handed them back. "Thanks for

your cooperation, Dr. Dowson," he said briskly, feeling ten kinds

of a traitor.

"Not at all," Dowson said bitterly. "Mr. Logan is now in your

custody. I must trust you to take good care of him."

"The best care we can," Malone said. It didn't seem sufficient.

He added: "The best possible care, Doctor," and tried to look

dependable and trustworthy, like a Boy Scout. He was aware that the

effort failed miserably.

At his signal, the two plainclothes FBI men took over from the

attendants. They marched Logan out to their car, and Malone led the

procession back to Boyd's automobile, a procession that consisted

(in order) of Sir Kenneth Malone, prospective Duke of Columbia,

Queen Elizabeth I, Lady Barbara, prospective Duchess of an

unspecified county, and Sir Thomas Boyd, prospective Duke of

Poughkeepsie. Malone hummed a little of the first Pomp and

Circumstance march as they walked; somehow, he thought it was

called for.

They piled into the car, Boyd at the wheel with Malone next to

him, and the two ladies in back, with Queen Elizabeth sitting

directly behind Sir Thomas. Boyd started the engine and they turned

and roared off.

"Well," said Her Majesty with an air of great complacence,

"that's that. That makes six of us."

Malone looked around the car. He counted the people. There were

four. He said, puzzled: "Six?"

"That's right, Sir Kenneth," Her Majesty said. "You have it

exactly. Six."

"You mean six telepaths?" Sir Thomas asked in a deferent tone of

voice.

"Certainly I do," Her Majesty replied. "We telepaths, you know,

must stick together. That's the reason I got poor little Willie out

of that sanatorium of his, you know—and, of course, the others will

be joining us."

"Don't you think it's time for your nap, dear?" Lady Barbara put

in suddenly.

"My what?" It was obvious that Queen Elizabeth was Not

Amused.

"Your nap, dear," Lady Barbara said.

"Don't call me dear," Her Majesty snapped.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty," Barbara murmured. "But really—"

"My dear girl," Her Majesty said, "I am not a child. I am your

sovereign. Do try to have a little respect. Why, I remember when

Shakespeare used to say to me—but that's no matter, not now."

"About those telepaths—" Boyd began.

"Telepaths," Her Majesty said. "Ah, yes. We must all stick

together. In the hospital, you know, we had a little joke—the

patients for Insulin Shock Therapy used to say: 'If we don't stick

together, we'll all be stuck separately.' Do you see, Sir

Thomas?"

"But," Sir Kenneth Malone said, trying desperately to return to

the point. "Six?" He had counted them up in his mind.

Burris had mentioned one found in St. Elizabeths, and two more

picked up later. With Queen Elizabeth, and now William Logan, that

made five.

Unless the Queen was counting him in. There didn't seem any good

reason why not.

"Oh, no," Her Majesty said with a little trill of laughter, "not

you, Sir Kenneth. I meant Mr. Miles."

Sir Thomas Boyd asked: "Mr. Miles?"

"That's right," Her Majesty said. "His name is Barry Miles, and

your FBI men found him an hour ago in New Orleans. They're bringing

him to Yucca Flats to meet the rest of us; isn't that nice?"

Lady Barbara cleared her throat.

"It really isn't necessary for you to try to get my attention,

dear," the Queen said. "After all, I do know what you're

thinking."

Lady Barbara blinked. "I still want to suggest, respectfully,

about that nap—" she began.

"My dear girl," the Queen said, with the faintest trace of

impatience, "I do not feel the least bit tired, and this is such an

exciting day that I just don't want to miss any of it. Besides,

I've already told you I don't want a nap. It isn't polite to be

insistent to your Queen—no matter how strongly you feel about a

matter. I'm sure you'll learn to understand that, dear."

Lady Barbara opened her mouth, shut it again, and opened it once

more. "My goodness," she said.

"That's the idea," Her Majesty said approvingly. "Think before

you speak—and then don't speak. It really isn't necessary, since I

know what you're thinking."

Malone said grimly: "About this new telepath—this Barry Miles.

Did they find him—"

"In a nut-house?" Her Majesty said sweetly. "Why, of course, Sir

Kenneth. You were quite right when you thought that telepaths went

insane because they had a sense they couldn't effectively use, and

because no one believed them. How would you feel, if nobody

believed you could see?"

"Strange," Malone admitted.

"There," Her Majesty said. "You see? Telepaths do go insane—it's

sort of an occupational disease. Of course, not all of them are

insane."

"Not all of them?" Malone felt the faint stirrings of hope.

Perhaps they would turn up a telepath yet who was completely sane

and rational.

"There's me, of course," Her Majesty said.

Lady Barbara gulped audibly. Boyd said nothing, but gripped the

wheel of the car more tightly.

And Malone thought to himself: That's right. There's Queen

Elizabeth—who says she isn't crazy.

And then he thought of one more sane telepath. But the knowledge

didn't make him feel any better.

It was, of course, the spy.

How many more are going to turn up? Malone wondered.

"Oh, that's about all of us," the Queen said. "There is one

more, but she's in a hospital in Honolulu, and your men won't find

her until tomorrow."

Boyd turned. "Do you mean you can foretell the future, too?" he

asked in a strained voice.

Lady Barbara screamed: "Keep your eyes on the wheel and your

hands on the road!"

"What?" Boyd said.

There was a terrific blast of noise, and a truck went by in the

opposite direction. The driver, a big, ugly man with no hair on his

head, leaned out to curse at the quartet, but his mouth remained

open. He stared at the four Elizabethans and said nothing at all as

he whizzed by.

"What was that?" Boyd asked faintly.

"That," Malone snapped, "was a truck. And it was due entirely to

the mercy of God that we didn't hit it. Barbara's right. Keep your

eyes on the wheel and your hands on the road." He paused and

thought that over. Then he said: "Does that mean anything at

all?"