Boyd Morrison - The Tsunami Countdown

Kai wanted to say it was going to be okay, that they were all safe now, but it couldn’t have been further from the truth. They couldn’t stay, but at the moment they couldn’t go, either.

Kai borrowed Brad’s cell phone and dialed 911. The line was jammed and all he got was a busy signal. He tried again, with the same result.

He was about to call Reggie when Kai realized that it wasn’t his own phone. His was in pieces on the side of Fort Stewart Road, washed away by now. Reggie’s cell number, of course, wasn’t in Brad’s cell phone list, and Kai had become so reliant on that feature that he had no idea what Reggie’s number was.

He resorted to calling his own number, knowing he would be routed to voice mail, since his phone wouldn’t answer. It rang through, and Kai punched in the remote access code while his greeting played. He had one message. It had been received less than five minutes ago.

“Kai, this is Reggie.” Kai heard Reggie wheezing. “I sure as hell hope you get this, because that means you survived. We’re running up Fort Stewart Road right now. It is a madhouse. People everywhere. I haven’t been able to get in touch with Alaska. I assume you got through to them or I would have heard from you, but I’ll keep trying. Once I get to Wheeler, we should have some dedicated phone lines.”

Kai berated himself for leaving without making the transfer. He could only hope that HSCD was in contact with the warning center in Palmer. For all he knew, they and the rest of the Pacific island nations were now ignorant of any new information because he had abandoned his post without even making sure someone else would pick up his responsibilities. His stomach twisted with guilt.

“I’ll keep my phone on,” Reggie continued. “The service has been spotty. I’m lucky I got through to your voice mail. If you’re out there, give me a call and let me know you’re okay. I hope I hear from you, Kai.”

The message ended. Kai memorized the number rattled off by the voice mail’s caller ID and saved it in Brad’s phone’s list before dialing it.

“Who are you calling?” Brad asked.

“Reggie,” Kai said. “Maybe he can send us a chopper.”

The call immediately went to voice mail.

“Quick,” Kai said to Brad, “what are the cross streets of this building?”

“It’s hard to tell with all the streets gone. I know we’re on Kalakaua.” He pointed in the direction of the mountains behind them. “Lemon is that way. I think this might be Laka‘laina running perpendicular.”

Great , Kai thought. The only real estate developer in Honolulu who doesn’t know the streets .

Lani came over, holding the walkie-talkie in front of her.

“Mom wants to talk to you.”

Kai motioned for Brad to take it. “Tell her what we’re doing and that we’re all right.” He didn’t have to add “For now.”

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

After 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.”