Jake, and Tom reached the top of the stairs, the rushing water just below them, Kai ushered everyone up the last flight of stairs and onto the roof.
The flat expanse of faded and peeling white paint was broken up by a few large air conditioning units and not much else. Kai ran to the edge of building and looked down. At this height, he would normally see multitudes of beachgoers thronging the promenade far below. Instead, breathtakingly, the water was now only 15 feet beneath them. It had not reached the top floor, but it was only a few inches below it. Water surged like a river around the corner of the building, taking all kinds of debris with it.
Kai was relieved that the building hadn't collapsed with the first wave. But he had no idea if it would stand up to the next one. Not that it would matter. The next wave was going to be another five stories high, completely covering this building.
He knelt by Lani.
'Are you all right, honey?' Kai said.
She nodded and gave him a tight hug. 'I can't believe you came to get us. How did you know where we were?'
'You were on TV. Then Jake led us to you when we got to the Grand Hawaiian. Was it your idea to send him there?'
She nodded again. She was a smart kid.
'Is mom OK?'
'She was at the hotel. I'm sure she's fine.' Although Kai tried to project a confident calm, he was in fact practically sick with worry about Rachel. He knew this thing was far from over, and he didn't think she'd be safe where she was for long. Neither would they.
Kai took out the walkie-talkie and tried it first, knowing that the cell phone system was less reliable. After a few tries, he got through to his wife and breathed a sigh of relief.
'Rachel, are you all right?'
'Kai! Thank God! Please tell me you got Lani.'
'I have her right here. She has an exciting story to tell you.'
Kai passed the walkie-talkie to Lani and walked over to Brad. He was taking pictures of the flooding with his cell phone, which had been in the dry bag.
'What do we do now?' Brad said, snapping a photo of a boat floating past the eighth story of the building behind them, the twenty-story building they should have been in if only they'd had another minute to run over to it. Kai took Brad aside so that the kids wouldn't hear them, and Teresa joined them.
'We wait,' Kai said. 'The water will recede. When it does, we need to make a run for higher ground. In the meantime, maybe we can wave one of those helicopters down.'
'We're not the only ones,' Teresa said. 'Look.'
She gestured to the other buildings around Waikiki and Honolulu. As far as the eye could see, buildings were topped with people leaning over the sides or waving to the skies. There had to be hundreds of them, if not thousands. Seeing that, it struck Kai as strange that they were the only ones on the top of this building. He had the awful thought that perhaps the Seaside held other people who hadn't tried to evacuate their condos until the water was upon them.
To Kai's surprise, Teresa grabbed both him and Brad in an embrace.
'I can't ever thank you enough for saving Mia,' she sobbed. 'I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come along.'
'Hey, it finally got lame-o here on a motorcycle. Of course, my Harley is now rusting away under about 80 feet of Pacific seawater. But it was a helluva last ride.'
Kai wanted to say it was going to be OK, that they were all safe now, but it couldn't have been further from the truth. They couldn't stay, but at the moment they couldn't go either.
Kai borrowed Brad's cell phone and dialed 911. The line was jammed and all he got was a busy signal. He tried again, with the same result.
He was about to call Reggie when Kai realized that it wasn't his own phone. His was in pieces on the side of Fort Stewart Road, washed away by now. Reggie's cell number, of course, wasn't in Brad's cell phone list, and Kai had become so reliant on that feature that he had no idea what Reggie's number was.
He resorted to calling his own number, knowing he would be routed to voicemail since his phone wouldn't answer. It rang through, and Kai punched in the remote access code while his greeting played. He had one message. It was received less than five minutes ago.
'Kai, this is Reggie,' he said between wheezes. 'I sure as hell hope you get this, because that means you survived. We're running up Fort Stewart Road right now. It is a madhouse. People everywhere. I haven't been able to get in touch with Alaska. I assume you got through to them, or I would have heard from you. But I'll keep trying. Once I get to Wheeler, we should have some dedicated phone lines.'
Kai berated himself for leaving without making the transfer. He could only hope that Hawaii Civil Defense was in contact with the warning center in Palmer. For all he knew, they and the rest of the Pacific island nations were now blind to any new information because he had abandoned his post without even making sure someone else would pick up his responsibilities. His stomach twisted with guilt.
'I'll keep my phone on,' Reggie continued. 'The service has been spotty. I'm lucky I got through to your voicemail. If you're out there, give me a call and let me know you're okay. I hope I hear from you, boss.'
The message ended. Kai memorized the number rattled off by the caller ID and saved it in Brad's phone's list before dialing another number.
'Who are you calling?' Brad asked.
'Reggie,' Kai said. 'Maybe he can send us a chopper.'
The call immediately went to voicemail.
'Quick,' Kai said to Brad, 'what are the cross streets of this building?'
'It's hard to tell with all the streets gone. I know we're on Kalakaua.' He pointed in the direction of the mountains behind us. 'Lemon is that way. I think this might be Laka'laina running perpendicular.'
Lani came over, holding the walkie-talkie in front of her.
'Mom wants to talk to you.'
Kai motioned for Brad to take it. 'Tell her what we're doing and that we're all right.' He didn't have to add, 'for now.'
Reggie's voice came on, and Kai left the message.
'Reggie, this is Kai. If you get this in the next ten minutes, we are on top of a white ten-story condo building called the Seaside on the east end of Waikiki. We think the cross streets are Kalakaua and Laka'laina. If you get this, send a helicopter to come get us. And call me. I lost my cell phone, so I'm on Brad's.' Kai gave him the number and hung up.
'Do you think he'll be able to send one?' Teresa said.
'I don't know. But if he doesn't, we're going to have to try running for it.'
'Running for it?'
Kai forgot that Teresa didn't know anything about tsunamis.
'This wave will recede as the next trough in the series of tsunamis reaches us.'
'Series! You mean there are going to be more?'
She hadn't heard, and Kai didn't have time to cushion the news.
'We cannot stay on this building. We've got about 20 minutes before the next wave comes in and covers this condo.'
'How many more are there?'
'I don't know.' If Kai had made sure Reggie was in touch with Palmer, maybe he would have known for sure. 'At least two. Maybe more. We've got to leave one way or another.'
'How?'
'If a helicopter flies near us, we need to try to wave it down. If not, we'll go down the stairwell as the water ebbs. Once we reach the ground floor, we'll have 10 minutes before the next wave comes in.'
'How far can we get in ten minutes?'
