"I'd like to talk to you," Malone said, "Your Majesty."
There was an odd note in the Queen's voice, and an odd, haunted expression on her face. "I've been hoping you'd ask me to come," she said.
"I had a hunch you were following me telepathically," Malone said. "Can you give me any help?"
"I ... I really don't know," she said. "It's something new, and something ... disturbing. I've never come across anything like it before."
"Like what?" Malone asked.
"It's the—" She made a gesture that conveyed nothing at all to Malone. "The ... the static," she said at last.
Malone blinked. "Static?" he said.
"Yes," she said. "You're not telepathic, so I can't tell you what it's really like. But ... well, Sir Kenneth, have you ever seen disturbance on a TV screen, when there's some powerful electric output nearby? The bright, senseless snowstorms, the meaningless hash?"
"Sure," Malone said.
"It's like that," she said. "It's a ... a sudden, meaningless, disturbing blare of telepathic energy."