The Tsunami Countdown

TWENTY-SEVEN

10:51 a.m.

31 Minutes to Wave Arrival Time

It took Kai a minute to catch his breath after the shock of seeing Lani. The news report had gone on to another topic, but the video of her and Mia blithely kayaking, obviously unaware of the danger, still played in his mind’s eye. Fear gripped him, but he controlled it. It simmered just below the surface, propelling his actions. He leapt to his feet, certain about what he had to do next. “We’re leaving!” Kai said, herding everyone toward the door. “Reggie, how long would it take to transfer what we need to a laptop?”

“I’m way ahead of you. I’ve already copied everything over the network.”

“Good. You take it.”

“Who’s leaving?” said Lara Pimalo.

“You, me, everybody,” Kai said.

“But you said we have thirty minutes left.”

“We only have thirty minutes left,” Kai said, “and we’re on a flat section of land. You saw the traffic jams. It’ll take a while to get to high ground. You should drive as far as you can. But when you reach a backup, get out and start walking.”

“It sounds like we’re not going together,” said Reggie.

“We’re not,” Kai said, looking at Brad. “How fast could you get us to Waikiki on that thing?”

Brad raised an eyebrow, then nodded. Going after Lani was the only thing that would get Kai on that motorcycle; it was the only way to get through the traffic quickly. “You know how I drive. We’ll get there in time.”

Kai had made the decision to leave his post quickly, but that didn’t mean it had been easy. It was his duty versus his daughter, and his daughter would win every time.

“You’re going after Lani on that crotch rocket in this traffic?” Reggie said, sounding incredulous. “That’s suicide!”

“Maybe.” He just didn’t see any other option.

“We could try calling someone—”

Kai cut him off quickly. “No. With the way the phone lines are tied up, it might take half the time just contacting someone, let alone convincing them to go find her. I’m not taking that chance.”

“Then I can just go and you can stay with Reggie,” Brad said.

“That won’t work, and I don’t have time to explain why. It has to be both of us.”

Reggie nodded in agreement. “It’s what I’d do. But what about the tsunami data? What about warning the other Pacific islands? We still don’t know for sure if there are more waves coming.”

“I’m leaving that in good hands. You’re in charge now.”

“Me?” Reggie shook his head, his eyes wide at the thought of the responsibility. His face was two shades paler than a moment before. “But I don’t want—”

“Listen, I know I’m abandoning you at a critical time, and I’m sorry. But I need to do this.”

“Maybe Harry should take over. I know he’s on Maui, but—”

“Which is why you need to do it. Who knows what the situation on Maui is like? They may not even have phone service after the first wave hits. Come on, Reggie. You know as much as I do—probably more. What’s the problem?”

“I didn’t make the right call on the tsunami warning.”

“Neither did I, at first.”

“But if you hadn’t been here, we’d just be issuing the first warning now. What if I’m wrong again?”

“You did exactly what you were trained to do. It could have gone either way. Look, you’ll do fine. I wouldn’t leave if I didn’t trust you to do the job.” Kai honestly didn’t know if that was true—he might have left in any case—but he did trust Reggie, so it didn’t matter. “Use Wheeler Field as your base. You’re still going to have to interpret the data coming in.”

Reggie still looked like he had eaten a live roach, but reluctantly nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

“I’m going to be on my cell phone. You go with Ms. Pimalo. We were going to have to switch control over to Palmer at some point anyway. Might as well be now. You keep in contact with them and let me know when you get new readings. You’ve got my number.”

The West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, would continue to get all the same readings. They would be warning the west coast of the United States of the danger by now, even though the size of the waves would be diminished by a factor of ten once they went as far as California. At least they would have the hours of warning that Hawaii didn’t get.

“Should we do the transition before we go?” Reggie asked.

“There’s not enough time,” Kai said. “I’ll call Palmer on the way and tell them you’re the man now. Come on! Let’s go!”

The five of them scrambled out of the PTWC. By now Bilbo was excited by all the commotion and barked as he followed them out. At the door, Kai stopped to take one last look at the ops room, knowing it would be the last time he saw it.

“At least we’ll get the chance to build the next one in a better location,” Reggie said.

Pimalo and her cameraman ran to their truck. Reggie said, “Don’t leave yet,” and sprinted to his house. Kai assumed he wanted to rescue a few mementos, and he didn’t blame him. Kai sprinted to his house too. Bilbo came running after him.

As Kai reached the front door, he didn’t know what he was doing. He wasn’t thinking that clearly. He just knew he had to take something with him. He couldn’t let everything in his family’s life disappear.

