kids had let us leave when I wanted to, we wouldn't be in this mess.'
'This is Jerry's fault!' Sheila said. 'He's the idiot who wanted us to stay.'
'If we had taken the stairs like I wanted to,' Jerry said, 'you wouldn't be stuck down there!'
'Shut up!' Rachel said. The last thing she needed was a bickering family. 'What we'll do is wait to see how high the water gets. If it comes into the elevator cab, you'll float up and we can pull you out. If it starts to go down before then, we'll have to figure out something else.'
The water reached the bottom of the cab.
'It's coming in!' Sheila said.
But the water didn't stop rising. The level crept up the side of the cab.
'How high is this going to get?' Jerry said.
'I don't know,' Rachel replied.
'What if it comes over the top?
'I don't know,' she repeated. 'Do you have a better suggestion?'
He shook his head meekly.
The water was over three-quarters up the exterior of the elevator cab, but the water inside was still only two feet high, trickling in slowly through the doors.
Paige appeared at the doorway of the elevator with Tyler, Hannah, and Ashley.
'Paige! Thank God you made it! Where's Bill?'
Paige said nothing, but the stream of tears running down her face said it all.
'I'm sorry, Paige. I'm really sorry, but we need your help here.'
But Paige could only stand there, crying. The children started crying, too.
'OK,' Rachel said. 'You stay up there. There are three people down here. You can help pull them up to the lobby.'
The water kept rising. When it reached the top of the elevator, the water inside was only three feet high, still too shallow to float in. The sea water poured over the edge of the cab's roof and across the flat surface, where it lapped at Rachel's feet, drained through the emergency trap door, and filled the elevator at three times the previous rate. The rush of falling water was not loud enough to mask the screams of the two women trapped inside.
Chapter 42
When the second wave hit the Moana Tower of the Grand Hawaiian Hotel, the sway of the building had caused a minor panic in the people still on top. The evacuation had been going smoothly, with a helicopter arriving every five minutes to pick up new passengers. At one point, an Army Blackhawk helicopter was able to pick up 15 of them, including the men who were the most disabled. Now just a handful were left.
Max Walsh leaned over the edge and saw the surface of the water flowing past the 15th floor. Rachel had not come back, and they had heard the collapse of the skybridge.
Another tourist helicopter landed. It had enough room for the rest of them, including Bob Lateen, who had insisted he remain until everyone else was gone.
'Adrian,' Max said to Adrian Mendel, the remaining staffer, as they hauled Lateen into the chopper, 'tell them to wait for a minute.' He hopped out onto the roof.
'Where are you going?' Mendel asked.
'Rachel should have been back by now. I'm going to check the stairs.'
Max flung the door open and looked down the stairwell. He couldn't make out any movement between him and the water 100 feet below. He yelled down.
'Hello! Rachel! Are you there?'
No response. But the sound from the helicopter could have masked an answer. He closed the door, ran down two floors, and tried again.
'Rachel! Are you there? Anyone!'
Still nothing. Surely if Rachel had made it, she would be climbing the stairs right now.
Adrian opened the rooftop door.
'Max, the pilot says they've got lots of other people still to rescue. He needs to go now.'
With a heavy sigh, Max went back out onto the roof and got in the helicopter with Adrian.
'What happened to Rachel?' Adrian asked.
'I don't know. She must have gotten caught in it. I shouldn't have let her go. OK, pilot. There's no one left here.'
They took off, leaving the empty roof behind them.
When Kai saw the ruined car jack, he was crushed. It meant another trip down to find a jack in another car. Of course there was no guarantee they would find one, and they would have the same time crunch getting it back here and getting Brad and Mia out before the building either collapsed or a third wave came in.
By this time, the water had reached its peak height. Kai could feel the water stop its flow away from the ocean and begin its inevitable slide back where it came from. Flooding Honolulu to a depth of 150 feet had taken less than three minutes.
Kai felt something pulling on him. It was Lani. She grabbed his hand and pointed it and the dive light in the direction of the jack. She obviously couldn't tell that Kai had already seen it.
He turned the light on his own face and nodded his understanding of the situation. But then she did something completely unexpected; she patted the life raft and then pointed at Kai.
He shook his head, thinking that she wanted to use the raft to float up to the surface. She focused the light herself and made a wide gesture with her hands, mimicking the inflation of the raft. She then pointed at the girder and pretended to push it up.
Of course! Leave it to a kid to think outside the box. Kai had been so fixated on their previous solution that he hadn't considered alternatives. She wasn't saying that they should use the raft as a boat. She was suggesting using the raft as a jack.
Kai raised his hand and nodded. He needed a minute to think about whether it would work.
The raft was attached to a CO2 cartridge, so it would inflate itself in seconds. Kai focused the light on the side of the raft. It was rated to hold eight people. That meant at least 1600 pounds of displacement on the surface. Underwater, it was at least twice that. If it was placed in the right location, it might be enough to lift the girder.
But there were also great risks with that plan. First, they'd only get one chance; if it wasn't placed properly, the raft would inflate, pop out of position, and float right out of the building. Second, there was no guarantee that it wouldn't burst if it was pinned in one spot by the girder. To make matters worse, the inflation would not be controlled. Once Kai pulled the trigger, the raft would inflate completely. If the girder fell off or the raft exploded, the beam might fall on any one of them, including Brad and Mia. They would be pushing their luck.
The water tugged Kai toward the ocean. The ebb tide of the tsunami had begun. They only had a few minutes left before the water finished flowing back into the bay, leaving them high and dry. Once the water was gone, the raft would be ineffective. If he was going to try it, it would have to be now.
The building groaned under the changing motion of the water, indicating that it only had a few minutes of life left. It wasn't going to stand up to a third wave. The raft was their only option. Kai had to take the chance so they could get everyone out of this building as fast as possible once the water was gone.
Kai pulled out the dive knife and sawed carefully at the rope tied around the life raft, making sure not to nick the raft. Even a pin hole would make the process futile.
It took him about a minute to cut through. By that time, the pull of the water had strengthened, and Kai wasn't expecting the raft to come loose so easily. It dropped from his hands and threatened to float away.
Lani had been watching him, and her hands shot out to catch the raft. Kai stuffed the knife back in its sheath and took it from her.
