For a moment they stood shocked into silence then Lasser sprang to the door, his yellowed features contorted with emotion.
“No!” he gasped “No!”
“Lasser!” Wendis grabbed at the old man, his fingers slipping off the other’s blouse, then the old doctor had jerked open the door and had run into the passage.
“Stop!” His thin voice almost broke with the intensity of his emotion. “Stop it I say. Rosslyn is…” His voice faded into silence and around him flared the vivid blue light of a para-beam.
“Lasser.” Wendis gulped, then jerked back into the room as blue fire sprayed from down the corridor. “Curt! Help me!” Desperately he tugged at the narrow cot, flinging it in front of the open door and building a flimsy barricade of chairs and light furnishings. Curt helped him move a heavy desk. “The
