Salt lives in her pores. Debt lives in her lungs.In a drowning Florida Keys, Kira Santos survives by the grace of the GillPatch-a bio-engineered implant that allows her to work underwater but shackles her to a lifetime of expensive maintenance. If she misses a payment or ignores the clinic's "recommended limits," her own body goes into downtime. She suffocates.When Asteria Maritime arrives in Paloma Key, they promise salvation. They claim their new ReefShield technology will cool the dying coral and restore the local economy. But while diving a salvage job, Kira discovers the terrifying truth hidden behind a fake barrier panel: a heat-venting thruster designed to steer currents, creating a "hunger corridor" that clears shipping lanes by killing the reef.Caught between a corporation that owns her healthcare and an ecological crime that will wipe out her town, Kira finds an unlikely ally in the water itself. TideMinder-a mysterious anomaly in the buoy network-begins offering her pockets of calm amidst the deadly currents, rewarding acts of community care with survival.With a hurricane bearing down and her clinic threatening to revoke her access to oxygen, Kira must choose: sign the NDA to save her life, or expose the "mirage line" and risk drowning for the truth.Perfect for fans of Paolo Bacigalupi's The Water Knife and Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140, Current of Mercy is a visceral dive into a future where nature is engineered, breath is monetized, and the only way to survive the storm is to wait for the slack.