It took Kai a minute to catch his breath after the shock of seeing Lani. The news report had gone on to another topic, but the video of her and Mia blithely kayaking, obviously unaware of the danger, still played in his mind’s eye. Fear gripped him, but he controlled it. It simmered just below the surface, propelling his actions. He leapt to his feet, certain about what he had to do next. “We’re leaving!” Kai said, herding everyone toward the door. “Reggie, how long would it take to transfer what we need to a laptop?”
“I’m way ahead of you. I’ve already copied everything over the network.”
“Good. You take it.”
“Who’s leaving?” said Lara Pimalo.
“You, me, everybody,” Kai said.
“But you said we have thirty minutes left.”
“We
“It sounds like we’re not going together,” said Reggie.
“We’re not,” Kai said, looking at Brad. “How fast could you get us to Waikiki on that thing?”
Brad raised an eyebrow, then nodded. Going after Lani was the only thing that would get Kai on that motorcycle; it was the only way to get through the traffic quickly. “You know how I drive. We’ll get there in time.”
Kai had made the decision to leave his post quickly, but that didn’t mean it had been easy. It was his duty versus his daughter, and his daughter would win every time.
“You’re going after Lani on that crotch rocket in this traffic?” Reggie said, sounding incredulous. “That’s suicide!”
“Maybe.” He just didn’t see any other option.
“We could try calling someone—”
Kai cut him off quickly. “No. With the way the phone lines are tied up, it might take half the time just contacting someone, let alone convincing them to go find her. I’m not taking that chance.”
“Then I can just go and you can stay with Reggie,” Brad said.
“That won’t work, and I don’t have time to explain why. It has to be both of us.”
Reggie nodded in agreement. “It’s what I’d do. But what about the tsunami data? What about warning the other Pacific islands? We still don’t know for sure if there are more waves coming.”
“I’m leaving that in good hands. You’re in charge now.”
“Me?” Reggie shook his head, his eyes wide at the thought of the responsibility. His face was two shades paler than a moment before. “But I don’t want—”
“Listen, I know I’m abandoning you at a critical time, and I’m sorry. But I need to do this.”
“Maybe Harry should take over. I know he’s on Maui, but—”
“Which is why you need to do it. Who knows what the situation on Maui is like? They may not even have phone service after the first wave hits. Come on, Reggie. You know as much as I do—probably more. What’s the problem?”
“I didn’t make the right call on the tsunami warning.”
“Neither did I, at first.”
“But if you hadn’t been here, we’d just be issuing the first warning now. What if I’m wrong again?”
“You did exactly what you were trained to do. It could have gone either way. Look, you’ll do fine. I wouldn’t leave if I didn’t trust you to do the job.” Kai honestly didn’t know if that was true—he might have left in any case— but he did trust Reggie, so it didn’t matter. “Use Wheeler Field as your base. You’re still going to have to interpret the data coming in.”
Reggie still looked like he had eaten a live roach, but reluctantly nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
“I’m going to be on my cell phone. You go with Ms. Pimalo. We were going to have to switch control over to Palmer at some point anyway. Might as well be now. You keep in contact with them and let me know when you get new readings. You’ve got my number.”
The West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, would continue to get all the same readings. They would be warning the west coast of the United States of the danger by now, even though the size of the waves would be diminished by a factor of ten once they went as far as California. At least they would have the hours of warning that Hawaii didn’t get.
“Should we do the transition before we go?” Reggie asked.
“There’s not enough time,” Kai said. “I’ll call Palmer on the way and tell them you’re the man now. Come on! Let’s go!”
The five of them scrambled out of the PTWC. By now Bilbo was excited by all the commotion and barked as he followed them out. At the door, Kai stopped to take one last look at the ops room, knowing it would be the last time he saw it.
“At least we’ll get the chance to build the next one in a better location,” Reggie said.
Pimalo and her cameraman ran to their truck. Reggie said, “Don’t leave yet,” and sprinted to his house. Kai assumed he wanted to rescue a few mementos, and he didn’t blame him. Kai sprinted to his house too. Bilbo came running after him.
As Kai reached the front door, he didn’t know what he was doing. He wasn’t thinking that clearly. He just knew he had to take something with him. He couldn’t let everything in his family’s life disappear.
Kai threw open the door, ran in, and stopped, considering all the things he could and couldn’t take with him. Electronics, computers, jewelry, and other tangible objects of value didn’t occur to him. Those weren’t the things he wanted. In that moment, he knew he could only choose one, maybe two objects that he could take.
Of course, they had souvenirs from vacations they had taken. Valuable antiques that had been passed down through both Rachel and Kai’s families, like his father’s medals from the Vietnam War, a silver set Rachel’s mother had given her, an Etruscan vase they had found at a garage sale that had turned out to be worth thousands of dollars, Kai’s old baseball card collection. All of them were meaningful and valuable to him, but each of them was also too big and bulky to carry.
The only things that he considered truly irreplaceable were the photos from their life. The old photos of his parents when they were young and in love. Rachel’s family photos from years ago. Their wedding. Lani’s baby photos. The good times on holidays. That’s when Kai understood what was really important to him. Of all the memories in the house, photos were the only things he wanted to keep.
Unfortunately, they had boxes and boxes of old photos. There was no way he could take them all. Kai hurried over and pulled out one of their family albums, the one they looked at the most. He gazed longingly at the rest and felt himself holding back tears because he wouldn’t be able to take them.
Kai made his way back to the door and came to a halt when he saw the photos they had hung on the wall near the kitchen. One was an eight-by-ten wedding photo of him and Rachel. She looked beautiful in her beaded white dress, and both of them beamed with happiness. It always reminded him of their early days together: their introduction at the University of Washington Bookstore while they stood in line to sell their used textbooks; their first date at a comedy club; the awkward proposal on a Thanksgiving trip to see her parents when Kai popped the question on the plane because he couldn’t wait for the candlelight dinner he had planned.
The other photo was a candid picture of the three of them on vacation at Disneyland. When Lani was born a little more than a year into their marriage, complications during the delivery made it impossible for Rachel to have more children. But the news didn’t discourage them. In fact, it brought them even closer together. As soon as Rachel and Kai finished grad school and started making money, their major indulgence was to take yearly trips that they could share as a family.
Like many people, their favorite destination was Disneyland. The photo showed all three of them wearing Mickey Mouse ears and laughing, childlike in their disregard for the camera. They looked like one of those photos that you would see in a frame at the store. It wasn’t staged. It just showed what a great time they had had.
Kai took both photos off the wall and smashed the glass against the counter. He wrenched the pictures out of
