Malone shook his head. “No,” he said. “Now.”
“But—”
“I think we’ll have plenty of warning if they decide to try anything, Tom,” Malone said quietly. “Her Majesty, after all, is keeping them under surveillance.”
Without another word, Boyd tossed up the keys. Malone caught and pocketed them. “I’ll be back as soon as possible,” he said. “Meanwhile, you can keep digging on other stuff—what we’ve discussed and anything it seems to lead into.”
“Right,” Boyd said. “Stay out of trouble, Ken. So long.”
Malone nodded and ducked back into the plane. He unlocked the handcuffs, and Brubitsch and Borbitsch immediately went and sat down mournfully together at the back of the plane. Malone looked for Lou, but she was already seated—with Her Majesty, naturally. He sighed briefly and sat down, at last, next to the wistful Garbitsch.
“It will be nice to see Russia again,” Garbitsch said. “I hardly hoped to do so.”
The plane shuddered, roared and took off. Then it settled down to its normal state of unnatural quiet. Malone sat back and tried to relax.
It was impossible.