Kai threw open the door, ran in, and stopped, considering all the things he could and couldn’t take with him. Electronics, computers, jewelry, and other tangible objects of value didn’t occur to him. Those weren’t the things he wanted. In that moment, he knew he could only choose one, maybe two objects that he could take.

Of course, they had souvenirs from vacations they had taken. Valuable antiques that had been passed down through both Rachel and Kai’s families, like his father’s medals from the Vietnam War, a silver set Rachel’s mother had given her, an Etruscan vase they had found at a garage sale that had turned out to be worth thousands of dollars, Kai’s old baseball card collection. All of them were meaningful and valuable to him, but each of them was also too big and bulky to carry.

The only things that he considered truly irreplaceable were the photos from their life. The old photos of his parents when they were young and in love. Rachel’s family photos from years ago. Their wedding. Lani’s baby photos. The good times on holidays. That’s when Kai understood what was really important to him. Of all the memories in the house, photos were the only things he wanted to keep.

Unfortunately, they had boxes and boxes of old photos. There was no way he could take them all. Kai hurried over and pulled out one of their family albums, the one they looked at the most. He gazed longingly at the rest and felt himself holding back tears because he wouldn’t be able to take them.

Kai made his way back to the door and came to a halt when he saw the photos they had hung on the wall near the kitchen. One was an eight-by-ten wedding photo of him and Rachel. She looked beautiful in her beaded white dress, and both of them beamed with happiness. It always reminded him of their early days together: their introduction at the University of Washington Bookstore while they stood in line to sell their used textbooks; their first date at a comedy club; the awkward proposal on a Thanksgiving trip to see her parents when Kai popped the question on the plane because he couldn’t wait for the candlelight dinner he had planned.

The other photo was a candid picture of the three of them on vacation at Disneyland. When Lani was born a little more than a year into their marriage, complications during the delivery made it impossible for Rachel to have more children. But the news didn’t discourage them. In fact, it brought them even closer together. As soon as Rachel and Kai finished grad school and started making money, their major indulgence was to take yearly trips that they could share as a family.

Like many people, their favorite destination was Disneyland. The photo showed all three of them wearing Mickey Mouse ears and laughing, childlike in their disregard for the camera. They looked like one of those photos that you would see in a frame at the store. It wasn’t staged. It just showed what a great time they had had.

Kai took both photos off the wall and smashed the glass against the counter. He wrenched the pictures out of their frames and inserted them in the album, tossing the frames onto the floor. The final thing he grabbed was Bilbo’s leash.

“Come here, buddy.” Bilbo wagged as he came and sat in front of Kai, who attached the leash and gave him a pat.

Kai took one last look around, and then he heard Brad call from outside.

“Kai, we have to go! Now!”

Kai sprinted with Bilbo back to the van and motorcycle, both now idling in front of the PTWC building. Reggie was just coming back at the same time. But what he was carrying caught Kai by surprise.

“You’ll need this if you’re riding with Brad,” he said, handing Kai a motorcycle helmet. “I don’t use it much anymore. I hope it’s not too big on you.”

“What about your stuff?” Kai said, picturing Reggie’s remodeled house, soon to be wiped away. “Don’t you have anything you want to take?”

“Nope. They’re just things. I’ll get more. Oh, and I got you a couple of other items.”

He pressed some kind of tote bag and a small length of wire into Kai’s hands. Kai was overwhelmed that all Reggie could think of in this disaster was helping him. He’d never realized before how thoughtful Reggie was.

“That’s my kayaking dry bag. It’s the best thing for carrying your stuff. And that’s an earpiece for your cell phone. It’ll fit under the helmet so you can talk on the road.”

“Thanks, Reggie,” Kai said. “This means a lot to me.”

“Hey, I’m just lending that stuff to you. I want it back.”

“Can you do one more thing for me?” Kai said, holding out the leash. “Bilbo won’t fit on the bike.”

“No problem. If the news guys give me any trouble, I’ll sic him on them.” Bilbo licked Reggie’s hand as if to show how dangerous he really was.

“You take care of yourself,” Kai said, and then hugged him. Reggie seemed a little surprised at first, but returned the hug.

“You too. I’ll see you in a couple of hours,” Reggie said confidently, as if he didn’t want to believe Kai might be in danger. Then he held his hand out to Brad. “No hard feelings, huh?”

Brad took Reggie’s meaty paw without hesitation. “I want you to know I don’t pick fights with three-hundred-pound football players often.”

“I understand. Just go get her.” Reggie climbed into the news van with Bilbo, and they pulled away, headed for the front gate.

Kai put the photo album in the dry bag and slung it over his shoulder. He plugged the headset into his phone and placed the helmet on his head. It was about three sizes too big, but Kai snugged the strap down until it didn’t float around too much.

