The Tsunami Countdown (16 page)

11:07 a.m.
15 Minutes to Wave Arrival Time

T
he lobby of the Grand Hawaiian seethed with scared and confused tourists. One couple from New York argued with a staff member
about retrieving their luggage from their room. When they were told that no bellman would have time to get it for them, they
became irate, demanding that they get, in writing, the promise of a full refund for their stay. Rachel told them personally
that they could get their own damn luggage or leave and that they were not to talk to any of her staff again. Most of Rachel’s
employees were busy running from room to room, knocking on doors to make sure that no one was left behind. They were almost
done. Only the top two floors were left, but Rachel knew time was running out. Luckily, those were the floors with suites,
so there weren’t many doors to knock on.

The interpreter for the Russian tour group had never
shown up. Rachel tried to explain to the group that they had to leave, but when she shooed them out of the front of the hotel,
they stoically came to a stop, as if they were waiting for further instructions.

The Russians watched as Rachel helped some of the disabled vets into one of the buses she had hastily arranged to pick them
up. Only about half the buses she needed had shown up. When she realized the deficiency, she tried to triage so that the most
disabled would go first. Many of the vets could walk well enough that she sent them with the crowds now making their way up
Kalakaua Avenue. That left her with about seventy-five vets and their wives who would need to be evacuated somehow. Bob Lateen,
the chairman of the conference, was one of them.

“Mrs. Tanaka,” he said, “when is the next bus coming?”

“We’re working on that right now, Mr. Lateen.”

“But they said we only have fifteen minutes left to evacuate. You’ve got a lot of scared people here.”

Rachel used her most reassuring voice, but she couldn’t help letting some testiness through. “I’m aware of that, Mr. Lateen.
We’re doing the best we can.”

She saw Max, whose tailored gray suit and slick black hair looked as perfect as ever, despite the chaos. He hadn’t even deigned
to loosen his tie. Rachel’s suit, on the other hand, was already rumpled, and small sweat stains peeked out from under the
arms of her jacket.

“Excuse me,” Rachel said to Lateen. “I’ll be right back.” Despite Lateen’s protests, she left him and pulled Max into a quiet
niche.

“What about the hotel airport shuttle?” she said.

“Just checked. It’s still over at Honolulu International. It got caught there when the initial warning went out.”

“Maybe we could take them in our own cars.”

“We don’t have enough drivers left. Besides, we wouldn’t make it far in this traffic.”

“Well, do you have any suggestions?”

“Yes,” Max said. “I suggest we get ourselves the hell out of here.”

“You’re not serious.”

“Rachel, what else can we do?”

They had already seen many cars abandoned by their drivers, leaving the road a mess, littered with unattended vehicles. That
was one of the reasons that the last bus had come and gone more than twenty minutes ago. The rest simply couldn’t get to the
hotel. In fact, one bus that had already left reported back that it had resorted to pushing abandoned cars aside just to get
through.

Guests continued to stream out of the hotel, but anyone moving at less than a jog was not going to make it to high ground
in time, since the first wave might well reach more than a mile inland in some places.

“You have to help me get these guests up to a higher floor.”

Max’s jaw fell open.

“What? But you said the building wasn’t safe! It might collapse.”

“Keep your voice down!” Rachel said. “Look at these people.” Many of the vets left in the lobby were on walkers or in wheelchairs.
Some had their wives with them because the women wouldn’t leave their husbands. “They wouldn’t make it to the Ala Wai Canal
before the wave hit, let alone to a safe distance.”

“But there are more waves coming. The TV said they’re twenty-five minutes apart. That’s not enough time to get to safety before
the next wave comes in, is it?”

“I don’t know,” Rachel said. “But we have less than fifteen minutes left now. Unless we do something, they’re going to be
sitting in the lobby when the wave comes in.”

A few moments later, the elevator opened and Adrian Micton, one of the front desk clerks she had conscripted to warn the guests
still in their rooms, stepped out. Rachel expected to see five staffers, but only Melissa Clark was with him.

“Where are the others?” she said.

Adrian hesitated, then said, “They … left. Out the back. I guess they didn’t want to run into you.”

