The Tsunami Countdown (19 page)

Reggie’s voice came on and Kai left the message.

“Reggie, this is Kai. If you get this in the next ten minutes, we are on top of a white ten-story condo building called The
Seaside on the east end of Waikiki. We think the cross streets are Kalakaua and Laka‘laina. If you get this, send a helicopter
to come get us. And call me. I lost my cell phone, so I’m on Brad’s.” Kai gave him the number and hung up.

“Do you think he’ll be able to send one?” Teresa said.

“I don’t know. But if he doesn’t, we’re going to have to try running for it.”

“‘Running for it’?”

Kai forgot that Teresa didn’t know anything about tsunamis.

“This wave will recede as the next trough in the series of tsunamis reaches us.”

“Series! You mean there are going to be more?”

Kai didn’t have time to cushion the news.

“We cannot stay on this building. We’ve got about twenty minutes before the next wave comes in and covers this condo.”

“How many more are there?”

“I don’t know.” If Kai had made sure Reggie was in touch with Palmer, maybe he would have known. “At least two. Maybe more.
We’ve got to leave one way or another.”

“How?”

“If a helicopter flies near us, we need to try to wave it down. If not, we’ll go down the stairwell as the water ebbs. Once
we reach the ground floor, we’ll have ten minutes before the next wave comes in.”

“How far can we get in ten minutes?”

Under the best of conditions, they could run maybe a mile in ten minutes. But given their exhaustion and the debris that would
be littering the way, that estimate was way too optimistic. And with waves this size, the water would surely reach more than
a mile inland.

Kai studied the buildings around him. About five blocks away from the beach was another apartment building that was about
twice the height of The Seaside.

“That building is twenty stories tall. If we make it up that one, it’s a little farther inland. We can sort of leapfrog our
way up to the Punchbowl as the next wave recedes. That’s the closest point that’s safe.”

It wasn’t a great plan, but it was all he had.

The smell of seawater was strong—much stronger than it should have been this high up. It reminded Kai that they were still
in mortal danger.

He looked to the sky, trying to will one of those distant helicopters to come their way. He wanted to do something but couldn’t.
Only twenty minutes until the next wave, and he was completely helpless.

11:30 A.m.
17 Minutes to Second Wave

A
fter Brad finished filling Rachel in on their situation, she had a last word with Kai and then signed off to deal with her
latest problem. There was no way a helicopter could land on the pointed top of the Akamai tower to rescue the family across
from Rachel and Max. The only way for the family to escape was to go down. But with the dredging barge embedded in the building,
probably blocking the stairwell in the center of the structure, they might not be able to make it all the way to the ground.

“Do you think they can get out?” Max said. “There’s no way to know from here,” Rachel replied. “They’ll just have to try it.”

“Even if they get all the way down, can they get to safety? You said there’s another wave coming, and it’s even bigger than
the last one.”

“There’s one other possibility,” she said. “They might be able to go across the skybridge.”

They searched for signs of the sixth-floor skybridge, but the water level was still well above it. The skybridge, designed
like a suspension bridge, hung from cables that extended up to the eighth floor. Sixteen cables, eight anchored to each side
of the bridge’s floor, held it in place, half the cables attached to the Moana tower and the other half attached to the Akamai
tower. The cables were still intact, but it was impossible to tell whether they were still connected to anything substantial
enough to walk across.

“The skybridge?” Max said. “Do you think it’s still there? That would be convenient.”

“Convenient? You think anything about this morning is convenient?”

Max dropped his head in embarrassment. “I just meant that it would be lucky for them,” he said sheepishly.

Rachel sighed. “I know, Max. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t take it out on you. Look, we won’t know about the sky-bridge until the
water recedes, but if it is still there, they might be able to get to it and get across. It’ll take them a few minutes to
get down twenty stories.”

The family didn’t budge. They just looked at Rachel and waved frantically, not knowing what to do. They were in a panic.

“We have to tell them to move now.”

“But how?” Max said. “With the power out, we can’t use the hotel phones.”

“We’ll write it on something.” Rachel looked around, then realized what they needed was right in front of them. She ran over
to the maître d’s desk and grabbed the grease pencil he used to mark the seating plan. She took it to one of the dining tables,
threw the glasses and utensils on the floor, and began scrawling on the white tablecloth in huge letters.

In a minute she completed the crude message.

“Help me,” she said to Max, and whipped the tablecloth off. They carried it over to the window. It said:
GO TO SKYBRIDGE 6TH FLOOR.

“Wait a minute,” Rachel said, keeping the tablecloth out of view of the window.

“What?” Max said.

“We need to make sure the skybridge is actually there.”

