The Tsunami Countdown

TWO

8:51 a.m.

The brochure was slick and professional, but Kai Tanaka still hated the idea of sending his thirteenyear-old daughter away to a scuba diving camp. He sipped his coffee at the kitchen counter as he scanned the pamphlet and thought about how to let Lani down gently. She and her best friend, Mia, sat close together at the dinette table, talking over a magazine in low, conspiratorial tones. Then they erupted into shrill screams that dissolved into giggles while they pointed at a glossy photo.

Kai walked over to the table and made as if to get a better look at the magazine. “And what are you guys reading this morning? Is it Newsweek or Car and Driver?”

Lani quickly flipped the magazine closed. It was Seventeen. Mia must have brought it with her. Like most fathers, Kai couldn’t help wonder at how fast they were growing up. They were barely teenagers. To him, seventeen was far in the future.

Lani giggled at Mia, and then adopted a mock-serious tone. “We’re just doing some research for our trip this morning.” Mia nodded in agreement.

“Uh-huh,” Kai said dubiously. “Seventeen has an article about boogie boarding, does it?”

“Not exactly,” Mia said. “But there are some tips about beachcombing.” At this, Lani and Mia erupted into another peal of laughter. Kai assumed it was something having to do with how to meet boys, but he didn’t want to know.

“So, what do you think about the camp, Dad?” Lani said. “It looks awesome, doesn’t it?”

Bilbo, the family’s wheaten terrier, lapped noisily from his bowl, then dribbled water across the floor after he finished. Avoiding Lani’s question, Kai busied himself wiping up the drool. While he threw the paper towel away, he glanced at the countertop TV. It was tuned to a Honolulu newscast with a graphic that said Breaking News, but the volume was so low that all Kai could hear was the indistinct mumbling of the anchorwoman.

“Hello? Dad? Can I go?”

“I don’t know,” he finally said. “When is this?”

“First week in August.”

“You two are pretty young to be diving.”

“I’ll be fourteen next month,” Lani said indignantly. That was true, although Lani didn’t look thirteen. She looked sixteen. At five foot eight, she was now taller than her mother by a good two inches, and even more distressingly, she had developed a womanly figure. Her hair was auburn, not the strawberry blond of Rachel’s Irish heritage, but she had gotten her mother’s delicate facial structure and lean athletic body. From Kai, she inherited the olive complexion and almond-shaped eyes of his Italian-Japanese background. To Kai’s chagrin, the effect made her not only beautiful but exotic. He was going to have to plan for dates very soon, and he was terrified.

“And Teresa gave her okay?” Kai said.

Mia nodded. “I think Mom needs some alone time,” she said. She was Lani’s age but darker, shorter, and more petite. Kai couldn’t imagine her lugging an oxygen tank around on her back.

“Where is she?” he said.

“Getting dressed,” Mia said.

“So, can I go?” Lani said.

After a pause, Kai said, “I’ll have to think about it.”

Lani looked at Mia in disgust. “That means no.”

Kai waved the brochure. “It means I have to check out this outfit, see what their safety record is. Scuba diving is a dangerous sport.”

“You’ve been diving fifty times,” Lani said, pouting.

“So I know what I’m talking about. Plus, I have to talk about it with your mother.”

“She already said it was cool. We talked about it with her and Teresa while you were out jogging.”

“She was cool with it, huh? Maybe I should just confirm that with her.”

Usually Rachel’s Monday shift didn’t begin until ten a.m., but that morning she had to be at the Grand Hawaiian early for the disabled vets’ brunch. As the hotel manager, she wanted to make sure everything was perfect, especially because the governor would be addressing the veterans. Kai dialed her cell.

“Hello?” Rachel said above a truck horn honking in the background. She was still on the road. Even on a holiday, the commute from Ewa Beach to Honolulu wasn’t fun.

“Traffic?” he said, moving into the family room to get a little privacy.

“As usual.”

“You sound tired.”

“I didn’t get much sleep last night. Teresa and I were up late talking. It’s great to have her and Mia in town, but I’m going to be exhausted by the end of the week. Is she there?”

“I think she’s getting into her swimsuit.”

“Ask her to give me a call on her way to the beach.”

“I will. So Lani had a surprise for me this morning.”

“About the scuba camp? I think it’s a fantastic idea.”

“You do?”

“Sure. Why not?”

“Because she’s thirteen. You can’t even get certified until you’re fifteen.”

“It sounds like a wonderful program. Master instructors, top-notch facilities, lots of fun activities. One of the mothers in Lani’s class raved about it.”

Kai didn’t bother to ask which mother. He wouldn’t know her. Taking the post of assistant director at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had been a great career move for him, but he hadn’t counted on how demanding it would be. Including Kai, there were only eight geophysicists on staff, and the PTWC had to be monitored by two of them twenty-four hours a day. That meant they regularly had to pull twelve-hour shifts. Kai had been so busy that he’d participated in only one parent-teacher conference.

“Lani has to have something to look forward to,” Rachel said. “She’s been here nine months now and hasn’t made any friends yet.”

“What do you mean? She hangs out with her soccer friends all the time.”

