He placed his hands against the door and tried to get a good grip on the floor with his sneakers. He pushed against the door, and his feet slid away beneath him. He fell to one knee.

“It’s too slippery,” Jack said.

“We have to be through that door before Sam shows up,” Caine said. “We need hostages, and we need that control room.”

His gaze rested on a heavy wrench. “Look out.”

Caine levitated the wrench, lifted it to the ceiling, turned it vertical, and with a sudden sweep of his hands plunged the wrench into the floor. It crunched through tile and concrete and stood like a climbing piton that had been hammered into a cliff face.

Caine repeated the move three more times, driving heavy-gauge stainless steel into the floor.

“Okay, use those.”

Jack braced his feet against the tools, placed his hands against the door, and heaved with all his might.

[...]

JACK STRAINED AGAINST the door.

It was built strong. Very strong. Steel in steel.

But it creaked and groaned, and Jack could see the seam between door and jamb growing.

[...]

“Keep at it, Jack,” Caine encouraged him. “It’s starting to give.”

Jack heard Diana saying to Drake, “I told you he was strong. And you thought you’d just go and pick him up and bring him to Coates? Hah.”

The door would give way in another few seconds, Jack could feel it.

“When it goes, Jack, you need to drop to the floor,” Caine said.

Jack would have asked why, but the exertion was popping the veins in his neck, squeezing his lungs, bulging his eyes, and generally making it hard to imagine engaging in conversation.

“Soon as it goes, Jack, drop to the floor,” Caine reiterated. “Someone in there might start shooting.”

What? Shooting?

Jack lessened his effort.

“Don’t slack off,” Drake warned. “We’ll take care of whoever is on the other side.”

Jack heard the sound of a gun being cocked. And a low, mean laugh from Drake.

He wedged his feet tight. One more big push. And drop.

Suddenly he was scared. Getting shot at was not part of the deal.

He shoved hard. All his might.

The door collapsed suddenly, but not the way Jack had expected. It snapped at the top hinge and the deadbolt broke. The door was still in the doorway, bent at an angle but held in place by one hinge. Another push and it would swing in.

Hunger, Chapter 19 and 21