The Tsunami Countdown

by Boyd Morrison

  “Traffic?” he said, moving into the family room to get a little privacy.

  “As usual.”

  “You sound tired.”

  “I didn’t get much sleep last night. Teresa and I were up late talking. It’s great to have her and Mia in town, but I’m going to be exhausted by the end of the week. Is she there?”

  “I think she’s getting into her swimsuit.”

  “Ask her to give me a call on her way to the beach.”

  “I will. So Lani had a surprise for me this morning.”

  “About the scuba camp? I think it’s a fantastic idea.”

  “You do?”

  “Sure. Why not?”

  “Because she’s thirteen. You can’t even get certified until you’re fifteen.”

  “It sounds like a wonderful program. Master instructors, top-notch facilities, lots of fun activities. One of the mothers in Lani’s class raved about it.”

  Kai didn’t bother to ask which mother. He wouldn’t know her. Taking the post of assistant director at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had been a great career move for him, but he hadn’t counted on how demanding it would be. Including Kai, there were only eight geophysicists on staff, and the PTWC had to be monitored by two of them twenty-four hours a day. That meant they regularly had to pull twelve-hour shifts. Kai had been so busy that he’d participated in only one parent-teacher conference.

  “Lani has to have something to look forward to,” Rachel said. “She’s been here nine months now and hasn’t made any friends yet.”

  “What do you mean? She hangs out with her soccer friends all the time.”

  “Getting pizza after the game with her teammates doesn’t count. In the whole time we’ve been here, she hasn’t once brought somebody back home. Now that she’s with Mia, I see how she used to be in Seattle. And being in that compound hasn’t helped.”

  “Please don’t call it a compound.” Kai hated that word.

  It was difficult to recruit geophysicists who were willing to spend that many hours on-site, so to sweeten the deal, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—better known as NOAA, the parent organization of the PTWC—built houses on the Center grounds that some of the staff lived in for free. As assistant director, Kai had been given one of the houses. The biggest perk was that it was only three blocks from the beach, but the run-down neighborhood around the complex wasn’t safe enough for Lani to explore on her own.

  “She feels isolated there,” Rachel said.

  “Maybe we can do more family outings, like the luau tonight.”

  “Kai, your heart’s in the right place, but she needs to learn some independence. She isn’t going to be your little girl forever.”

  “Oh, yes she will.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Yeah,” Kai said with a sigh, “I know. But I still think she should wait to do this scuba camp until next year.”

  “Listen, I’m about to go into the garage, so you’re going to lose me. Just think about it, and we’ll talk more this evening. All right?”

  “Okay. I’ll think about it.”

  With a click, Rachel was gone.

  “So you got the spiel, huh?” a voice behind him said.

  Kai turned to see Teresa Gomez. Like the girls, she was already dressed in a tank top and sarong over her bikini.

  “Oh yeah,” Kai said. “The hard sell.”

  “What’s the verdict?”

  “Still thinking about it.”

  “Good luck with that. I lasted about five minutes.” She yawned and stretched her arms. “I need to mainline some more coffee.”

  Kai followed her back into the kitchen. Lani and Mia stopped giggling and looked at him expectantly.

  “Still thinking about it,” he said, eliciting a groan. He handed the coffeepot to Teresa. “I heard you stayed up late with Rachel to continue our conversation after I went to bed.”

  “She can’t hear enough about my residency program. Sometimes I think she’s the one who should have gone to med school.” As she filled her mug, Teresa looked at the TV. A TransPac Airlines logo was next to the anchor-woman’s shoulder. “I hope to God it’s sunny today. If I came all the way from Seattle for more rain, I’ll curl up into the fetal position.”

  “Don’t worry. The report earlier said no rain is projected, so you and the girls should have great weather today.”

  “If it’s your day off, grab your towel and come with us.”

  “Day off? I wish. I’m on call today. I have to give a tour this morning, and there’s a paper I’m submitting to the Science of Tsunami Hazards next month that I’ve got to finish.”

  Teresa appraised Kai’s outfit and began to laugh. “I forgot. We’re in Hawaii.”