Rachel couldn’t blame them. They were hotel workers, not firefighters. Risking their lives wasn’t in the job description.
A part of her wanted to join them.

“Did you finish the sweep of the hotel?” she said.

“Yes. Every room’s been notified.”

“Are all the guests leaving?”

“No. There are twelve rooms where the guests said they wanted to stay here.”

“Dammit! You couldn’t get them to leave?”

“For whatever reason, they thought they were safer staying in their rooms. You want me to try again?”

“No, we can’t make them go. You’ve done enough. I want you to get everyone down here and leave the hotel immediately. And
I mean run. You don’t have much time left.”

“What about you?” Adrian said.

“We’ve got a bunch of people down here who can’t leave. We’re going to take them upstairs.”

“I’ll help.”

“Thanks, but we need you to lead everyone who can get out to safety. They may get lost.”

“I’m staying,” Adrian said. “Melissa can take the others out.”

Rachel smiled. “Okay, you and Max start taking the vets up to Starlight.” Starlight was the restaurant on top of the Moana
tower.

“All of them?” Max said. “That’ll take longer with just the express elevator. What about the Akamai tower?”

“No, we should stick together. Divide them up between
you and use the service elevators. They’re bigger and faster. Shouldn’t take you more than five minutes to get them all up
there.”

“Then what? What happens when the next wave comes?”

“I don’t know, all right?” Rachel said, exasperated at his bickering. “We’ll deal with that when the time comes. All I know
is that they are not going to make it if they try to walk.”

“But how do you know? How can you be sure?”

“Because if my husband says that the wave is going to be eighty feet high, I believe him. And if it’s that high, they won’t
make it to safety in time. Now, just do it, okay?”

Max reluctantly started gathering up the guests.

Rachel looked outside and saw the Russians still milling around. Melissa Clark, one of her staffers who had been on the elevator
with Adrian, was futilely trying to answer questions from a couple of the disabled vets’ wives.

“Melissa,” she said to the tall cashier, “come with me. I need you to help me.”

One of the Russian men, probably the leader, immediately started barking in Russian at Rachel and gesticulating wildly. She
put up her hands to quiet them down. Speaking to them would be useless. She tried the one word she thought they might understand.

“Tsunami. Tsunami?”

They stared at her with blank expressions. She curled
one arm over the other in a motion that she hoped would convey a wave crashing while saying “Boooosh!” Then a small woman
in the back with an equally small voice said, “Tsunami.”

Rachel seized on that and repeated the word. The petite Russian woman spoke rapidly to the others, with the word “tsunami”
sprinkled through it.

After a moment, the entire tour group realized that they were in danger and surrounded Rachel, screeching at her in panic.
Rachel motioned them toward Melissa, who waved for them to come with her. Thankfully, that calmed them, and they followed
her.

“Good luck,” Rachel said. “And, Melissa?”

Melissa turned back to see the deadly serious look on Rachel’s face.

“Run.”

Lani took a second from paddling to look up and saw Jake reach shore far ahead of her. He curled out of the kayak and splashed
up to the beach. He fell to the sand for a moment, and Lani was afraid he would be too exhausted to go on. But he quickly
clambered to his feet and jogged off in the direction of the Grand Hawaiian as his kayak floated along the shore.

“Hold on, Mia. Jake’s reached the shore. He’s running to the hotel for help.”

Mia could only sputter in response. The wake from Tom’s paddling continually got her in the face, and she heaved up salt water
periodically. However, with the strap firmly tied to her life vest, she wasn’t in danger of being left behind.

“How did Jake get so far ahead?” Tom said, huffing and puffing, Mia’s drag requiring him to more than double his effort.

“What?” Lani said. “Towing Mia is slowing you down a lot.”

“No, that doesn’t explain it all. Sure, he should be ahead of us, but not that far. It seems like we’re standing still.”

Lani looked to where Jake had made landfall. To this point, it had looked like he was directly in front of them. But now she
realized that he was at an angle to them, and she knew what was wrong.

“We’re in a riptide. That’s why we’re not making any headway.”

“A riptide? Here?”

“It may not be strong, but it might be enough to keep us from getting farther.”

“How do you know?”