Brad leapt onto the bike and revved the engine. Kai tentatively threw his leg over the tiny pad of leather that qualified as the backseat.

“Where do I put my feet?” Kai said.

“Man, you really have never ridden one of these before.”

“I wouldn’t be now if it weren’t an emergency.”

“Just put your feet on the dead pedals back there and put your arms around my waist.”

“Just tell me if you can’t breathe.”

“I’ll be fine, but I’m going to have to do some tricky driving if we’re going to get there in time. By the way, where are we going? We need a boat if we’re going out into the bay, and mine’s in my driveway.”

“I have an idea. Go to the Grand Hawaiian. I’ll explain on the way.”

“With the wind noise, we won’t be able to talk much. Explain when we get there. Hang on tight. If you fall off, I’ll stop and get you.”

Kai didn’t appreciate Brad’s sense of humor. Kai had never ridden a motorcycle and didn’t want to. But his determination to find his daughter was stronger than his terror of riding 140 horsepower of exposed metal when, in an impact with even a Mini, the Harley would lose.

As Brad gunned the engine and roared off, Kai gripped him like a vine wrapped around an oak, the cell phone clenched in one hand. The g-forces were incredible, but surprisingly, Kai didn’t feel in danger of falling off the bike. He did feel like throwing up, but at least that was something he had control over.

Kai reluctantly loosened his right hand and felt for the keypad on the phone as they whipped through the gate and turned onto Fort Weaver Road, the main drag leading to the H1. Cars packed the road, but the traffic moved steadily, albeit slowly. In a few seconds they caught up with the news van and passed it like it was standing still.

Kai punched in the speed dial number for the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center. All he got was an out-of-range beep. As he expected, the cell phone lines were stretched to the limit with people calling loved ones about the oncoming tsunami.

The road turned north and they ran into more traffic, moving at no more than ten miles per hour. Brad swung the motorcycle onto the shoulder and rocketed forward at an insane speed only inches from the cars on their left. Occasionally they would hit a patch of sand or a bump, and Kai would feel the bike skid a little. He glanced over Brad’s shoulder. The speedometer hovered around sixty.

Kai hit redial on the cell phone again and again. After at least seven tries, he finally heard the call go through. The director, Frank Manetti, answered. He must have had caller ID, because Kai didn’t have to say anything before Manetti spoke.

“Kai, is that you?”

Even with the helmet, the wind noise buffeted Kai’s ears, but he could still hear Manetti’s voice easily over the headset. He silently thanked Reggie.

“Yes, it’s me,” Kai said.

“What’s that noise? I can barely hear you.”

“It’s the wind. Did you get the latest readings from the DART buoy?”

“What?”

“The DART buoy!” Kai shouted.

“We sure as hell did. That’s a monster of a wave headed your way.”

Kai had to let Manetti know that he had left the PTWC and that Manetti was now in charge of the only operating warning center. Not only that, but HSCD wouldn’t get any new warnings until Palmer took over. Kai hadn’t taken the time to call Renfro before they left to let him know that they were going off-line.

“Listen, Frank, you need to take over now.”

“Say that again, Kai? I didn’t get that.”

Kai raised his voice as loud as he could. “I said you’re going to have to—”

Brad turned his head left to look for cross traffic at an intersection. He didn’t see the Volkswagen Beetle with the enormous surfboard tied to the roof turn in front of them.

Kai reached up with both hands and pushed Brad’s head down just as they passed under the surfboard, which barely missed decapitating both of them. The board grazed his hand, knocking the cell phone into the air. It clattered as it bounced once and then smashed into the curb, shattering into pieces.

“Dammit!” Kai yelled as he flexed his stinging hand.

“That was close!” Brad shouted over his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I dropped my phone!”

“I’ve got one. Do you want me to stop so you can use it?” He started to slow down.

Brad’s telephone was virtually useless to Kai, because he didn’t know anyone’s number from memory—not the warning center in Palmer, not Hawaii State Civil Defense, not even Reggie’s. It was all in his cell phone address book, which was now destroyed.

The only alternative was to turn back and find the TV van again to tell Reggie that he hadn’t been able to complete the transition. It might be an hour before Reggie was able to get to Wheeler and establish contact with everyone—critical time when additional information from the DART buoy would not be getting to HSCD or other Pacific island nations.

But if they turned around now, it would add at least ten minutes to their ride to Waikiki. They’d never get there in time.

Kai felt Brad downshift, and the bike slowed.

“No!” Kai yelled. “We don’t have time! Keep going!”

Brad revved the engine, and soon they were up to seventy.

In another minute they had reached the entrance ramp for the H1. It was clogged with cars and buses. But there was enough room for a motorcycle to get through on the shoulder, and in no time they were cruising along at eighty.