"All right," Malone said, out of sheer necessity. "Okay. But don't waste any time telling me. Do it right away. We've got to find that spy and isolate him somehow."
"Please don't worry yourself, Sir Kenneth," Her Majesty said. "Your
Queen is doing everything she can."
"I know that, Your Majesty," Malone said. "I'm sure of it." Privately, he wondered just how much even she could do. Then he realized—for perhaps the ten-thousandth time—that there was no such thing as wondering privately any more.
"That's quite right, Sir Kenneth," the Queen said sweetly. "And it's about time you got used to it."
"What's going on?" Boyd said. "More reading minds back there?"
"That's right, Sir Thomas," the Queen said.
"I've about gotten used to it," Boyd said almost cheerfully. "Pretty soon they'll come and take me away, but I don't mind at all." He whipped the car around a bend in the road savagely. "Pretty soon they'll put me with the other sane people and let the bats inherit the world. But I don't mind at all."
"Sir Thomas!" Her Majesty said in shocked tones.
"Please," Boyd said with a deceptive calmness. "Just Mr. Boyd. Not even Lieutenant Boyd, or Sergeant Boyd. Just Mr. Boyd. Or, if you prefer, Tom."
"Sir Thomas," Her Majesty said, "I really can't understand this sudden—"