and the airman pulled them out of the way.
Teresa grabbed Kai, who now had Mia on his back.
“Be careful,” she said.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got her.”
“Okay. I’ll take Lani with me.”
Kai looked at his daughter. He saw no fear, only determination. “I can do it, Dad,” she said.
Kai’s thoughts flashed through everything she’d accomplished today—towing Mia to safety, coming up with the idea for how to use the raft, showing such stamina after nearly drowning—and realized she was right.
“I know you can,” he said. “Now, go!”
Using the wide rooftop rack as a brace, Teresa and Lani pulled themselves over the Humvee’s roof.
Kai stole a quick look behind him. Chuck, who was futilely chasing the plane, slipped in the muck and fell. As he pushed himself up on his knees, he turned to see a wall of water three hundred feet high tower over him, blocking the midday sun. Chuck raised his arms as if he were Moses trying to part the Red Sea, and then he was absorbed by the wall as it surged onto the runway. He was gone.
Kai, numbed by the day’s experiences, couldn’t bring himself to feel sorry for Chuck.
Once Teresa and Lani were on the hood, Kai clambered over the Humvee’s roof, pulling Mia sloppily with him. Holding Teresa’s hand, Lani jumped onto the plane’s cargo door, where she grabbed the airman’s outstretched arm. She tottered for a second and then collapsed with Teresa to the deck, out of harm’s way. Kai breathed a sigh of relief.
The airman frantically waved to Kai, so he knew there was little time left before the C-130 would have to take off. He stood and hoisted Mia onto his back. Even with the plane blocking the wind, the current of air was strong enough to push him to the side, and he misplaced his foot on an edge of the hood. He heard Teresa’s scream faintly over the rush of air and the airplane’s engines.
Mia tilted her body to the side, helping Kai right himself before he fell. With a last burst of adrenaline, he leaned toward the airplane and made a dash across the hood. He leapt onto the cargo floor, and the airman caught him.
Kai retained his footing and passed Mia to Teresa. He grabbed a strap that the airman handed to him and spun around to see what Brad had planned.
The tsunami was so close to their flank now that, with the tail of the aircraft blocking Kai’s view, he couldn’t see the top of it unless he looked straight back. The solid mass of water dwarfed the Humvee.
Brad was talking into the radio transmitter. He had a big smile on his face, but it belied the sadness in his eyes. The plane pulled away from the Humvee. That was his plan all along. Kai locked eyes with Brad and shook his head.
“Don’t do this,” he mouthed, knowing that Brad would never be able to hear him.
Brad pointed at Kai and gave him a thumbs-up. As Kai continued to stare at him, the plane lifted into the air. He could see Brad’s smile grow even bigger when he saw the plane take flight. That was Kai’s last image of Brad— smiling, his eyes shining with tears—as the tsunami overtook him and swallowed the Humvee.
They had barely gained the required three hundred feet before the tsunami passed underneath them by only a few yards, the turbulent air causing the plane to buck. The wave was so close that Kai tasted the salty spray.
“Are you Kai?” the airman on the plane asked.
Kai nodded dumbly, completely drained.
The airman handed Kai the headset.
“The captain wants to talk to you.”
Kai put the headset on.
“Yes?”
“Kai? This is Captain Wainwright. Your brother told me that it was more important for you to get on the plane than him. I talked to him right before the end. He had a message for you. He said, quote, ‘Kai, don’t worry about me. I’m not afraid of the water anymore. Take care of my niece for me. I love you, brother.’ End quote.”
Captain Wainwright paused, but Kai didn’t have anything to say.
“I’m very sorry for your loss,” he said.
“Me too,” Kai said, and tore the headset off.
He sagged to the deck of the aircraft, and for the last time that day, he cried.
FIFTY-EIGHT
When the C-130 landed at Wheeler, Denise and Stan went their own ways, leaving Kai and Teresa to find treatment for the injuries that Tom, Lani, and Mia had sustained. They were in the same circumstance as thousands of others who crowded around the edges of the runway tarmac. Wheeler had its own small oil power plant, so it was self-sufficient in case of island power outages. With all of the coastal power plants wiped out, it was one of the few places on Oahu that still had electricity.
Displaced residents and tourists from all over Oahu had converged on the air base as a safe haven. Thirty- five jets had been forced to land because they didn’t have enough fuel to return to the mainland. They packed every bit of spare concrete at the air field, including a long-abandoned runway. Since the base didn’t normally accommodate airliners, there were no motorized stairs or walkways for the planes to unload. Most sat there still full of passengers, while others had disgorged using their emergency slides.
Tripler Army Medical Center had rapidly filled to capacity with patients requiring use of its trauma center, so all other injuries and illnesses were routed to a temporary triage center set up in a hangar at Wheeler. That’s where Kai took his daughter for treatment.
Kai stopped, speechless, as he took in the enormity of what had happened. Before him was an image he had seen previously only on TV. Row upon row of people were being tended to by dozens of men and women, some in uniform, some in scrubs, some in civilian clothing. Because the disaster had happened so fast, only a limited supply of cots was available. Most patients lay on blankets or stretchers on the hangar floor. Many of the victims moaned or wailed, some from injuries, others from the mental anguish of their loss.
An Army lieutenant directed them to a second hangar, where they saw a similar scene of woe. A nurse found an empty space for the children to lie down and gave them some blankets. When she found out that Teresa was a doctor, she took her aside, out of earshot of the kids, who dropped to the floor, exhausted from the ordeal.
After a minute, Teresa returned. “They’re short of doctors,” she said.
“I’m not surprised,” Kai said. Hundreds of people lined the floor in this hangar alone. He could only guess how many more there were.
“I need to go. Lani will be okay. I don’t think there’s any permanent damage. Tom’s shoulder will need to be checked out by an orthopedist. And Mia needs an MRI, but that won’t happen until we can get back to the mainland. The nurse said nobody has any spare clothes yet, so we’ll just have to dry out until we can get some.”
Tom massaged his shoulder, but he seemed more intent on looking around the hangar.
“When you find someone in authority,” Kai said, “let them know that Tom is looking for his parents.” Then he realized that even after all he had gone through with the boy, Kai still didn’t know one important detail about him.
“Tom,” Kai said. “What’s your last name?”
“Medlock,” Tom replied, understanding why he was being asked. “My parents are Joseph and Belinda Medlock.”
“I’ve got it,” Teresa said. “We’ll find them, Tom.” More quietly, she said to Kai, “Listen, I’m just … Oh, God … I mean, Rachel …” Before she could finish, she burst into tears and grasped Kai in a hug. After a few moments she pulled away. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Teresa took a breath to compose herself, then made her way toward the front of the hangar. Kai turned his
