Dan walked to the big windows. He examined the ledge and the joints. He came back to the control table and tested the switches. Suddenly he leaned over Stevens' huddled body and pulled the log book from under his stiff fingers.
"Look at this!"
Scrawled across the pad in big jerky letters were the words "Purple light bea...." The pencil had torn through the sheet in a violent final contraction.
Rawlins rubbed his chin. "We don't use any purple beams. It doesn't make sense."
"Maybe it does," Dan said. He turned to the doctor. "Wasn't there some experiments made by a Dr. Aren Linden several years ago on the injurious effect of certain kinds of light on the nervous system?"
The doctor frowned. "Yes, I think there was, but the experiments were never completed."
"That's right. The foundation refused to up his salary, so he went to work for Roehm." Dan swung around to Rawlins. "It was Linden who helped work out the invisible light landing system that Roehm uses on his Venus rocket ports."
"Seems to me you're jumping to some pretty wild conclusions, Kearns," Rawlins said slowly.
Dan looked at him. "Suppose Linden has found the exact wave-length of the most potent ray. It would be simple for anyone to climb the framework of one of the buildings and shine that light in here."
Rawlins straightened up. "I'll search every tower on the field."