“I’ve been boogie boarding a lot and got caught in a rip one time. We need to go parallel to the beach to get out of it.”

They began paddling westward, and in a minute Lani could feel a shift in the current.

“I think we’re out of it.”

“Thank God,” Tom said. “We’ve got a little more than ten minutes left.”

Lani willed her tired arms to pull as hard as they could. She didn’t want to say anything to discourage them, but judging
from how far they were from the shore, ten minutes didn’t seem like nearly enough time to get there.

11:11 a.m
.
11 Minutes to Wave Arrival Time

W
hen Brad and Kai reached the exit for Waikiki, the roads were packed, with all lanes going in the direction of the mountains.
Even using the shoulder, they got bogged down by the traffic as they neared downtown Honolulu; but thanks to Brad’s breakneck
driving, they’d been able to make the trip in a record twenty minutes. Kai noted with surprise that they didn’t seem to be
the only ones headed down to Waikiki. Some were misguided tourists intent on saving luggage or money that had been left behind
on their day out, and others were locals heading to workplaces to save materials that they thought were vital. Like the man
in the Lexus on TV, still others were trying to make it to the marina to get to boats they didn’t want destroyed by the wave.

The thought of all those people blatantly disregarding
his warnings appalled Kai. The vast majority of them would not live to see the end of the day.

The traffic coming from the shore was at a standstill. Hundreds of abandoned cars lined the side of the road, but Kai saw
plenty of other vehicles filled with people desperately trying to make headway through the gridlock: a family of four in an
SUV crammed with suitcases and other bric-a-brac; a lone woman in a small Toyota, her two border collies jumping back and
forth between the windows; a wizened hippie in a scuba shop van; the driver of a Coca-Cola truck shouting into his radio handset.
Kai wished he could stop and tell each of them to get out of their vehicles, but he knew it wouldn’t do any good even if he
had the time.

Throngs of people were on foot, and Brad had to slow to avoid hitting them. Most walked calmly but briskly on the sidewalk
or the side of the road, but some in the horde were screaming or running or otherwise panicking. There didn’t seem to be any
pattern to it. Many called out names of those they’d been separated from. The scene reminded Kai of old photos showing refugees
fleeing bomb-ravaged cities during World War II.

As they approached the hotel, Kai was relieved to see that the crowds thinned until there were just stragglers and the police
who were trying to gather them up. One of the policemen tried to flag them down, but Brad simply passed him.

He screeched to a stop in front of the Grand Hawaiian lobby. Brad leapt off the bike and tossed his helmet onto the ground.
Kai dropped his as well and ran with Brad to the front door.

Before Kai could go into the hotel, a clap of thunder ripped the air, visibly shaking the glass in the hotel’s window. It
was so loud that the few people still around halted where they were, searching the clear blue sky for the source of the din.
Brad stopped as well, and Kai looked toward the ocean with dread. The sound continued to peal like a battleship’s cannonade
for more than ten seconds before it finally faded.

“What the hell was that?” Brad asked.

Kai had read stories about how islanders thousands of miles from Krakatoa had heard the blast of the eruption, so he knew
what it was instantly.

“The asteroid impact. That’s the shock wave.”

“Jesus!”

Traveling twelve hundred miles, it had taken more than two hours for the sound of the explosion to reach them. But what really
scared Kai was that in open ocean, tsunamis traveled only slightly slower than the speed of sound. The wave wouldn’t be far
behind the sonic boom.

“Come on,” he said. “We don’t have much time.”

They sprinted into the hotel. Kai yelled Rachel’s name as they entered the lobby. It was deserted, with the few TVs
in the lobby showing either the EAS broadcast or video from the other islands, including Johnston Island. Then another picture
came on the TV with the word live in the upper right corner and lahaina, maui at the bottom. Kai recognized the waterfront
from several visits there. As he watched, every building—none bigger than five stories tall—was washed away by a gigantic
tsunami. He sucked in his breath as he saw one of his favorite places destroyed. Their time was running out.

On the far end of the lobby, twenty people, some of them in wheelchairs, were making their way toward a bank of elevators.
Kai recognized Rachel’s red hair cas-casing down the back of her business suit. He called her name again, and she turned.
When she saw that it was Kai, her eyes went wide with surprise, and she ran to him.

