Vegas Knights (17 page)

  "We're in Las Vegas," I said.

  Bill grabbed his hair as if he was going to tear it all out. He fell to his knees in mock agony. I did my best to ignore him.

  "V-Vegas?" Professor Ultman's face took on a shade of gray. "What in God's name are you doing there?"

  "It's warm," Bill said as he got to his feet. He still avoided stepping in front of the camera so Professor Ultman could see him though.

  "We came out here to see the sights and do a little gambling," I said.

  Professor Ultman covered his mouth and nose with his hands as if he were praying with his whole face. "Tell me you didn't use magic," he said, his muffled voice little more than a whispered plea.

  I winced. I didn't have to say anything more. He bowed his head for a moment.

  "You're still alive," he said. "You seem unharmed. You didn't get caught?"

  "Not the first night."

  "There was a second night?"

  I nodded. "That didn't go so well."

  He sighed. "What did I tell you about using magic in public?"

  "Not to. Ever."

  "And especially not to do something illegal."

  "There aren't any laws about using magic while gambling," Bill said. "I checked."

  "How?" Professor Ultman's gaze darted around the screen, hunting for Bill but still not seeing him.

  "Google is my friend."

  "The laws on cheating don't bother mentioning methods," the professor said. "They make it illegal to alter the pieces of the game in any way, magical or not."

  "Sure, if you want to read them that way, but who's going to be able to prove we did anything?"

  "You, Mr Chancey, are missing the point. The people who manage security operations at the casinos won't care about how you cheated, just that you did."

  "But–"

  I cut Bill off with a glance. "Given last night, I think it's clear the professor is right, don't you?"

  Bill gave a defeated shrug, then waved at the suite in which we sat. "I don't call this much of a punishment though. Do you?"

  "They caught you?" the professor said. "What happened?"

  "We were gambling at Bootleggers when it happened," I said, "but we escaped. My father found us and pushed us out of town."

  "Luke? He found you?" Professor Ultman wiped his clammy brow. "I think I specifically told you two to avoid Vegas, more than once."

  "What do you think drove us here?" said Bill.

  "Don't be like that," I said.

  "Like what? Like someone who nearly got killed last night because our teacher didn't tell us the whole truth about Las Vegas?"

  "Yeah. Don't."

  "We're just kids," Bill said. "We didn't know what we were doing, and we almost paid for it with our lives."

  "Now, that's not entirely fair," the professor said.

  Bill walked around behind me and leaned in over my shoulder so Professor Ultman could finally see him too.

  "You're not the one who got shot at," Bill said. "You don't get to tell me about fair."

  I put up a hand to shut him up. "You just said it didn't work out too bad for us."

  "That doesn't mean it didn't scare the hell out of me at the time."

  "We'll discuss this when you get back," the professor said. "How long until your flight leaves?"

  "We're not leaving," I said. "Not yet anyway."

  "But you said Luke pushed you out of town."

  I nodded. "We got picked out of the security line by the TSA."

  "The government grabbed you?" The professor swayed about a bit as if he might faint. "Oh, God. Is this line secure?"

  "It's fine," Bill said. He didn't bother to keep the disgust from his voice. He stood up and started to pace the room, carving circles around the laptop and me.

  "It wasn't the government," I said. "The wizards from Bootleggers picked us up." I cringed inside as I recalled the Tasing that Bill and I had taken. "They brought us back to the hotel."

  "Do they have you in custody? They can't hold you. You have rights."

  "We're all right," I said. "They offered us a job."

  "Employment?" Professor Ultman leaned toward the screen, terrified and suspicious. "Doing what?"

  "Working as part of their team of magicians."

  "At Bootleggers?" The professor's eyes bulged so hard they seemed like they might pop out of his face. "Do you have any idea who's in charge of Las Vegas?"

  I nodded. "Do you?"

  "Does your father know about this?"

  I shook my head.