  He looked down at his clothes and realized why she was laughing. To a Seattleite like Teresa, the flowered shirt, khakis, and tennis shoes he was wearing might seem like weekend wear, but it was perfectly normal office attire for him.

  “This is formal wear for me,” he said with a laugh. “Where are you guys boarding?”

  “Well, I wanted to go somewhere quiet, but no, I got vetoed!” She jabbed a finger at the girls. “So it’s Waikiki. While they’re swimming, I plan to sit my butt down and do absolutely nothing.”

  Kai winced. Because of the holiday, Waikiki would be packed not only with tourists but with locals as well. May was a big month for travelers, and three-day weekends were always popular with American tourists from the mainland. Almost fifty thousand visitors stayed in Honolulu at any one time, and Waikiki claimed most of them. Teresa would be hard pressed to find any peace on the beach.

  “I think they just want to check out the eye candy,” she said.

  “We do not!” said Lani.

  But Mia at the same time said “Yeah!” and Lani turned red.

  Kai tried to help Teresa out. “Why don’t you go to Kahana Valley? There’s a great beach there.”

  “It’s boring,” Lani said. “If I finally get to go to a beach, I want to go to a good one.”

  “What do you mean? We go to our beach all the time.”

  “Yeah, right. Only when you’re with me. What’s the use of living three blocks from the beach if I have to wait for you to take me?”

  “Here we go,” Kai said. To Teresa: “One time, I saw some kids smoking dope down at the little park that leads to the beach. Now she’s mad that I won’t let her go on her own.”

  “If I didn’t live in this compound, I might have someone to go with.”

  “Why does everyone call it that?” Kai said.

  “I’m sure it’s not because of the barbed wire and security gate,” Lani said, her sarcasm reaching new heights. “Come on, Mia. Let’s get our stuff.”

  They ran off to Lani’s bedroom.

  “Good God,” Teresa said. “You know the attitudes are only going to get worse as the day goes on. I’ll pay you a thousand dollars to switch places with me.”

  Kai laughed and shook his head. “No way. I like having the easy job.” Kai handed her the keys to his Jeep. “When do you think you’ll be back?”

  “If I can endure it, I’m thinking around five. That way I’ll have plenty of time to recover before the luau tonight.”

  “Perfect,” Kai said. “The boogie boards are in the garage.”

  “We’ll get them!” yelled Lani from the other room.

  As he and Teresa went outside, Kai paused to turn off the TV. Just before he clicked it off, he noticed a new graphic saying AIRLINER MISSING OVER PACIFIC.

  THREE

  8:56 a.m.

  The rain had been falling constantly for two hours now, but that didn’t keep Yvonne Dunlap from her duties. In her three weeks on the Palmyra Atoll, she had come to appreciate the damp weather, which gave the island a serene quality. Even with 175 inches of rain per year watering the lush vegetation, she could think of worse places to do scientific research. She picked her way across the beach looking for her quarry, avoiding the plastic garbage that
marred the otherwise pristine habitat. Dark clouds stretched to the horizon, broken only by an occasional flash of lightning in the distance. The breaking surf and soothing patter of rain were her only companions.

  None of Yvonne’s three colleagues on the island had joined her on this excursion. They were back at base camp, working on their computers out of the rain, compiling figures about the nesting habits of sooty terns or analyzing data about the impact of non-native species on the island’s flora.

  Yvonne had come hunting much more interesting prey than birds and shrubbery. Her graduate studies in invertebrate biology had brought her to this isolated outpost for one reason. And it didn’t take long for her to spot what she was looking for. She took out her digital camera and approached slowly to add more photos to her collection.

  An enormous blue coconut crab scurried up a thick palm tree looking for its favorite food. This rare example looked like it measured three feet across and weighed close to ten pounds, a size that would put most Maine lobsters to shame.