“Getting pizza after the game with her teammates doesn’t count. In the whole time we’ve been here, she hasn’t once brought somebody back home. Now that she’s with Mia, I see how she used to be in Seattle. And being in that compound hasn’t helped.”

“Please don’t call it a compound.” Kai hated that word.

It was difficult to recruit geophysicists who were willing to spend that many hours on-site, so to sweeten the deal, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—better known as NOAA, the parent organization of the PTWC—built houses on the Center grounds that some of the staff lived in for free. As assistant director, Kai had been given one of the houses. The biggest perk was that it was only three blocks from the beach, but the run-down neighborhood around the complex wasn’t safe enough for Lani to explore on her own.

“She feels isolated there,” Rachel said.

“Maybe we can do more family outings, like the luau tonight.”

“Kai, your heart’s in the right place, but she needs to learn some independence. She isn’t going to be your little girl forever.”

“Oh, yes she will.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah,” Kai said with a sigh, “I know. But I still think she should wait to do this scuba camp until next year.”

“Listen, I’m about to go into the garage, so you’re going to lose me. Just think about it, and we’ll talk more this evening. All right?”

“Okay. I’ll think about it.”

With a click, Rachel was gone.

“So you got the spiel, huh?” a voice behind him said.

Kai turned to see Teresa Gomez. Like the girls, she was already dressed in a tank top and sarong over her bikini.

“Oh yeah,” Kai said. “The hard sell.”

“What’s the verdict?”

“Still thinking about it.”

“Good luck with that. I lasted about five minutes.” She yawned and stretched her arms. “I need to mainline some more coffee.”

Kai followed her back into the kitchen. Lani and Mia stopped giggling and looked at him expectantly.

“Still thinking about it,” he said, eliciting a groan. He handed the coffeepot to Teresa. “I heard you stayed up late with Rachel to continue our conversation after I went to bed.”

“She can’t hear enough about my residency program. Sometimes I think she’s the one who should have gone to med school.” As she filled her mug, Teresa looked at the TV. A TransPac Airlines logo was next to the anchor-woman’s shoulder. “I hope to God it’s sunny today. If I came all the way from Seattle for more rain, I’ll curl up into the fetal position.”

“Don’t worry. The report earlier said no rain is projected, so you and the girls should have great weather today.”

“If it’s your day off, grab your towel and come with us.”

“Day off? I wish. I’m on call today. I have to give a tour this morning, and there’s a paper I’m submitting to the Science of Tsunami Hazards next month that I’ve got to finish.”

Teresa appraised Kai’s outfit and began to laugh. “I forgot. We’re in Hawaii.”

He looked down at his clothes and realized why she was laughing. To a Seattleite like Teresa, the flowered shirt, khakis, and tennis shoes he was wearing might seem like weekend wear, but it was perfectly normal office attire for him.

“This is formal wear for me,” he said with a laugh. “Where are you guys boarding?”

“Well, I wanted to go somewhere quiet, but no, I got vetoed!” She jabbed a finger at the girls. “So it’s Waikiki. While they’re swimming, I plan to sit my butt down and do absolutely nothing.”

Kai winced. Because of the holiday, Waikiki would be packed not only with tourists but with locals as well. May was a big month for travelers, and three-day weekends were always popular with American tourists from the mainland. Almost fifty thousand visitors stayed in Honolulu at any one time, and Waikiki claimed most of them. Teresa would be hard pressed to find any peace on the beach.

“I think they just want to check out the eye candy,” she said.

“We do not!” said Lani.

But Mia at the same time said “Yeah!” and Lani turned red.

Kai tried to help Teresa out. “Why don’t you go to Kahana Valley? There’s a great beach there.”

“It’s boring,” Lani said. “If I finally get to go to a beach, I want to go to a good one.”

“What do you mean? We go to our beach all the time.”

“Yeah, right. Only when you’re with me. What’s the use of living three blocks from the beach if I have to wait for you to take me?”

“Here we go,” Kai said. To Teresa: “One time, I saw some kids smoking dope down at the little park that leads to the beach. Now she’s mad that I won’t let her go on her own.”

“If I didn’t live in this compound, I might have someone to go with.”

“Why does everyone call it that?” Kai said.

“I’m sure it’s not because of the barbed wire and security gate,” Lani said, her sarcasm reaching new heights. “Come on, Mia. Let’s get our stuff.”

They ran off to Lani’s bedroom.

“Good God,” Teresa said. “You know the attitudes are only going to get worse as the day goes on. I’ll pay you a thousand dollars to switch places with me.”

Kai laughed and shook his head. “No way. I like having the easy job.” Kai handed her the keys to his Jeep. “When do you think you’ll be back?”

“If I can endure it, I’m thinking around five. That way I’ll have plenty of time to recover before the luau tonight.”

“Perfect,” Kai said. “The boogie boards are in the garage.”

“We’ll get them!” yelled Lani from the other room.

As he and Teresa went outside, Kai paused to turn off the TV. Just before he clicked it off, he noticed a new graphic saying AIRLINER MISSING OVER PACIFIC.