Rogue Wave

by Boyd Morrison

  "He's trapped," Rachel said, "and he knows it."

  The dredging barge had been driven into the middle of the tower like an enormous spike, most likely crushing the stairwell and any escape in that direction. The distinctive spire roof of the Akamai tower, in contrast to the flat roof of the Moana tower, provided no place for a helicopter to land.

  "My God!" Max said. "He's not going to jump, is he?"

  "I don't know," Rachel said, waving her arms and banging on the window, trying to get his attention.

  A woman, as dark as the man was fair, ran to the man and hugged him, followed by three children. The man didn't seem to hear Rachel, but the biggest of the children, a boy, caught sight of her in the restaurant and pointed. The man returned Rachel's wave and motioned with his hands, asking what they should do.

  "What now?" Max said.

  "I don't know. But if we don't get a helicopter, none of us is getting out of here alive."

  She had just started dialing again when shouts of alarm coursed through the room. Every light in the restaurant went out, and the air handling system fell silent. The power was gone.

  * * *

  All of Oahu's three major power stations sat on the coast, the biggest in Nanakuli, the others at Barber's Point and Honolulu. They perched on the edge of the ocean with good reason.

  First, the oil and coal they needed to operate could be supplied much more efficiently if the power plant had a dock where the tankers and colliers could offload. Second, the immense heat generated by the plants required access to cooling water, and the sea was an obvious source. And third, the vast acreage of flat land needed for the huge plants was primarily concentrated on the edges of the island, with mountains making up most of the interior.

  Of course, disaster planners had considered their proximity to the coast, but the utmost concern were hurricanes that battered the Hawaiian Islands on a periodic basis. In those cases, the tidal surge was never higher than 15 feet, and the power plants were well above that level. Tsunamis were considered, but historically they rarely reached more than 30 feet in height.

  A mega tsunami was unprecedented, so large that disaster planners had not thought it was a realistic possibility. The chances of it happening were so remote that planning for it was not deemed economically prudent.

  And so, when the 80 foot high tsunami struck the coast of Oahu, the wave submerged all three power plants to a depth of 30 feet, causing all of them to shut down. Any higher waves to come would destroy them completely.

  Not only were the power plants smashed, but the wave washed away most of the power lines and their towers. Where lines remained intact, the water caused short circuits in the system. The power substations that weren't submerged couldn't handle the massive overloads, and the surviving circuit breakers tripped.

  The island of Oahu was in blackout.

  A few locations, however, still had power. Backup generators and batteries continued to power critical functions in hospitals and at the air traffic control tower of Wheeler Army Airfield.

  Only one other major system continued to function. Small backup generators or batteries were included in the design of every cell phone tower.

  * * *

  On the tenth floor of the Seaside, next to the stairwell, a second set of stairs led up to the roof. When Brad, Jake, and Tom reached the top of the stairs, the rushing water just below them, Kai ushered everyone up the last flight of stairs and onto the roof.

  The flat expanse of faded and peeling white paint was broken up by a few large air conditioning units and not much else. Kai ran to the edge of building and looked down. At this height, he would normally see multitudes of beachgoers thronging the promenade far below. Instead, breathtakingly, the water was now only 15 feet beneath them. It had not reached the top floor, but it was only a few inches below it. Water surged like a river around the corner of the building, taking all kinds of debris with it.

  Kai was relieved that the building hadn't collapsed with the first wave. But he had no idea if it would stand up to the next one. Not that it would matter. The next wave was going to be another five stories high, completely covering this building.

  He knelt by Lani.

  "Are you all right, honey?" Kai said.

  She nodded and gave him a tight hug. "I can't believe you came to get us. How did you know where we were?"

  "You were on TV. Then Jake led us to you when we got to the Grand Hawaiian. Was it your idea to send him there?"

  She nodded again. She was a smart kid.

  "Is mom OK?"