  The Nature Conservancy had purchased the Palmyra Atoll as a wildlife preserve. To minimize the impact of humans on the ecosystem, they granted only a limited number of permits to researchers. Yvonne was one of the lucky few, and she reveled in exploring the island’s natural wonders. Rainy mornings like this were especially good for her outings, giving her time to enjoy nature as it was meant to be, alone and in silence. To her, the experience was spiritual.

  Yvonne interrupted her photography to jot some notes in her journal. The crab in front of her was one of the finest specimens she’d ever seen, and she wanted a full record of it. At the top of the tree, the crab grasped a coconut in its claws and ripped it open like a ripe melon, tearing at the meat inside. Yvonne was setting her camera to video mode to capture its eating ritual when a great boom echoed across the island. The sound was so loud that she dropped the camera.

  The crab, also startled by the noise, dropped from the tree and scuttled back to the safety of its burrow. Yvonne stooped to pick up the camera, waiting for the thunder to abate. She searched for the source of the noise, but the clouds looked uniformly gray in all directions. Nothing suggested a major storm headed their way.

  In a minute the sound dissipated, and Yvonne strode over to the hole the crab had disappeared into. She plopped herself on a fallen log not far from it and waited for the crab to reemerge, aiming her camera in hopes of a close-up.

  She continued staring at the burrow until a new noise intruded on the soft drizzle. A rumble from the island’s interior. At its widest, the Palmyra Atoll was only a half mile across. For some reason, Yvonne thought the sound was reaching her from the opposite side of the island.

  She stood and peered into the thick foliage. The noise grew quickly, coming toward her. It sounded like a thousand elephants stampeding, knocking down every tree as they charged. Yvonne stepped back involuntarily, stopping only when her boots were splashed by the surf.

  She spotted movement in the forest. It was indistinct at first, but within seconds it resolved into an image that took Yvonne a moment to comprehend. A churning mass of water raged toward her, uprooting and splintering every tree in its path. She couldn’t have been more shocked than if it had actually been elephants.

  She froze, paralyzed, her voice choked by fear. The roar was so loud that it seemed to go through her, and the wind pushed before the wall of water blew the hood of her windbreaker backward. Yvonne’s eyes locked in terror on the rushing mountain of debris, and she hopelessly wished that she could find some kind of burrow to plunge into as the crab had done.

  As the water reached the beach, the closest palm tree—the same one that had seemed so solid when the crab had climbed it—was yanked out of the ground. Just before it crushed Yvonne, she finally screamed.

  FOUR

  8:58 a.m.

  As was usual on Oahu, the May morning was bright blue, with just a few wisps of mist perched on the mountains northeast of Honolulu. The flowers lining the path contributed their sweet aroma to the ocean breeze that tickled the trees. The forecast was eighty and sunny. Kai sighed contentedly as he soaked in the warmth. Teresa and the kids couldn’t have picked better weather for a day at the beach. They were busy packing the boogie boards into the Jeep when the center’s security gate hummed to life. Kai saw a jet black Harley idling on the other side, the distinctive exhaust gurgling.

  “Oh no,” he said.

  “What’s with the Hell’s Angel?” Teresa said.

  “It’s Brad.”

  “The playboy, huh? This ought to be good.”

  “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “Believe me, I’m immune. Divorce will do that for you. What’s he doing here?”

  “I have no idea, but I bet I won’t like it.” Since Kai’s move back to Hawaii, Brad stopped by on a regular basis to pester Kai into doing something crazy with him, usually while Kai was supposed to be working.

  Brad tore up the drive at a rate that Kai didn’t think possible. He screeched to a stop next to the group, hopped off his bike, and flipped off his mirrored helmet in one move. Kai felt a flare of envy at Brad’s effortless grace, which complemented his rugged surfer-dude appeal.

  Brad ruffled his fingers through his thick blond hair and clapped Kai on the shoulder.

  “Great day for a round of golf, wouldn’t you say?” Brad waved to the sky as if it had bestowed this day at his request.

  Before Kai could answer, Lani ran up and jumped into Brad’s arms.

  “Uncle Brad!”

  “Hello, my darlin’!” He spun her around and then dropped her and gave her a huge smile. “You are looking as pretty as ever. What? You’re heading to the beach and didn’t invite me?”

