Rogue Wave

Chapter 33

The express elevator to the penthouse restaurant in the Grand Hawaiian opened to dispense the last of the guests from the lobby. Rachel was among them. She had stayed behind to make sure no one was left in the lobby. According to the list in front of her, seven rooms below the tenth floor still had guests in them, but it was too late to do anything about that now. They were on their own.

The Starlight restaurant had a panoramic view of Honolulu, with glass in every direction except toward the north. To the west was the other Grand Hawaiian building-the Akamai Tower-and downtown Honolulu. To the east was Diamond Head. And to the south, a magnificent view of the Pacific Ocean out to the horizon. The stunning vistas, not to mention the world-class cuisine, made the Starlight one of the most sought-after reservations in Honolulu. Celebrities visiting Oahu would often stop there to nosh on crab Rangoon or shallot-infused mahi mahi and take in the spectacular scenery.

Rachel paid no attention to the view. She walked around the restaurant trying to calm the guests and answering questions.

"When can we leave?"

"Is someone coming for us?"

"Are we safe up here?"

Rachel tried to be as positive as she could without promising anything.

"Please calm down, everyone," she said. "We're perfectly safe up here for now."

A few of the women cried, but most of the guests took the situation well. The battle-hardened veterans in particular seemed to be taking it in stride.

A woman at the window screamed, and a man on crutches next to her pointed outside. All heads turned in the direction of the beach.

Max Walsh, who was also standing at the window, waved her over.

"Rachel, come here quick!"

She ran over and gasped when she saw what they were looking at. The water had receded from the beach, exposing a great swath of sand for miles up and down the coast. The yachts that remained in the Ala Wai Marina rested on the bare sea floor, most of them leaning over on their sides. The Ala Wai Canal, which extended from the marina under three bridges and angled behind Waikiki, had been completely drained, revealing a brown muck. A few of the sightseers that were left leaned over the bridges' railings to watch the fish flopping around in the empty canal. Some of the bystanders understood that the coming tsunami was real and ran across the bridges, trying to escape.

Several boats and ships that had left the marina and harbor late were now stranded on ocean floor that hadn't been exposed to the air since before the first Polynesians had settled in Hawaii. In all, five sailboats, seven motorboats, a 150-foot luxury yacht, and a massive dredging barge were left high and dry. Some of the passengers stood dumbfounded on the decks of the boats, while others jumped overboard in an attempt to get to high ground.

To the east, only a scattered few stayed on the beach, either not realizing the danger or ignoring it. As she surveyed the scene, she spotted three miniscule objects racing for the shore.

"Kai!" she cried out.

"What?" said Max.

"My husband and daughter. That's them right there."

"You're kidding!"

The Jet Skis were just about to reach the water line. But that would leave them still at least 100 yards from the nearest building.

"Oh my God!" said Max. "They're not going to make it. Look!"

"Don't say that!" Rachel said, clasping his arm in a death grip. "They will make it!"

With the water still flowing out, an even more ominous sign approached. The sun reflected off a line of water stretching from horizon to horizon. The line seemed to be coming toward them at an impossible speed, but it began to slow and at the same time grow in height.

She put her other hand on the window and leaned her head against it.

"Come on, Kai!" Rachel said, pleading, her eyes wide with terror. "You can do it!"

She gripped Max's arm and could do nothing more than watch as the tsunami loomed in the distance, no more than a minute from engulfing those tiny specks below.

"Hold on!" Kai yelled.

The Jet Ski hit the exposed beach more gently than he thought it would, sliding along the wet sand easily for at least 15 feet. By the time they had all jumped off, the water was already another 40 feet behind them, as if a giant vacuum were sucking the ocean away.

Kai grabbed Lani's hand and, with the dry bag flapping uncomfortably against his back, sprinted for the hotel in front of them. The distance seemed vaster than the Sahara Desert, but he knew they could cross that span in less than a minute. It was all they had.

Brad had Mia's hand and pulled her along, followed by Teresa, Tom, and Jake. The going was slower than Kai wanted because the sand was still wet, and their feet sank into it all too easily. To make matters worse, they ran into a significant incline in the shore profile, making them practically climb it.

Two times Lani slipped and fell. Kai looked down and saw the reason. She and Mia were wearing flip flops, while the rest of them wore sneakers or, in Brad's case, boots.

"Kick those flip flops off!" Kai said.

The girls did as they were told without objecting.

In a few more seconds they reached the normal surf line. To Kai's astonishment, a massive Hawaiian woman dressed in a flowing muumuu walked slowly out toward the ocean, her arms outstretched.

He stopped, mesmerized by the sight.

"Hey!" Kai yelled. "Ma'am! A tsunami is coming!"

