Her scream seemed to be a signal. The two other women sitting on couches screamed, too, and jumped up with their hands to their faces.
Malone shouted something unintelligible but very loud at them and brandished a fist menacingly. They shrieked again and ran for the interior room.
Malone heard the roaring outside, and pressed his back tighter against the door. Then, suddenly, he broke away from it and ran over to Her Majesty and Lou. He looked down. Lou was apparently completely unconscious by this time, and there was a peaceful look on her face.
The Queen looked down at her, then up at Malone.
"I"m sorry, Sir Kenneth," she said, "but we really haven"t time for romantic thoughts just now."
Malone pa.s.sed a hand over his brow. "We haven"t got time for anything," he said. "You can see what"s going on outside."
"My goodness," Her Majesty said. "Oh, yes. My goodness, yes."
"Okay," Malone said. "We"ve got to teleport out, if we can--and if we can take Lou with us."
"I don"t know, Sir Kenneth," the Queen said.
"We"ve got to try," Malone said grimly, looking down. There was a crash as something hit the door. It shuddered, creaked, and held.
Malone took a breath. Lou was too beautiful to leave behind, no matter what.
"I"ll mesh my mind with yours," Her Majesty said, "so we"ll be synchronized."
"Right," Malone said. "The plane. Let"s go."
There was another crash, but he hardly heard it. He closed his eyes and tried to visualize the interior of the plane that was waiting for them at the airfield. He wasn"t sure he could do it; the vodka might have clouded his mental processes just enough to make teleporting impossible. He concentrated. The crash came again, and a shout. He almost had it ... he almost had it...
The last sound he heard was the splintering of the door, and a great shout that was cut off in the middle.
Malone opened his eyes.
"We made it," he said softly. "And I wonder what the MVD is going to think."
Her Majesty took a deep breath. "My goodness," she said. "That _was_ exciting, wasn"t it?"
"Not half as exciting as it"s going to be if we don"t hurry now,"
Malone said. "If you know what I mean."
"I do," Her Majesty said.
"That"s good," Malone said at random. "I don"t." He helped the Queen ease the unconscious body of Luba Garbitsch into one of the padded seats, and Malone pushed a switch. The seat gave a tiny squeak of protest, and then folded back into a flat bedlike arrangement. Lou was arranged on this comfortable surface, and Malone took a deep breath.
"Take care of her for a minute, Your Majesty," he said.
"Of course," the Queen said.
Malone nodded. "I"m going to see who"s up front," he said. He walked through the corridors of the plane and rapped authoritatively on the door of the pilot"s cabin. A second pa.s.sed, and he raised his hand to knock again.
It never reached the door, which opened very suddenly. Malone found himself facing a small black hole.
It was the muzzle and the bore of the barrel of an M-2 .45 revolver, and it was pointing somewhere in the s.p.a.ce between Malone"s eyes.
Behind the gun was a hard-eyed air force colonel with a grim expression.
"You know," Malone said pleasantly, "they"re good guns, but they really can"t compare to the .44 Magnum."
The pilot blinked, and his gun wavered just a little. "What?" he said.
"Well," Malone said, "if you"d only join the FBI, like me, you"d have a .44 Magnum, and you could compare the guns."
The pilot blinked again. "You"re--"
"Malone," Malone said. "Kenneth J. Malone, FBI. My friends call me Snook.u.ms, but don"t try it. Why not let"s put the gun away and be friends?"
"Oh," the colonel said weakly. "Mr.--sure. I"m sorry, Mr. Malone.
Didn"t recognize you for a second there."
"Perfectly all right," Malone said. The gun was still pointing at him, and in spite of the fact that he felt pleasantly like Philip Marlowe, or maybe the Saint, he was beginning to get a little nervous. "The gun," he said.
The colonel stared at it for a second, then reholstered it in a hurry.
"I am sorry," he said. "But we"ve been worried about Russians coming aboard. I"ve got my copilot and navigator outside, guarding the plane, and they were supposed to let me know if anybody came in. When they didn"t let me know, and you knocked, I a.s.sumed you were Russians. But, of course, you--"
Conversation came to a sudden dead stop.
"About these Russians--" Malone said desperately. But the pilot"s eyes got a little glazed. He wasn"t listening.
"Now, wait a minute," he said. "Why _didn"t_ they notify me?"
"Maybe they didn"t see me," Malone said. "I mean us."
"But--"
"I"m not very noticeable," Malone said hopefully, trying to look small and undistinguished. "They could just have ... not noticed me. Okay?"
He gave the pilot his most friendly smile.
"They"d have noticed you," the pilot said. "If they"re still out there. If nothing"s happened to them." He leaned forward. "Did you see them, Malone?"
Malone shrugged. "How would I know?" he said.
"How would you--" The pilot seemed at a loss for words. Malone waited patiently, trying to look as if everything were completely and perfectly normal. "Mr. Malone," the pilot said at last, "how _did_ you get aboard this aircraft?"
He didn"t wait for an answer, and Malone was grateful for that.
Instead, he stepped over to a viewport and looked out. On the field, two air force officers were making lonely rounds about the plane.
Fifty yards farther away, a squad of Russian guards also patrolled the brightly-lit area. There was nothing else in sight.
"There isn"t any way you could have done it," the pilot said without turning.
"That"s the FBI for you," Malone said. "We"ve got our little trade secrets, you know." Somehow, the pilot"s back looked unconvinced.
"Disguise," Malone added. "We"re masters of disguise."
The pilot turned very slowly. "Now what the h.e.l.l would you disguise yourself as?" he said. "A Piper Cub?"
"It"s a military secret," Malone said hurriedly.