  "She was at the hotel. I'm sure she's fine." Although Kai tried to project a confident calm, he was in fact practically sick with worry about Rachel. He knew this thing was far from over, and he didn't think she'd be safe where she was for long. Neither would they.

  Kai took out the walkie-talkie and tried it first, knowing that the cell phone system was less reliable. After a few tries, he got through to his wife and breathed a sigh of relief.

  "Rachel, are you all right?"

  "Kai! Thank God! Please tell me you got Lani."

  "I have her right here. She has an exciting story to tell you."

  Kai passed the walkie-talkie to Lani and walked over to Brad. He was taking pictures of the flooding with his cell phone, which had been in the dry bag.

  "What do we do now?" Brad said, snapping a photo of a boat floating past the eighth story of the building behind them, the twenty-story building they should have been in if only they'd had another minute to run over to it. Kai took Brad aside so that the kids wouldn't hear them, and Teresa joined them.

  "We wait," Kai said. "The water will recede. When it does, we need to make a run for higher ground. In the meantime, maybe we can wave one of those helicopters down."

  "We're not the only ones," Teresa said. "Look."

  She gestured to the other buildings around Waikiki and Honolulu. As far as the eye could see, buildings were topped with people leaning over the sides or waving to the skies. There had to be hundreds of them, if not thousands. Seeing that, it struck Kai as strange that they were the only ones on the top of this building. He had the awful thought that perhaps the Seaside held other people who hadn't tried to evacuate their condos until the water was upon them.

  To Kai's surprise, Teresa grabbed both him and Brad in an embrace.

  "I can't ever thank you enough for saving Mia," she sobbed. "I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come along."

  "Hey, it finally got lame-o here on a motorcycle. Of course, my Harley is now rusting away under about 80 feet of Pacific seawater. But it was a helluva last ride."

  Kai wanted to say it was going to be OK, that they were all safe now, but it couldn't have been further from the truth. They couldn't stay, but at the moment they couldn't go either.

  Kai borrowed Brad's cell phone and dialed 911. The line was jammed and all he got was a busy signal. He tried again, with the same result.

  He was about to call Reggie when Kai realized that it wasn't his own phone. His was in pieces on the side of Fort Stewart Road, washed away by now. Reggie's cell number, of course, wasn't in Brad's cell phone list, and Kai had become so reliant on that feature that he had no idea what Reggie's number was.

  He resorted to calling his own number, knowing he would be routed to voicemail since his phone wouldn't answer. It rang through, and Kai punched in the remote access code while his greeting played. He had one message. It was received less than five minutes ago.

  "Kai, this is Reggie," he said between wheezes. "I sure as hell hope you get this, because that means you survived. We're running up Fort Stewart Road right now. It is a madhouse. People everywhere. I haven't been able to get in touch with Alaska. I assume you got through to them, or I would have heard from you. But I'll keep trying. Once I get to Wheeler, we should have some dedicated phone lines."

  Kai berated himself for leaving without making the transfer. He could only hope that Hawaii Civil Defense was in contact with the warning center in
Palmer. For all he knew, they and the rest of the Pacific island nations were now blind to any new information because he had abandoned his post without even making sure someone else would pick up his responsibilities. His stomach twisted with guilt.

  "I'll keep my phone on," Reggie continued. "The service has been spotty. I'm lucky I got through to your voicemail. If you're out there, give me a call and let me know you're okay. I hope I hear from you, boss."

  The message ended. Kai memorized the number rattled off by the caller ID and saved it in Brad's phone's list before dialing another number.

  "Who are you calling?" Brad asked.

  "Reggie," Kai said. "Maybe he can send us a chopper."

  The call immediately went to voicemail.

  "Quick," Kai said to Brad, "what are the cross streets of this building?"

  "It's hard to tell with all the streets gone. I know we're on Kalakaua." He pointed in the direction of the mountains behind us. "Lemon is that way. I think this might be Laka'laina running perpendicular."