  Another voice piped up. It was Mia.

  “You can come with us if you want,” she said, her eyes wide at the sight of Brad’s tight T-shirt, muscular arms, and sky blue eyes. Her mouth was slightly agape, as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. He usually had that effect on women, even thirteen-year-olds.

  “And you must be the lovely Mia I’ve heard so much about.” Brad took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. Kai thought Mia would melt into the pavement.

  “And I must be her mother, Teresa Gomez,” Teresa said. She seemed unaffected by Brad’s physical gifts and looked a little disturbed at her daughter’s reactions to this thirty-five-year-old smooth talker.

  “Brad Hopkins.” They shook hands. “So you’re the doctor?”

  “Third-year resident.”

  “Well, it’s great you got some time off to come visit. I see you’re ready to enjoy our fine weather.” Brad looked her in the eye, but Kai knew he had already given her tall, tan figure the once-over from behind that mirrored visor.

  Teresa rolled her eyes, but Kai could see that she was amused. “Your brother is exactly like you said he was.”

  Even though the only physical feature Brad and Kai shared was their six-foot height, they were indeed brothers. Half brothers, specifically. When Kai was four, his father died of cancer. Kai’s mother remarried within a year. She was wooed by Charles Hopkins, owner of Hopkins Realty, one of the most successful real estate companies in the islands. They immediately produced Kai’s little brother, Brad, and Charles adopted Kai. Although Kai kept his birth father’s last name, they were a close family. But it was apparent from an early age that Charles was grooming Brad to take over the business. That was fine with Kai. He had no interest in real estate or business. Science was always his passion.

  When their parents died in a car crash five years ago, the estate had been split between them, but Brad kept control of the company. Being a consummate playboy, he enjoyed the freedom the business gave him. He could party all night, play golf the next morning, and still have time to close a major hotel deal before the sun set. No wife, no kids, no responsibility for anything but his business. Even though Kai loved his life, sometimes he wished he could trade places with Brad.

  Brad flicked his eyes at Kai. �
��So I hope all you heard was good things about me.”

  “Don’t worry, haole,” Kai said. “Your dark secrets are safe with me.”

  “Haole?” Teresa said to Brad. “That your nickname?” Brad laughed. “To some people. It’s Hawaiian for ‘white boy.’ At least he didn’t call me ‘ass-haole.’”

  Kai shook his head in mock disgust. “See what I have to deal with? I’m thinking about changing the gate code. Again.”

  “It is so freakin’ boring around here, you need me to come in and liven things up.” Brad winked at Teresa. “I swear, this is the most secure nerd farm in the world. I don’t know why they need a fence around this place, anyway. Who wants to break in here?”

  “That decision was before my time, after the Oklahoma City bombing. I suppose the higher-ups thought some nut would think we were a secret CIA base and try to blow us up.”

  “Whatever. Come on, Kai. Let’s go shoot a round of golf.”

  “I have work to do this morning. Some of us work most days.”

  “Today is Memorial Day, you know. A holiday?”

  “Not for me. The director is on vacation, so I’m in charge while he’s gone.”

  “So give yourself the day off,” Brad said. “Hop on.”

  “You know there’s no way I’m getting on that thing. You drive like a maniac, and I hate donorcycles.” Kai had adopted Teresa’s nickname for motorcycles, so-called because a disproportionate number of organ donations came from motorcycle crash victims. “You’re about as likely to get me on that thing as I am to get you scuba diving.”

  Brad’s smile vanished. “That’s not funny.”

  “Why not?” Teresa said.

  “He had a scuba diving accident a long time ago.”

  “It wasn’t an accident,” Brad said with a scowl. “It was a near-death experience.” “You’ve got my attention,” Teresa said. “What happened?”

  “He’s exaggerating,” Kai said. “Nobody got hurt. We were diving in a shipwreck off Oahu, and a rusty bulkhead came apart, blocking the door. Brad got locked inside, and his oxygen gauge almost pegged zero before we could get him out.”