'Her name is Lani. I'm Mia.'
'Cool. My name's Tom. This is Jake. He's visiting from Michigan.' Jake nodded at them. 'Hey, we were thinking of heading out onto the water.'
Lani felt herself uncharacteristically speaking up, perhaps in competition with Mia.
'Surfing?'
Jake jumped into the conversation. 'We rented some sea kayaks for the week,' he said. 'Have you ever been on a kayak?'
'Sure,' Lani said. 'We both have.' Lani had paddled sea kayaks six or seven times since moving to Hawaii, but as far as she knew, Mia had never even seen one.
'Sweet,' said Tom. 'You want to come with us?'
Mia turned and shook her head at Lani. When Mia had suggested talking to the boys, Lani was sure that doing something athletic was the last thing on her mind. Lani beseeched her silently, and this time, it was Mia that relented.
'Yeah,' Mia said with little enthusiasm. 'We'd love to.'
'Awesome. The kayaks are just up the beach.' He started walking, and the girls and Jake followed.
'You both from around here?' said Tom.
'Mia's just visiting from Seattle.'
'Must be good to get out of the rain.'
'Yeah,' Mia said, 'it's pretty cool here.' And for the first time since she'd moved there, Lani felt like it was cool. 'Are the kayaks big enough to fit two people?'
'They're single-seaters, but we have four of them,' Tom said. 'My parents are away for the day. Some Memorial Day ceremony.'
After a few minutes of walking, Tom stopped on the beach next to a large condominium.
'OK,' he said. 'You wait here.'
'I thought you said we were going to kayak,' Mia said.
'The kayaks are back at our condo,' Tom said. 'We were going to go this afternoon when my parents got back.'
'They're sit-on-tops,' Jake said. 'And we've got life jackets and paddles.'
'We'll be back in a minute.'
While Tom and Jake sprinted across the street and disappeared into a parking garage, Lani quickly explained to Mia about the kayaks. Instead of enclosing the kayaker inside like a river kayak, the plastic shell of a sit-on-top kayak was molded so that the seat perched on top. Although sit-on-tops were better for warm weather because you didn't get as hot, they were also less stable. Mia wasn't happy to hear that given her inexperience, but Lani tried to reassure her that paddling in them was easy.
Tom and Jake came trotting back carrying one kayak each over their heads. The kayaks didn't look that much different from the ones Lani had been on before: about 11 feet long, bright yellow, with black nylon around the seating area. The boys turned and ran back to get the other kayaks and gear.
In another five minutes, all of them had their life vests on, and the kayaks were bobbing in the gentle surf. To the left was the enclosed waters of Kuhio Beach, protected by a breakwater. To the right, waves crashed into the beach, but the sea was mild where the kayaks floated.
'Shouldn't be too bad getting past the waves today,' Jake said.
Lani saw that Mia was apprehensive. She lowered her voice to give Mia some tips.
'Just keep the kayak pointed straight out. There's an undertow at this point, so the waves will be small.'
Mia waded up to her knees and sat on the side of the raft to get in. She slipped off and sank to her shoulders. Jake laughed, but rushed over to pick her up. She tentatively balanced herself on his arm as she climbed in. After two more false starts, she finally perched primly on the sit-on-top kayak.
'You sure you've done this before?' Jake said.
Mia nodded. 'It's been a while since I did it the last time.'
'We'll head out past the breakers,' Tom said. 'Then maybe we could turn and head up towards Diamond Head. I've heard there are some killer houses along the beach there, but they're hard to see except from the ocean.'
They started paddling. When the first waves broke over the front of their kayaks, Mia let out a little scream. Lani laughed. She was finally in her element.
'Come on,' Lani said. 'It's not that bad.'
'Remember to put the paddle sideways into the water, Mia!' Tom yelled. 'Come on!'
The boys pulled forward easily, and they looked a little surprised to see Lani keep up with them. Mia fell behind immediately, her paddling technique abysmal.
With a few more minutes of practice, and with the others slowing down, she was able to keep up with them. The trip out took longer than expected as they fought the stiffened breeze coming off the ocean. After 20 minutes, they got about a half-mile out and they turned east toward the towering walls of Diamond Head.
As they turned, Lani thought for a second that she heard a sound coming from the direction of the shore. But the breeze picked up again, whistling as it whipped over the water, and she couldn't even hear the roar of the surf.
Chapter 16
Kai's frustration mounted as they failed to make much headway in deciphering the conflicting data. Although he had issued the tsunami warning, it was based on little more than the fact that they'd lost contact with Christmas Island. Kai was beginning to think he'd acted hastily, but he couldn't take the chance that a destructive tsunami was headed their way. Not with so many beachgoers out for the holiday, his daughter among them.
Reggie had been able to contact Dr. Niles Aspen, the lead scientist on Johnston Island. After Reggie explained the situation over the satellite link, the scientists made preparations to get as many people into the supply plane as they could. But two would have to stay behind. Dr. Aspen would be one of them, and they planned to talk to him again when he was at a safer location.
Brad had no more success getting in touch with Teresa and the kids. Kai just had to hope that they were following the other tourists and getting off the beach.
'Let's go over this again,' Kai said. 'We're still missing something.'
Reggie leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head as he thought out loud.
'OK. Let's see. There is virtually no chance that an undersea earthquake that small could cause any kind of sizable tsunami, let alone one that could destroy Christmas Island.'
'Why not?' asked Brad. Normally, Kai would have asked him to stay out of it, but since they were short- handed, he thought Brad's questions might help them look at the situation in a new light.
'No quake that small has ever generated an ocean-wide tsunami,' Kai said, 'unless the earthquake triggered a landslide.'
'OK. So what about a landslide?'
Reggie and Kai looked at each other and shook their heads.
'Maybe,' Kai said.
'Maybe?' Brad said. 'All you have is 'maybe'?'
'Look, we just don't have any reason to suspect that that region of the Pacific would be prone to landslides. Underwater landslides usually occur near the edge of a continental shelf because sediment has to pile up over hundreds or thousands of years. The region we're talking about is nowhere near a continental shelf.'
'Yeah, but are you sure it couldn't be a landslide?' Brad said.
'No. At this point, I don't think we can rule out anything.'
Some of the deadliest tsunamis in recorded history were caused by landslides. In 1998, an underwater landslide off the coast of Papua New Guinea caused a tsunami that killed over 2000 beach villagers. Some scientists