  Great, Kai thought. The only real estate developer in Honolulu who doesn't know the streets.

  Lani came over, holding the walkie-talkie in front of her.

  "Mom wants to talk to you."

  Kai motioned for Brad to take it. "Tell her what we're doing and that we're all right." He didn't have to add, "for now."

  Reggie's voice came on, and Kai left the message.

  "Reggie, this is Kai. If you get this in the next ten minutes, we are on top of a white ten-story condo building called the Seaside on the east end of Waikiki. We think the cross streets are Kalakaua and Laka'laina. If you get this, send a helicopter to come get us. And call me. I lost my cell phone, so I'm on Brad's." Kai gave him the number and hung up.

  "Do you think he'll be able to send one?" Teresa said.

  "I don't know. But if he doesn't, we're going to have to try running for it."

  "Running for it?"

  Kai forgot that Teresa didn't know anything about tsunamis.

  "This wave will recede as the next trough in the series of tsunamis reaches us."

  "Series! You mean there are going to be more?"

  She hadn't heard, and Kai didn't have time to cushion the news.

  "We cannot stay on this building. We've got about 20 minutes before the next wave comes in and covers this condo."

  "How many more are there?"

  "I don't know." If Kai had made sure Reggie was in touch with Palmer, maybe he would have known for sure. "At least two. Maybe more. We've got to leave one way or another."

  "How?"

  "If a helicopter flies near us, we need to try to wave it down. If not, we'll go down the stairwell as the water ebbs. Once we reach the ground floor, we'll have 10 minutes before the next wave comes in."

  "How far can we get in ten minutes?"

  Under the best of conditions, they could run maybe a mile in ten minutes. But given their exhaustion and the debris that would be littering the way, that estimate was way too optimistic. And with waves this size, the water would surely reach more than a mile inland.

  Kai studied the buildings around him. About five blocks away from the beach was another apartment building that was about twice the height of the Seaside.

  "That building is 20 stories tall. If we make it up that one, it's a little farther inland. We can sort of leapfrog our way up to the Punchbowl as the next wave recedes. That's the closest point that's safe."

  It wasn't a great plan, but it was all he had.

  The smell of sea water was strong, much stronger than it should have been this high up. It reminded Kai that they were still in mortal danger.

  He looked to the sky, trying to will one of those distant helicopters to come their way. He wanted to do something, but couldn't. Only 20 minutes until the next wave, and he was completely helpless.

  Chapter 35

  11:30 AM

  17 minutes to Second Wave

  After Brad finished filling Rachel in on their situation, she had a last word with Kai and then signed off to deal with her latest problem.

  There was no way a helicopter could land on top of the Akamai Tower to rescue the family across from Rachel and Max. The architects had made sure of that when they designed the spire topping the building. The only way for the family to escape was to go down. But with the dredging barge impaled in the building, probably blocking the stairwell in the center of the structure, they might not be able to make it all the way to the ground.

  "Do you think they can get out?" Max said.

  "There's no way to know from here," Rachel replied. "They'll just have to try it."

  "Even if they get all the way down, can they get to safety? You said there's another wave coming, and it's even bigger than the last one."

  "There's one other possibility," she said. "They might be able to go across the skybridge."

  They searched for signs of the sixth floor skybridge, but the water level was still well above it. The skybridge, designed like a suspension bridge, hung from cables that extended up to the eighth floor. Sixteen cables, eight anchored to each side of the bridge's floor, held it in place, with half the cables attached to the Moana Tower and the other half attached to the Akamai Tower. The cables were still intact, but it was impossible to tell whether they still connected to anything substantial enough to walk across.

  "The skybridge?" Max said. "Do you think it's still there? That would be convenient."

  "Convenient? You think anything about this morning is convenient?"

  Max dropped his head in embarrassment. "I just meant that it would be lucky for them," he said sheepishly.

