Rogue Wave

Chapter 8

The Grand Hawaiian was the newest and swankiest of the luxury hotels lining Waikiki beach. Constructed over the razed remains of a 1940s apartment building, the 1065-room hotel was the brainchild of a Las Vegas resort mogul looking for new locations to expand his empire. Two imposing towers stood 28 stories high and were connected by a pedestrian skybridge at the sixth floor to allow movement throughout the vast conference spaces at that level.

That morning, those conference spaces were going to host one of the most important events in the hotel's young existence. The governor of Hawaii was scheduled to address a disabled veteran's group during brunch and then accompany them to a remembrance ceremony at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery.

After spending less than two minutes in her office to confer with her assistant, Rachel Tanaka had headed straight to the sixth floor, still seething about Kai not doing the one thing she had asked him to do. Oversleeping and being late for work was bad enough, but finding out that Kai never made the reservation drove her mood into the ground. His dedication to his job was admirable, but it was starting to cut into their "work/life balance" as the hotel called it. And now it seemed like he didn't even know what his own daughter was going through.

Her office was in the Akamai tower, but the ballrooms were in the Moana tower, so she used the sixth floor skybridge to get between buildings. She was so deep in thought about how to get Kai more involved with his daughter that she nearly ran into Bob Lateen, the chairman of the veteran's conference. The frown on his face was not what she wanted to see. I just got here, Rachel thought, and it's already a bad day.

"Mrs. Tanaka," Lateen said, keeping up with Rachel in his wheelchair while she walked, "you assured us that we would have sufficient accommodations for our accessibility needs, but there is a serious situation in the ballroom that needs to be taken care of immediately."

Rachel squinted from the sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the skybridge but still maintained a polite smile.

"Mr. Lateen, I want you to know that we take your concerns very seriously, and we value your patronage. I will do anything I can to help. Now what's the problem?"

They exited the bridge and came into a lavish foyer. Some of the attendees were already milling about. Rachel and Lateen weaved their way through and entered the sixth-floor Kamehameha Ballroom, the largest in the hotel.

"The problem," Lateen said, "is that we are supposed to start the brunch in less than 30 minutes, and I can't even get onto the dais."

He pointed to the wide raised table at the back of the ballroom. On the right side, a standard staircase led up to the dais. On the left side, a short ramp had been constructed over the staircase. Now Rachel could see the problem.

As instructed, a ramp had been installed, but whoever oversaw the construction either hadn't done it before or hadn't thought about the needs of the person that would be using it. They had essentially laid the ramp directly over the stairs, canting it up at a slope impossible for anyone in a wheelchair to navigate.

"If I use that ramp," Lateen continued, "I will look like an idiot because I will have to have three people help me up. They might as well carry me up the stairs on the other side."

"I understand the problem, sir. Let me contact the contractor. We'll have this fixed before the brunch starts." She pulled out her walkie-talkie.

"Marian, is the dais contractor still in the hotel?"

A voice on the other end picked up immediately.

"I'm just signing some papers with him," Marian said.

"Put him on the walkie-talkie. Now."

A second of silence elapsed before John Chaver, the contractor, came on the line.

"This is John."

"John, this is Rachel Tanaka. You and your men need to come back up here immediately."

"Hey, they just told me to put in a ramp. You've got a ramp."

She edged away from Lateen so that she was out of earshot and explained the problem with the dais. This guy picked the wrong day to mess with her.

"The ramp is useless. Now, if you want to continue to do business at this hotel, a hotel that's scheduled to have over 150 conferences this year, you better get your butt back up here and fix that ramp in the next twenty minutes."

"Just a minute."

Another few moments of silence. Then Chaver came back sounding much more contrite.

"I just spoke with one of my guys. He installed the wrong ramp. We've got the right one in our truck. I'll be there in a minute."

"Good." She walked back to Lateen. "A Mr. Lateen will be up here to describe exactly what he needs. He is a very important guest, and I expect you to extend him every courtesy."

"Of course. I'm on my way."

She replaced the walkie-talkie on her belt.

"Thank you, Mrs. Tanaka," Lateen said. "I appreciate your help."

"Not at all. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, and as an apology from the hotel, I'm going to take 5 % off the cost of today's event. I hope this won't discourage you from using our hotel in the future."

"If we get this fixed, you can consider me satisfied."

Chaver arrived, and Rachel left him with Lateen to get the ramp changed.

She headed directly down to the lobby where she found Max Walsh, the head concierge.

"Max, how are you doing today?"

"I am doing extremely well, Milady," he said, feigning a terrible British accent. Then his voice returned to its bland Midwestern tone. "You need something, don't you?"

"Boy, I'm easy to read."

"Not at all. You just have a determined look that's slightly different from your normal determined look. What can I do for you?"

"My husband was supposed to book a luau for us tonight, but he forgot. I have some friends visiting from out of town, and I really wanted to show them a great time. Is there any way you could get us into the Sheraton Waikiki for their luau tonight?"

Max waved his hand. "Is that all you wanted? Piece of angel food. Besides, you're the manager of the Grand Hawaiian. I could get you in anywhere."

Rachel hadn't gotten used to her new status. She forgot that her title carried a lot of weight in Honolulu.

"How many?" Max asked.

"Six."

"You really don't want to challenge me, do you? OK, six for 8pm?"

"Max, you're a lifesaver. Specifically, Kai's."

"Absolutely no problem. But you don't want to go to the Sheraton Waikiki. Germaine's has the best luau on the island, and it's right on the beach. You'll love it."

"Thanks, Max. I owe you."

As she walked away, her walkie-talkie crackled to life.

"Rachel, we have a problem with the Russian tour group."

"What's the problem? Something with their rooms?"

"I don't know. I can't understand them. But they're getting pretty irate."

"There's no interpreter?"

"Nope. And none of them speaks a word of English."

"That may be the problem. Where are they?"

"Second floor mezzanine."

"I'll be right there."

She headed at a brisk pace to the elegant flowered escalators leading up from the lobby, ready to take on the day's next emergency.