Free Vegas Knights by Matt Forbeck Page B

shoe serving as an impromptu doorstop I couldn't hold out against him for long. I glanced around for something I could use to help jam the door shut.
      Bill and I stood in a service hallway that ran around the back of the Bolthole. I didn't see any other doors off in either direction, just more hallway that eventually disappeared around a turn. The doors of a service elevator stood straight across from us, though, and Bill stabbed his finger at the call button, which lit up.
      Now all we had to do was hold out until the elevator arrived.
      "Open the damned door!" Gaviota shouted. I couldn't tell if he was talking to Misha or me, but I pushed harder against it just in case.
      Bill stabbed at the elevator button again and again. Normally I'd say that wouldn't make it show up any faster, but I'd seen enough strange magics today to stifle my doubts.
      Something huge and heavy hit the other side of the door, and door jamb around the latch splintered out at me. The door moved a few inches and nearly crushed my foot, but I had a good angle on the wedge. Despite that, I yowled in pain.
      Bill dashed over from the elevator to give me a hand. He shoved his shoulder up against the door too. The two of us together couldn't have outweighed Misha, but I sure appreciated the help. The man shoved against the door from the other side again, but my shoe-wedge still held.
      "Where the hell is that elevator?" I shouted.
      The indicator light over the top of the elevator's doors came on, and its bell rang once. The doors slid open.
      "Go for it!" I said.
      "We'll go together," said Bill.
      I shook my head. "My shoe is the only thing holding these two back. Get in there, and I'll make a dive for it when the doors start to close."
      I just hoped the service elevator didn't have an electric eye for safety. If it did, the doors would open up again as soon as I crossed the threshold, just to make sure I didn't get crushed. On any other day, I wouldn't have minded that, but right now it would give Gaviota and Misha another chance to grab us instead.
      Bill patted me on the back, then shoved himself off the door and into the elevator.
      "Come on!" he said. "I've got the Close Door button ready to roll."
      Before I could respond, Gaviota's face appeared through the door. He'd stuck his head through it, right up to his neck, leaving the rest of him on the other side. I almost leaped out of my new clothes, and if my shoe hadn't been wedged under the door, I might have managed it.
      "Do you boys really think you can get out of here like that?" Gaviota said. "This is our casino. We own every inch of it."
      I tore my foot out of my shoe, spun around, and fired three shots from Gaviota's pistol into his face. I'd figured out how he'd protected himself from the bullets. Magic can do a lot of amazing things, but it's all about rearranging reality. It still obeys the laws of physics on a macro if not a quantum level.
      Gaviota couldn't just make the bullets vanish. He had to exchange the bullets for air someplace else nearby. However, just because he'd swapped out materials didn't mean he'd done anything with their momentum. The air hit him just as hard as a bullet, which is why it had stopped him in mid-stride when I'd shot him in the leg.
      A concentrated burst of air like that wasn't going to put any holes in Gaviota's skin, but it could still leave a hell of a bruise. It was one thing to get hit with that sort of blow to the leg, and something else entirely to take it three times between the eyes.
      Gaviota tumbled forward through the door, stunned. When he hit the ground, I reached down and shoved him up against the door. Then I dashed into the elevator and shouted at Bill to "Go! Go! Go!"
      As the doors to the elevator closed, Gaviota struggled to his knees and moved toward us. For a moment, I thought he was going to be able to stop us, and I readied the silenced pistol again. He reached for the