'Oh my God! One of the elevator doors must have come open. Come on, Jerry! We need to grab on to something or we'll be sucked right out of the hotel.'
Even though the elevator Jerry had been in was an express, the other two next to it were not, so that part of the shaft had doors at every floor below.
Rachel pulled Jerry's shirt. He gracelessly thrashed after her. The tug toward the open door strengthened. Their only chance was to get to the shaft's emergency ladder before they were whipped through the door and out the lobby window. Rachel had picked up enough being married to a tsunami scientist to know that being caught in open water during a tsunami was deadly.
If she had let go of Jerry, she could have made it to the ladder easily. But she wouldn't release her grip. There was no way he could make it on his own.
The light wasn't bright, but it was enough to see that there was only a few feet separating them from the open elevator door. With a final kick, Rachel lashed out at the ladder with one hand and latched on to it. Jerry's shirt became taut with the strain, but he made one final kick as well and grabbed on to a rung just as the water surface broke through the elevator door.
They steadied themselves on the ladder as the water rushed out with the sound of Niagara Falls.
'Are you OK?' Sheila yelled.
'We're alive!' That was as good as it could get at that point.
After another few seconds, the water reached an equilibrium with the open door, and the extra water on that floor rushed back through. Rachel could now read the floor number on the outside of the door.
'We're at the eleventh floor.'
'Can you climb back up?'
'Jerry's going to be lucky to be able to climb out right here. You'll have to come down and help me. Hold on, Jerry.'
Jerry nodded hazily. He was in no condition to do much more than wait there.
It took a few minutes for the others to climb back out to the 16th floor and make it down to them.
Jerry stumbled down the ladder, guided by Rachel. Hands snaked from just outside the door to grab on to him and pull him inside, where he collapsed on the floor of the elevator lobby.
Rachel crawled out, exhausted, and sat on the floor to catch her breath.
She looked at Paige, who was comforting her children.
'Paige,' Rachel said between gasps, 'I'm so sorry about Bill.'
'You should be.'
'What?'
'It's your fault!' Paige said, spitting her words at Rachel. 'If it wasn't for you, I never would have let us try to cross that rickety bridge. If we had stayed on the other side, he'd be alive right now.'
'Paige, I…'
A massive cracking sound came from the direction of the floor-to-ceiling elevator lobby window that faced the Akamai tower. It started as a few punctuated snaps and pops, but quickly merged into a grinding cacophony of agitated metal and concrete that masked the sound of the rushing water.
Except for Jerry, they all raced to the window to see what was happening. Dust began to puff out all over the building, as if its seams were popping. The scene was instantly recognizable to anyone who had seen the events of 9/11 unfold on TV.
Rachel turned to the others and yelled, 'Get back!'
They dragged Jerry to the end of the lobby as they saw the Akamai tower, weakened by the impact of the Western Sea barge, collapse into a pile of rubble. With horror, they watched a building that just an hour before had seemed so solid-virtually indestructible, built to withstand hurricane force winds, a state-of-the-art 21st century edifice to modern engineering-crumble in front of their eyes. And the worst part was that it was a mirror image of the building they were standing in.
Chapter 44
Only three hours before, Kai's biggest problem had been that he had messed up their dinner plans. At the time, he thought it would ruin an otherwise perfectly nice holiday. Now, he longed for such petty matters to dominate his time.
He dropped to his knees and cradled Lani's head in his palm, his terror rising when he saw water spill from her mouth. Panic seized him.
'Teresa, what do I do?' he cried out, the desperation in his voice verging on hysteria.
Without thinking, Kai repositioned Lani's top, which had gone embarrassingly askew. That meager gesture to protect her dignity only magnified his helplessness. Despite his scientific training and his extensive education, he had never bothered to learn CPR.
'Cut me loose!' Teresa yelled, struggling to untie the rope that encumbered her.
Kai sliced through the main rope linking her to the girder, not bothering with the loops still dangling around her midsection.
Teresa bent over Lani, feeling for a pulse.
'How long has she been out?'
'I don't know. She was fine before I went over to inflate the raft. Two, maybe three minutes. Maybe less.'
'I knew something like this would happen!' Brad said, his voice cracking under the strain.
'Will you shut up!' Kai barked at him. He pointed the knife at Brad. Kai didn't have time for Brad's panic as well as his own. 'Do something useful.'
Brad took the knife and began to cut himself and the others loose.
'She's got a pulse,' Teresa said, 'but it's almost gone.'
Without another word, Teresa tilted Lani's head back and cleared her tongue, making sure nothing obstructed her throat, then turned her head to the side to drain any water left in her mouth. Once the last of the water gurgled out, Teresa leaned over and began to force air into Lani's lungs using mouth-to-mouth.
After two deep breaths, she pulled back and turned Lani's head again. She pushed on Lani's chest, forcing more water to gush out.
'She took in a lot of water. We've got to clear it.'
Kai was a wreck. There wasn't anything he could do. He never felt more useless. He simply held his daughter's hand and called her name.
'Lani! Come on! Lani! Can you hear me? Wake up!'
Suddenly, Teresa reared back. 'We lost her pulse!'
Instead of slamming her fist onto Lani's chest as Kai had seen done on TV, Teresa carefully placed the heel of her hand on Lani's sternum and rhythmically pressed firmly but gently. After every fifteen beats, she breathed twice into Lani's mouth.
'Come on, Lani!' Teresa huffed as she pressed. 'We've come this far.'
Kai felt the tears streaming from his eyes, mingling with the salt water still dripping from his hair.
'Please, Lani,' Kai said. 'Don't do this to me. Don't leave me.'
As if answering him, Lani made a slight wheeze. Her eyes fluttered open. Then a small cough became a fit. She turned over gasping for breath. But Kai couldn't have been happier to see her wracked with coughs. She was alive.
Some of the water must have also gotten in her stomach. She vomited about a quart of water amid the coughs. After the fit was over, Kai sat her up and gripped her shoulders.
'Feel better?' he said.
She nodded. 'What happened?' Her voice was still a hoarse croak and talking started another round of coughs. Kai wiped her mouth on his shirt tail.