  "Then you should probably – no. Don't bother him with it. Just run out to the airport and take the first plane out of there. Don't worry about where it's going. Once you get out of Las Vegas, give me a call, and we'll get you home from wherever you end up."

  Bill snorted. "That didn't go so well for us last time. They clearly have the TSA in their pocket."

  "I wouldn't be surprised if they have the whole city in their pocket," I said.

  The professor put his head in his hands and groaned. "I'm sorry, boys," he said softly. "I tried to warn you."

  Bill scoffed from across the room. "You did a shitty job of it."

  "Bill!" I said, indignant on the professor's behalf.

  "You heard what your dad said, Jackson. Ultman kept us in the dark. He made magic sound like rainbows and unicorns. He never mentioned the parts that might get us killed."

  "I – I didn't think you were ready. I told you to stay away from gambling." Professor Ultman's voice cracked as he spoke. "I tried to warn you, but I didn't want to cause needless panic."

  "You might have leaned a little bit more toward the panic side," said Bill. "You could have told us what happened to you and Jackson's dad here in Vegas. Maybe a little honesty would have kept us from making the same damned mistakes."

  "What did happen to you?" I said to the professor.

  He blinked several times. "We – I haven't thought about it much for almost twenty years. I pushed it out of my head. I thought I'd put it behind me."

  "What happened?"

  "Luke – your father – and I, we went to Las Vegas to have some fun and maybe make a little money. That's all. This was back in 1990, before either of you were born."

  "And?"

  "And it all went wrong. We tried our luck at Caesar's Palace, and they spotted us right away. They sent their top wizard after us, and we nearly died getting away from him."

  "This all sounds painfully familiar." Bill let the bitterness drip from his tongue.

  "How did you escape?" I asked the professor.

  "We had some help. There were a couple of locals – an Italian magician and his Native American wife – who gave us a hand, and an old wizard who lived under an overpass near Henderson."

  "Seriously?" said Bill. "An Italian wizard, an Indian shaman, and a homeless bum got you out of town?"

  I shushed him with a wave of my hand. I looked at the professor. "I don't suppose you have any way of reaching them now."

  He shook his head, sober as the grave. "I wouldn't even know where to start hunting down that grizzled old wizard. He called himself Prospero."

  "Like the wizard from
The Tempest
?"

  Professor Ultman nodded. "He was ancient even back then. I'd be surprised if he's still alive now."

  "What about the couple?"

  The professor grimaced. "They can't be any help to you or anyone else now. They – the Stregas died helping us get away."

  "Holy–" Bill whispered at me. "Isn't that Powi's last name?"

  I thought I might be sick right there on my laptop.

  "Nicólo brought us to New Orleans." The professor continued, not having heard Bill at all. "But the Vegas magicians followed us there too. We hid deep in the French Quarter, and with the help of some of the wizards there we eventually managed to send them running back to Vegas."

  "Who helped you?" said Bill. He came back around so he could see Professor Ultman again. "Could they do the same thing for us?"

  "They were part of a long family tradition of voodoo practitioners going back generations," the professor said.

  I knew who he meant even before he opened his mouth. This was the part of my family history that Mom and Dad had never talked about, that Grandma kept secret from me, that the professor had neglected to mention before.

  "I would think you'd be able to find them, Jackson," he said. "After all, two of the Laveaus who helped us were your mother and grandmother."

  Bill clapped me on the back while I sat there stunned. "Awesome!" he said. "All we got to do is get you home, and we're free. Even Gaviota can't stand against the Laveaus, right?"

  I opened my mouth to explain to Bill that I had no idea if my family still even knew how to use any mojo at all, but the look of horror on Professor Ultman's face stopped me cold.

  The professor blanched. He spoke in a clear but fragile voice. "Who was it that picked you up?"

  "Benito Gaviota," I said. I could feel the professor's dread creeping over me. "Do you know him?"

