“Yeah?” Wyatt replied. They could hear him crying as he came down.
“Are you all right?”
“No!”
Paige quickened her pace upward, and Rachel followed. They met him on the twenty-third-floor landing. His eyes were red, his cheeks stained with tears.
“What’s the matter, honey?” Paige ran her hands over him, looking for injuries. “Are you hurt?”
Wyatt shook his head.
“Then what’s wrong?”
“I couldn’t find anyone,” Wyatt said between sobs.
“No one anywhere?” Rachel said.
“I swear, I looked all over. They’re all gone.”
He took out the walkie-talkie that Rachel had given him before the incident at the elevator.
“I even tried this. I couldn’t find anyone. I’m sorry!” He wailed, the experience too much for him. “I’m sorry! I tried!”
Paige held him to her. “It’s okay, sweetie. You did great.”
“They must have found a helicopter,” Rachel said.
“Why didn’t they wait for us?” Paige said, her voice pleading.
“I don’t know. Maybe they thought we didn’t make it.”
“So now we’re stranded?”
Paige was on the brink of hysterics. Rachel tried to soothe her.
“If they found one, we can too. We just have to let them know we’re here. Who knows? Maybe they’re planning on coming back.”
“So what do we do? We can’t carry Jerry.”
“We’ll have to go up there and try to flag a helicopter down. There’s nothing else we can do.”
A faint voice called from the walkie-talkie still in Wyatt’s hand.
“Rachel! Rachel! It’s Kai, are you there?”
Kai had stopped at the lobby of the boat building so that he could get at the dry pack. He lowered Lani and let her walk on her own. While Kai climbed the stairs of the apartment complex, he opened the bag to retrieve the walkie-talkie.
When he got it out, the walkie-talkie felt moist to the touch. He inspected the bag and found a tiny tear in the seam. It must have happened when he was battered by the wave. The bag wasn’t soaked inside, but it was damp. He didn’t bother looking at the photo album, the only thing he’d saved from his house. It was either intact or it wasn’t, and now wasn’t the time to see. The most important thing was the electronics. Kai opened the cell phone. The LCD display was cracked, another victim of debris impact. He tried calling 911, but there was no sound. It was useless.
Kai keyed the Talk button on the walkie-talkie.
“Rachel! Come in!”
He didn’t know if he was getting through because he couldn’t hear more than a crackling hiss. The voice that they had heard before sounded like a kid, so Kai wasn’t even sure whether they were getting the signal from Rachel or from someone else.
“Rachel! Rachel! It’s Kai, are you there?”
He listened carefully, trying to hold his breath as he climbed. The volume was turned up all the way. Then, loud and clear, Kai heard her voice.
“Kai, it’s me. Are you all right? How’s Lani?”
“We had a close shave, but she’s fine. Teresa, Mia, and Brad are okay too. But Jake, the boy you saw at the Grand Hawaiian? He didn’t make it.”
“Oh my God!”
“How are you?” he asked.
“I’m better now that I hear you,” she said, the relief in her voice palpable. “It’s been a little rough. I’m just glad you two are all right. When the other tower collapsed, I couldn’t—”
“What? The tower collapsed? You’re still at the hotel? I thought you would have caught a helicopter by now.”
“There were some people in trouble. It’s been crazy. We’re heading to the roof now. Where are you? Did you get out of Waikiki?”
“No,” Kai said. “It’s been crazy for us too. We’re about a mile from you. Of course, the tsunami has obliterated all the street signs, so I don’t know exactly where we are, but it’s a white thirty-story apartment complex. There’s a big boat sticking out of it, if that helps.”
“Okay. We’re on the roof now. I’m not sure if I see your building. I don’t see a boat sticking out.”
“You may not be able to from your angle. When we get to the top, I’ll see if we can wave to you.”
“Everyone else is gone on this building. They must have found a helicopter.”
“Can you see one to flag down?”
“I see a few,” Rachel said, “but they’re not close enough to see us.”
“We’re going to have the same problem. Listen, is anyone with you?”
“Yes, there are eight of us in all, including three children.”
“Eight? Jesus. Does anyone with you have a cell phone? I lost mine and Brad’s got smashed.”
A pause, and then: “Yes, Paige has a cell phone. We’ve tried 911 and can’t get anything.”
“Reggie left me a message earlier. You can try him.”
“What’s his number?”
It was in Brad’s now-smashed cell phone. Kai had a pretty good memory for numbers, but he couldn’t quite nail down the sequence Reggie had left in his message. He gave Rachel three variations he thought were close.
“Try all of those. It’s got to be one of them. See if he can find a free chopper.”
“Okay. I’ll call Reggie.”
“And, Rachel, the next one may be at least two hundred feet tall. Stay on the roof. Get a helicopter as soon as you can. If one tower has already fallen—”
“I know,” she said. “We all watched it collapse. None of us wants to stay here longer than we have to.”
“I’m so glad to hear your voice, honey.”
“Me too. I’ll radio back after I get Reggie.”
Kai had fallen behind the others as he talked to Rachel, so he sped up until he caught up to them on the twentieth floor. He filled them in as they continued trudging up the stairs.
When Kai opened the door to the roof, he expected to see another empty expanse of concrete, devoid of people. Instead, a couple stood at the edge of the roof, looking up at the sky. When the door banged into the wall, they turned. The woman, dressed in a stylish gray jogging suit, looked like someone in her forties who hoped that cosmetic surgery would keep her in her thirties. Her oversized breasts strained against her top, and her forehead showed the unmistakable rigidity of frequent Botox injections.
The man with her wore a shiny silk shirt and Italian slacks, more expensive than tasteful. His curly hair was too jet-black for his age, and he had the wiry build of a fitness buff. He strode over to Kai, pulling a rolling carryon suitcase behind him.
Kai smiled and said, “We’re glad to see that we’re not the only ones—”
The man interrupted him. “We were here first.”
Kai’s smile faltered. “What?”
“Are you deaf? I said, we were here first.”
Brad stopped next to Kai. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Brad said.
“It means that any helicopter that lands here is ours. You can ride along if there’s room.”
“Are you serious?” Teresa said. “Don’t even think about getting on a helicopter before these girls do.”
“They have kids, for God’s sake,” the woman said. “Be human for once.”
The man looked at Mia and Lani and then grudgingly said, “The girls can go first. Then us.”
Brad jabbed his thumb at the man. “Who
“Chuck is my soon-to-be ex-husband,” the woman said with venom. “We were out shopping when we heard