The water had begun to flow back toward the ocean, carrying anything that floated. In another minute, the level was down to
the sixth floor. They held their breath to see whether the skybridge was still intact.

As the water dropped farther, the debris started to get caught on something. When it began to pile up in a line between the
buildings, Rachel knew the skybridge had survived.

“Okay, let’s put the sign up,” Rachel said. “And let’s hope they speak English.”

They held the tablecloth against the window so that the family could read it. After seeing it, both the man and woman nodded
furiously and gave a thumbs-up. In a second, the whole family was gone.

“Looks like they got the message. Max, you need to get everyone here up to the roof. It won’t be easy because of the stairs.
You’ll have to leave the wheelchairs behind. Keep calling for a helicopter. And take some of the tablecloths to wave as a
signal.”

“You’re not going down there, are you?”

“They may need help getting across. Besides, once they get over to our building, they may try to go down instead of up. That
would be a bad decision. Max, do whatever you have to do to get that helicopter.”

He nodded. “Be careful.”

“You too. I’ll see you in twenty minutes. If I’m not back by then, that means …” She trailed off, not wanting to actually
say the words.

“You better be,” Max said.

With that, Rachel ran to the door marked by the emergency exit sign and started down the stairs.

Over the skies of Honolulu, Kai saw more helicopters than he even knew existed. Army Black Hawks and huge Navy
HH-53s were the biggest, but there were news choppers, scenic tour helicopters with their logos emblazoned on their sides,
and everything in between. At one point he counted over a dozen helicopters buzzing around the city in all directions. All
seven of Kai’s group waved their arms wildly, but even with that many helicopters in the air, not one of them came in their
direction. There were just too many other people clamoring for their attention.

The only other option was to go down. The water swirling below made that an unpleasant prospect. Along with the inorganic
wreckage, Kai now saw bodies being drawn back to the ocean. Most of them were facedown, so he was spared looking at their
last expressions, but he could see the tsunami had been indiscriminate.

In the short time that the water had begun to withdraw, Kai saw at least thirty bodies of men and women, some still in flowered
shirts or bathing suits, others stripped completely naked. But the most horrible sight was the children. The first one was
a girl about Lani’s age, her long blond hair floating around her. Kai felt the urge to jump in and pull her out, but he restrained
himself, knowing it would be a pointless gesture that would not only get him killed but would also mean he’d no longer be
there for Lani. Each time he saw a child float by, Kai looked for signs of life in the hope that he might save him or her,
but each body remained still. He told Lani not to look, but he
knew he couldn’t protect her for long. Eventually, they would have to go out in that.

Almost as horrible was seeing the pets that had been taken by the wave. Dogs and cats were mixed in with the people. Some
of the dogs still had their leashes on. It made Kai wonder for the first time how Bilbo was, but he realized with relief that
if Reggie was okay, his dog was too.

Then they saw another carcass, one so out of place amid all of the other carnage that Kai blinked several times before realizing
what it was.

“Is that what I think it is?” said Brad.

Below them, swirling next to a Volkswagen Beetle, was an enormous orange and white giraffe, floating on its side.

“What on earth …?” Teresa said.

“The zoo is right over there in the park,” Kai said, pointing in the direction of Diamond Head. “It must have gotten swept
away by the wave and pulled over here.”

“Poor thing,” she said. “They must not have had time to get the animals evacuated.” Kai shook his head. Every animal in the
zoo must be dead.

On the building behind them, the water level was now half a floor below the high-water mark. It was definitely receding.

“Come on, everyone,” Kai said quietly. “We need to make our move now.”

He led them down to the main stairwell, where he
peered over the side to inspect the damage. The surface of the ninth-floor landing dripped with water and silt, but the steps
looked otherwise intact. Pieces of trash were caught in the railings and wrapped around the pillars that held up the outer
part of the stairwell.

A pungent smell surrounded them. The bodies hadn’t begun to decay yet, but the tsunami had mixed sewage, gasoline, garbage,
and assorted chemicals into an odor that Kai had never before experienced. He coughed at the stench.

The water drained surprisingly quickly off the eighth-floor platform. The flow past the building must have been greater than
ten knots, much faster than a person could swim—even faster than the currents of many rivers. Occasionally a large object
would bang off a pillar, startling them.

Instead of following the receding water down the steps, Kai opened the door leading to the tenth-story condos, the only dry
floor left.

“What are you doing?” Brad said.

“With all that debris outside, Mia and Lani are going to need shoes.”

“You mean, we get to bust down some doors?” he said, a little too delighted at the prospect of Kai’s proposed thievery.

“This building won’t be here in an hour, so we might as
well help ourselves. Teresa, you stay here with Tom and Jake. Lani, you and Mia come with us.”