  "Of course I do." Professor Ultman swallowed hard. "He's the same man who chased us all the way to New Orleans."

  "What?" I said. "But he looks like he's only thirty or so. He'd have just been a kid back in 1990."

  "He never ages. Never." The professor leaned toward his camera, and his image grew wide and distorted on my screen. "I've already said too much. Boys, you must leave there as soon as you can."

  He glanced over his shoulder. "Just by speaking with you, I've put too many people in danger. If they come here, everyone in East Quad could pay the price. Get free, fast, but do not contact me again until you have left Las Vegas behind."

 
 

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
 

"What the hell are we going to do now?" Bill asked.

  "You heard the man, brother," I said, already on my feet and tossing my laptop in my backpack. "Let's go."

  "What about the clothes?"

  "They won't do us any good if we wind up buried in them."

  Bill stood in front of the door. "If they're the same people that Ultman thinks they are, you really think they're just going to let us walk out of here?"

  I slung my backpack over my shoulders. "Won't know until we try."

  "How about the floors?" Bill pointed straight down. "It worked for us once. We might only need to get down to the floor below. If the elevators aren't guarded, we can just grab one and cruise on down."

  "This is Vegas," I said. "Every square inch of the place is covered with cameras – except the inside of the rooms. Maybe."

  I glanced around, searching for telltale signs of security cameras in the suite. I knew I'd probably not be able to spot them if I hadn't been meant to. The obvious shaded bubbles installed throughout the casino's main floor served as deterrents as much as eyes in the sky. If you saw one, you never knew if a camera inside might be pointed at you. I wondered if all of them even had working cameras in them or if the casinos might have decided to save money by just putting up the darkened enclosures all over the place instead.

  If Gaviota and his security team were spying on us, though, it would already be too late. They'd have heard everything we said, both to each other and to the professor. In that case, we had to move fast.

  I knelt down on the floor. "Grab my legs," I said. "I'm going to take a peek downstairs."

  Bill moved into position without a word. I laid across his shins and pitched my face forward. Instead of moving through the floor, though, I smacked my forehead on the floor.

  "Ow!" I said. I rolled off of Bill just as the front door to the suite opened and Gaviota strolled in with Misha right behind him.

  "You fellas having fun rolling around down there?" Misha smirked at us. "I knew you two were friends, but I didn't figure you were
that
close."

  Gaviota didn't bother to crack a smile. "You can't phase through the floors here either," he said.

  "What are they lined with?" I asked.

  "You really want to know?"

  I nodded.

  "You can't phase through living things, right?"

  "Right."

  Misha laughed. "Use your imagination, kid."

  I winced at the thoughts spinning through my head.

  "Ew," Bill said. "Human skin?"

  Gaviota snorted. "Do you know a way to keep skin alive on its own?"

  "Tell me you don't have people in there," I said.

  Misha chortled at this. Gaviota shot him a dirty look, and he shut up.

  "We imbued the subfloor with bacteria," Gaviota said.

  I felt my skin crawl.

  "I don't know if that's better," Bill said.

  "It's harmless. As long as you don't try to phase through it."

  "So it's impossible to get through the floors?" Bill asked.

  Gaviota shook his head. "To phase through, but not to get through. There's always a way for a clever wizard. What's impossible for magic, right?"

  "Or a rocket launcher," Misha said with a grin.

  "So you put us in a cage?" I got to my feet, still rubbing my head. It hurt, but I didn't think it would leave a bump. "I thought we were guests, not prisoners."

  "That's there to keep novices out of here," Gaviota said. "Not us in."

  "Then what's up?" Bill said as he stood. "I thought we weren't going anywhere until after dark."

  "Nothing's on the schedule until then. I just wanted to check in and make sure the two of you were all right. I see you found the clothes."

  "Yeah, thanks," said Bill.

  "They're very nice," I said.

  "Can't have Bootleggers boys running around in rags," said Misha. "Gotta look the part."