the distraction. After Stan's plunge, they had to constantly make detours around obvious holes, standing water, and wreckage. Their progress slowed considerably.
As promised, the C-130 swooped down and, from Kai's vantage point, looked like it was landing on the water itself. It came to a stop, still far in the distance, and its rear cargo door lowered.
The transport had just entered Hawaiian airspace and was headed to Wheeler when the pilot, a Captain Martin Wainwright, heard Stan's plea over the radio. Wainwright had gotten a bright idea and volunteered to help.
It was their cargo that was particularly relevant: three Humvees headed for Pearl Harbor. And with the cargo door fully lowered, that's exactly what was disgorged from the back of the plane.
'This is a dumb idea,' said Chuck. 'I bet that pilot could have found a helicopter if he'd tried harder.'
'Why don't you shut up?' said Brad. 'I'm sick of your bitching. If you had been smart enough not to go back to your apartment, you wouldn't be out here with us.'
'I don't have to shut up. I can say anything I want.'
'Well, why don't you say thanks for me not tossing you out of that helicopter?'
After inching down the cargo ramp for what seemed like an eternity, the Humvee roared off in their direction. With all the debris on the ground, it would still take a few minutes for the Humvee to get here. They would be cutting it close.
The cargo ramp lifted, and the plane pivoted so that it would be ready for take off.
While Brad and Chuck verbally duked it out, Denise came closer to Kai.
'I'm sorry about my husband,' Denise said. 'He's a jerk.'
'I noticed,' Kai replied.
'I can't believe I've stayed with him so long. Listen, thanks for trying to save us. If it wasn't for you, we'd still be on that building.'
'You're welcome. But that might have been better for you.'
'We both know that building was going to collapse at any time.'
She was right. The apartment was a heap of trash by now.
'You know, you look really familiar,' Denise said. 'Have I seen you somewhere?'
'Maybe. My name's Kai. Kai Tanaka. I'm the director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. Or was, I guess.'
'Right!' she said. 'I saw you on TV this morning.'
'Wait a minute!' said Chuck, overhearing their conversation. 'I saw you too. Whatever they were paying you, it was too much.'
Brad grabbed Chuck from behind and wrenched him to a stop.
'If it wasn't for him,' Brad said, 'nobody would have had any time to evacuate.'
'Get out of my face,' Chuck said. 'He screwed up, and now we're running for our lives because of it.'
'He lost more than you'll ever know today.'
'Well, he deserves it.'
Anger flared across Brad's face, and without another word, he belted Chuck in the jaw. Chuck went down hard on his back. He lay there stunned for a moment and then picked himself up. None of the others moved a muscle to help him.
When Chuck was fully standing, he continued looking at the ground. Apparently, he was a big mouth with nothing to back it up. Kai understood that the guy was scared, but that didn't mean he had to like him.
With Mia still clinging to his back, Brad walked to within three inches of Chuck's face and loomed over him. He had him by a good four inches and 30 pounds.
'Now, you're going to keep your mouth shut, or we're going to leave your ass out here. Got it?'
Chuck didn't look at him, but he didn't say anything either. He got it.
'Come on,' Kai said. 'The farther we run, the sooner we'll be on that Humvee.'
In a minute, the Humvee was less than a half mile from them. It closed in on them at high speed that bordered on reckless. The mud was no match for its huge tires and ground clearance, so the driver took as straight a line towards them as the debris on the air field would allow, instead of following what was left of the airstrip concrete. Splashes of water periodically shot into the air as it pounded through large pools.
'I know we're in a hurry,' Brad said, 'but that guy better watch out…'
Before he could finish the sentence, the Humvee nose-dived into another pool. This time, a massive plume sprayed 20 feet high in front of the vehicle, and it came to a dead stop, its front submerged in a rut three feet deep. The engine sputtered and quit.
They all skidded to a stop, their mouths agape at seeing their only way to safety literally dead in the water.
Chapter 55
Brad raised his hands to the sky and shouted.
'OK, God! You hate us! We get the point already!'
Kai sprinted to the Humvee. It was one of the models that looked like an enormous pickup truck, with the back of the Humvee open to the air. The driver's door swung open. An airman in a green uniform stumbled out and fell into the pool. He was the only one in the vehicle. He clambered out of the hole, his hand over his forehead.
Brad and Kai got there first and let Mia lean on Lani.
'Are you all right?' Kai said.
'Yes, sir. Hit my head on the steering wheel. Guess I should have worn the seat belt. No airbag.'
He lifted his hand, and Kai could see a nasty gash above his right eye. The blood flowed down over his eye.
'That'll make a great scar,' Brad said.
Chuck and Stan came to stop behind them, followed by Tom, Denise, and Teresa.
'Are you the pilot?' Chuck asked, even though the pilot was obviously still in the plane.
'Loadmaster. Airman Darrin Peabody. Sorry about crashing it.'
'How old are you?' Chuck asked. '13?'
'I'm 20, sir.'
'Great! They sent a teenager to save us.'
'I said shut your mouth,' Brad said, and Chuck did. 'It's all right, Airman. Stan over there took a header a few minutes ago.'
'I'd love to introduce you to everyone,' Kai said, climbing into the Humvee's driver seat, 'but we need to get out of here right now.' Peabody was in no condition to drive.
'Oh no!' Brad said. 'Move over. You drive like an old lady.'
Kai had to admit that Brad was the better driver of the two of them, so he got back out.
'What's the best way to get this thing unstuck?' he asked Peabody.
'Jeez, I don't know. I've only driven these things a couple of times, and that was just to get it on the plane. My job is to make sure it's loaded right.'
'Never mind,' Brad said, putting it into gear and starting it up. 'It's like any other truck, just a lot bigger.'
The engine wasn't entirely submerged, or they might really have been out of luck. The front of the Humvee rested against the edge of the hole, which looked like a less solid part of a taxiway that had been stripped away from the concrete where it met the runway. The back wheels were up on the remaining concrete, so the truck sat at a steep angle.
Everyone stepped back, and Brad threw it in reverse. The four-wheel-drive bit at the pavement under the back wheels and the mud below the front. Water and mud sprayed high into the air in front of the vehicle. He put it in first, with the same sprinkler effect in the other direction. The Humvee rolled slightly back and forth but didn't make any progress.