  Rachel sighed. "I know, Max. I'm sorry. I shouldn't take it out on you. Look, we won't know about the skybridge until the water recedes, but if it is still there, they might be able to get to it and get across. It'll take them a few minutes to get down 20 stories."

  The family didn't budge. They just looked at Rachel and waved frantically, not knowing what to do. They were in a panic.

  "We have to tell them to move now."

  "But how?" Max said. "With the power out, we can't use the hotel phones."

  "We'll write it on something." Rachel looked around, and then realized what they needed was right in front of them. She ran over to the maitre d's desk and grabbed the grease pencil he used to mark the seating plan. She took it to one of the dining tables, threw the glasses and utensils on the floor, and began scrawling on the white table cloth in huge letters.

  In a minute, she completed the crude message.

  "Help me," she said to Max and whipped the table cloth off. They carried it over to the window. It said, "Go to skybridge 6th floor."

  "Wait a minute," Rachel said, keeping the tablecloth out of view of the window.

  "What?" Max said.

  "We need to make sure the skybridge is actually there."

  The water had begun to flow back toward the ocean, carrying anything that floated. In another minute, the level was down to the sixth floor. They held their breath to see whether the skybridge was still intact.

  As the water dropped further, the debris started to get caught on something. When it began to pile up in a line between the buildings, Rachel knew the skybridge had survived.

  "OK, let's put the sign up," Rachel said. "And let's hope they speak English."

  They held the tablecloth against the window so that the family could read it. After seeing it, both the man and woman nodded furiously and gave a thumbs up. In a second, the whole family was gone.

  "Looks like they got the message. Max, you need to get everyone here up to the roof. It won't be easy because of the stairs. You'll have to leave the wheelchairs behind. Keep calling for a helicopter. And take some of the tablecloths to wave as a signal."

  "You're not going down there, are you?"

  "They may need help getting across. Besides, once they get over to our building, they may try to go down instead of up. I think that would be a bad decision. Max, do whatever you have to do to get
that helicopter."

  He nodded. "Be careful."

  "You too. I'll see you in 20 minutes. If I'm not back by then, that means…" She let it trail off, not wanting to actually say that it meant she and the others hadn't made it.

  "You better be," Max said.

  With that, Rachel ran to the door marked by the emergency exit sign and started down the stairs.

  * * *

  Over the skies of Honolulu, Kai saw more types of helicopters than he even knew existed. Army Blackhawks and huge Navy HH-53s were the biggest, but there were news choppers, scenic tour helicopters with their logos emblazoned on the side, and everything in between. At one point, he counted over a dozen helicopters buzzing around the city in all directions. All seven of Kai's group waved their arms wildly, but even with that many helicopters, not one of them came in their direction. There were just too many other people clamoring for their attention.

  The only other option was to go down. The water swirling below made that an unpleasant prospect. Along with the inorganic wreckage, Kai now saw bodies being drawn back to the ocean. Most of them were face down, so he was spared looking at their last expressions, but he could see the tsunami had been indiscriminate.

  In the short time that the water had begun to withdraw, Kai saw at least 30 bodies of men and women, some still in their flowered shirts or bathing suits, others stripped completely naked. But the most horrible sight was the children. The first one was a girl about Lani's age, her long blonde hair floating next to her. Kai felt the urge to jump in and pull her out, but he restrained himself, knowing it would be a pointless gesture that would not only get him killed, but would also mean he'd no longer be there for Lani. Each time he saw a child float by, Kai looked for signs of life in the hopes that he might save one of them, but each of them remained still. He told Lani not to look, but he knew he couldn't protect her for long. Eventually, they would have to go out in that.

  Almost as horrible was seeing the pets that had been taken by the wave. Dogs and cats mixed with the people. Some of the dogs even still had their leashes on. It made Kai wonder for the first time how Bilbo was, but he realized with relief that if Reggie was OK, his dog was too.