“I want Mia to stay with me,” Teresa said with a hint of fear.

“She needs to try on the shoes,” Kai said calmly, trying to ease her mind. “And I need Brad to help me break down the doors.
If Reggie gets my message and sends a helicopter, someone will need to run up to the roof as fast as possible to flag it down.
It’s okay. We’ll be right back.”

The hall was dark from the lack of power, so Teresa held the fire door open while Tom and Jake went to the mid-story landing
to get a better view outside. Kai walked down the hall to the first condo door on the left, 1001, facing the ocean to the
south. He lashed out with a kick, but the solid door just rang from the impact.

“Let me try,” Brad said.

Brad threw his weight into a kick, and the door frame cracked. Two more kicks, and the door swung open with a crash. Kai shot
him a curious look.

Brad shrugged. “Karate classes,” he said.

They passed a kitchen in which the sink was piled high with dishes and entered a living room that held little more than a
massive leather couch, a coffee table littered with issues of
Maxim
magazine and Xbox controllers, and a big-screen television. Kai immediately thought,
Bachelor pad
, but they headed straight to the bedrooms and looked
in the closets anyway. Just as he thought: all the shoes were men’s size twelve.

Frustrated in their search, Kai and the others emerged into the hall for another try.

“Any luck?” Teresa said.

“Dude’s apartment,” Brad said.

“The water’s down to the sixth floor now!” Jake yelled from the stairwell. He and Tom followed the water farther down.

“This is taking too long,” Kai said. “We need to be ready to run once the water reaches the bottom. Let’s try two apartments
at a time.”

Brad nodded, and this time they both kicked open the door of condo 1002, directly opposite 1001. It opened right away. Brad
proceeded to the next condo with Mia while Lani followed Kai into 1002, the expression on her face betraying her tension.

“Remember,” Kai said, trying to lighten the mood, “we’re not looking for cute strappy heels. Just sneakers.”

She gave him a look that said his attempt at humor was not well received.

The patio door to the balcony was wide open, as was the custom in Hawaii, to let the breeze ventilate the condo. Kai heard
Brad yell from the adjoining condo’s patio door.

“Looks like a family lives here! We might get lucky.”

“Mine too!” Kai yelled back.

Lani had already made her way into the bedroom and was rooting through the closet.

“Find anything?” Kai asked from the doorway.

She held up a pair of white sneakers. The rest of the shoes were either high heels or sandals.

“Are they your size?”

“Close enough,” she said.

“Okay, put them on.”

Kai went back to the living room to let Brad know they’d found some. When he got there, he heard a strange hissing sound coming
from the direction of the balcony. The high-pitched whine of escaping gas was unmistakable, and was soon supplemented by the
roar of fire. Kai dashed out onto the balcony to find out where it was coming from. He skidded to a halt at the railing when
he saw what was causing the noise.

Directly in front of him, the twenty-story high-rise to the north obstructed The Seaside’s view of the mountains. On the ninth
floor of the structure, a giant propane tank jutted out of a window. The tank had apparently plunged through one side of the
glass building and then got stuck in the side closest to The Seaside. A jet of gas six inches across shot out of a hole at
one end, where it instantly transformed into a blazing torch.

“Brad, get out of there!” Kai yelled.

“What happened?” Brad said, racing out to the balcony to see what he was talking about. “Oh my God!”

The propane tank had probably been ripped from its spot at a gas station and pierced the high-rise while being swept along
by the water. Then any spark could have set it off. The receding water had left it hanging high and dry in a corner of the
window, with no chance that it would be doused before the next wave came in. It could blow up any second.

“It’s going to explode!” Kai shouted out the door of the apartment. “Run!”

“Mia!” Teresa said from the stairwell.

Without answering, Kai ran back to the bedroom and grabbed Lani’s hand, yanking her to her feet without letting her finish
tying the other shoe.

As they ran out, Teresa flashed past the front door of the condo, headed for Brad and Mia.

“Teresa! Come back!”

She ignored Kai and flew through the door of the next condo down to find Mia. Lani and Kai ran across the hall to condo 1001,
and Kai slammed the door behind them. He pushed Lani over the couch and dove after her. As they hit the floor with a thud,
the tank blew up.

Despite the several walls separating them from the tank, the noise from the blast assaulted Kai’s ears. The building shook
from the impact. The door to the condo was ripped
from its hinges, flying over them and out the window. Kai instinctively covered Lani with his body. Pieces of debris and shrapnel
from the tank peppered the wall. A tremendous heat wave singed the hairs on Kai’s arms. He felt a sizzling burn crease his
thigh, and he screamed in pain. A chunk of white-hot metal ricocheted off the wall.

“Are you okay?” he said to Lani as the noise subsided.