“Kai!”

She threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. Then she pulled away. The people in the group she
had been leading stopped, appraising them from across the lobby.

“What are you two doing here?” Her voice rose an octave when she realized they wouldn’t have come without good reason. “What’s
wrong? Oh my God! Lani! Where is she?”

“Have you seen Teresa?” Kai asked. “Brad told her to come here.”

“No. Where are they? Didn’t they get away?”

“We saw Lani and Mia. They’re in the ocean, kayaking off Waikiki somewhere.”

“What! How do you know that?”

“There’s no time to explain. We need to get to them before the tsunami arrives. We’ve got about ten minutes—”

As Kai spoke, Teresa blew into the hotel lobby. She had been running and was obviously frantic. The girls weren’t with her.

“Thank God you’re here!” Teresa said. “Have you seen Mia or Lani? I can’t find them anywhere.”

“They’re on kayaks somewhere in the bay.”

“What? Did they call you?”

“Where in the bay?” Rachel said.

“I don’t know,” Kai said. “The recreational equipment—is it still out?”

Rachel immediately understood what he meant. “Yes, down by the beach—”

A boy who was about fifteen years old ran into the lobby. Kai had never seen him before, but he looked exhausted.

“Lani’s mom!” the boy yelled. “Lani’s mom!”

For a moment they all stood stock-still, their mouths agape. Brad was the first to go over to him.

“You’re the kid from the video,” he said. “On the kayaks.”

In his shock at seeing Lani and Mia on TV, Kai had barely registered the boys with them, but Brad had always been more observant
than he was.

Teresa, Rachel, and Kai rushed over and began to pepper him with questions.

“Where are they?”

“Aren’t they with you?”

“Can you show us where they are?”

The boy looked befuddled. He was tired and his chest was heaving.

“They’re still out there,” he gasped. He could barely get the words out between breaths. “In the bay. Mia was paddling too
slow, so I went ahead. When I got to shore, I could only see two of them. I don’t know what happened.”

Kai grabbed his arm. “You’re going to show us where they are.”

“What?” Rachel said. “This kid can barely walk.”

“Rachel,” Kai said, “without him, we may not find Lani in time.”

“I’m fine,” the boy said. “How are we going to get them? Do you have a boat?”

“The hotel rents Jet Skis down at the beach. Let’s hope they’re still there.”

“Then what?” Rachel said. “The wave—”

“I’ve got a plan.” Kai nodded at Rachel and Teresa.
“But you two need to leave now. Rachel, take the hotel’s rental bikes—”

“I’m going with you,” said Teresa.

“I don’t have time to argue—”

“Then don’t. That’s my daughter out there. You can’t stop me. I’m going.”

Kai didn’t waste time on it. She was coming.

“And I’ve got to stay with my guests,” Rachel said.

Kai pulled Rachel aside.

“You can’t stay here,” he said. “The biggest wave might be over two hundred feet high. This hotel is right on the beach. I
don’t know if it can stand up to a tsunami that big.”

“I’ve got to help these people. I’m responsible for them. I’ll get them out. Somehow.”

Kai felt his heart skip a beat, and his eyes welled with tears. He couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing her again. He
didn’t know what was going to happen, but he was never more proud of her. In those few seconds, Kai could see the same thing
flashing through her mind.

Rachel slipped her walkie-talkie off her belt and tucked it into Kai’s dry bag.

“I’ll use Max’s. I may not be able to get through to you on the cell phone. I want to know that you’re all right.”

“Thanks.”

They shared a tender, warm kiss, the one they had
missed earlier in the morning. Kai wanted to hold her longer, but neither of them could linger another moment.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

He looked at her one last time and then sprinted for the door, following Brad, Teresa, and the boy.

Rachel yelled after Kai, “Call me when you’re safe!”

On hearing that, Kai’s mind flashed back to Lani eagerly waving to the camera on the news chopper, and it became clear to
him how Rachel should get her guests out of the hotel. Just before he dashed out into the sunlight, Kai stopped and shouted
one word to her:

“Helicopter!”