p to the open door of the big Air Force
transport plane on the runway. The plane was waiting, and so was
Malone. He didn't feel confident, or even excited. He felt just a
little bit frightened. Burris' complicated warnings had had some
effect, and Malone was fighting down a minor case of the shakes.

Next to him, her face wreathed in happy smiles, sat a smartly-dressed
grey-haired woman in her sixties. She wore an unobtrusive tailored
suit and a light jacket, and she looked as if she might be one of the
elder matrons of the society set, very definitely an upper-crust type.
In spite of the normality of her clothing, Her Majesty looked every
inch a Queen, Malone thought.

"And that, Sir Kenneth, is only natural," she said sweetly. "Even when
traveling incognito, one must retain one's dignity. And I don't object
at all to using the name of Rose Thompson in a good cause; it was used
for so many years it almost feels like part of me."

"I shouldn't be at all surprised," Malone said mildly.

A voice from above and behind him interrupted his worried thoughts.
"Mr. Malone!" it said. "Mr. Malone?"

Malone screwed his head around and looked up. An Air Force colonel was
standing in the doorway of the plane, looking down with a stern,
worried expression. "Yes?" Malone said. "What is it?"

"Takeoff, Mr. Malone," the colonel said. "We're due to go in fifteen
minutes, and our clearance has been established."

"Fine," Malone said.

"But your passengers," the colonel said. "Where are they?"

Malone tried to look calm, cool and collected. "They'll be here," he
said. "Don't worry about a thing." Privately, he hoped he was right.
Boyd hadn't shown up yet, and Boyd was bringing the musical-comedy spy
trio. It wasn't, Malone thought, that Boyd was usually late. But with
Brubitsch, Borbitsch and Garbitsch in tow, almost anything could
happen, he thought. He hoped fervently that it wouldn't.

"It won't," Her Majesty said. "At least, it hasn't so far. They're all
in a car, and they're driving right here. Boyd is thinking that he
ought to be here within five minutes."

Malone nodded, wiping his forehead. "Five minutes, Colonel," he called
back to the figure at the door. The colonel nodded efficiently at him,
turned and disappeared inside the plane. Malone looked at his watch.
The second hand was going around awfully fast, he thought. He wondered
if it were possible for time to speed up while he waited, so that by
the time Boyd arriv