She turned to him. She was in her fifties, her skin wrinkled from exposure to the sun, a beatific smile revealing stunning white teeth.

"This is God's will," she calmly said and then continued her march to the sea and certain death.

"Come on!" Brad screamed.

"But…!"

"Forget her!"

Before Kai turned to run, he stole a look at the sea and with his own eyes saw the phenomenon he had studied for years in cramped offices with abstract mathematical formulas.

Just as Kai had described countless times to children, tourists, and conference attendees, the ocean rose like the world's largest tide. A frothy white mass churned toward them in horrifying splendor, building and collapsing as it reached shallows surrounding the island. At first, the sound was very much like the crashing of waves at the shore, but the difference was that it never abated. It just kept growing, continually topping itself, reminding him of a jet engine throttling up for takeoff.

Kai might have stayed there, transfixed, until the tsunami took him if Brad hadn't grabbed his shoulder.

"Come on!" he repeated.

The others were already ahead of Kai, but Lani slowed down and he grabbed her hand as he ran by.

The girls were exhausted from their ordeal in the kayaks, and they slowed the group down. Mia sobbed from the fatigue, but she didn't complain, and neither did Lani.

"You're doing great!" Kai yelled in encouragement.

They reached Kalakaua Ave., and the sound of the tsunami behind them was now so loud that it was hard to hear each other. Tom and Jake started sprinting for the building directly in front of them, and Teresa followed them with Mia. They were headed for the wrong building. The twenty-story hotel Kai had intended to go to was a hundred yards farther up the street. The condo in front of them was only ten stories high.

"No!" he yelled. "That one!" He pointed at the taller hotel.

The boys either didn't hear or ignored him.

He followed to try to keep them from going into the smaller building. Although it looked strong, with a solid concrete base, it was too short to be a refuge for more than the first wave. The wave now towered high above Mamala Bay, casting a shadow even though it was mid-day. To the southeast, the point of Diamond Head was struck by the tsunami. Geysers of water plumed into the air as it plunged against the steep sides of the extinct volcano, where million-dollar homes were now being pummeled into splinters by one of the most powerful forces in nature.

The boys had too much of a head start, and Kai didn't get to them until he reached the front of the building. Brad grabbed them before they ran in.

"This is the wrong building!" he yelled.

Brad started to run with them to the hotel, but Kai shouted for him to stop. They had run out of time. If they ran to the other building, they weren't going to make it. The boys got to the corner of the building before they turned and headed back toward Kai.

He threw open the doors etched with the name "The Seaside" and frantically searched for the stairs. Unfashionable decoration and peeling paint revealed the Seaside's age, but it also looked sturdy, and that's all Kai cared about at the moment.

Teresa shouted, "There!" and wrenched Mia toward a staircase on the east side of the building. Kai followed with Lani in tow.

The emergency stairwell was obviously built before new building codes required stairs to be protected within the interior of the building.A These stairs were airy and bright and actually more attractive than the lobby because they were completely encased in glass.

To his right, Kai could see the tsunami crashing in a mammoth splash onto the famous Waikiki Beach. Instead of a vertical wall of water hitting the building all at once, it would act like the world's fastest rising tide, with the water reaching its full height in seconds. The sight made Kai gasp in terror. He raced up the stairs as fast as he could.

Before he reached the second floor, Kai could tell Mia was completely spent. He grabbed her in his arms like a toddler and sprinted up the stairs two at a time, the adrenaline kicking his energy into a level he had never before experienced. In any other circumstance, carrying an extra ninety pounds would have slowed him to a crawl, but with the wave about to crash down on them, she seemed to weigh no more than a sack of groceries.

Kai kept Teresa and Lani in front of him, willing them to go faster. The door on the first floor banged open. He knew it had to be Brad and the boys, but he didn't take even a second to glance down at them.

He was on the eighth floor landing when Kai heard a chilling sound. Over the roar of the water, the sound of glass shattering on the first floor signaled that their time was up. In quick succession, the wave blew out the windows on each floor one after the other, like a sharpshooter at a rifle range systematically shooting bottles on a fence.

The building lurched, throwing Kai off balance as he stepped onto the ninth floor landing, and he slammed against the railing, almost dumping Mia over the side. He regained his footing and made it up the last flight of stairs to the top floor. He dropped Mia to her feet and looked down.

Brad pushed Jake and Tom in front of him at the sixth floor, the churning mass of water now only two floors below him and rising fast.

They all yelled at Brad from their perch. "Hurry! Come on!"

Kai held the railing in a death grip, hoping that their luck wouldn't give out now. All he could do was watch, terrified, as the tsunami stalked his brother from below.

Then an even more horrible thought struck him. What if he was wrong? What if the wave was going to be higher than 80 feet? They were now in a building only 20 feet higher than that, trapped, with nowhere to go.