Hearts on Call

No Calm Seas

The low, throaty growl of approaching engines carried across the black water like a threat whispered in the dark. The sound didn’t just get closer....it multiplied, echoing off the inlet walls until it was impossible to tell which direction it was coming from.

Kojo didn’t wait for permission. His hand slammed forward on the throttle, and the skiff shot from the cliff’s shadow like a startled predator.

“Who the hell finds us this fast?” Amara shouted over the roar, hair whipping into her eyes.

“TALON,” Kojo called back, his tone grim. “Or someone they’ve paid enough to care.”

The wind cut against her cheeks, carrying a cold bite despite the humid night. Spray stung her skin, tasting of salt and danger. The smell of gasoline and gun oil clung to the air between them.

Kweku crouched low, rifle resting across his lap, his eyes flicking constantly between the shoreline and the black stretch of water ahead. “Two boats. They’re spreading wide. They’ll box us in.”

Kojo’s mouth curved into something between a smirk and a snarl. “Then we break the box.”

The first pursuing boat came in hard from their starboard side, its hull slicing the swells like a blade. The second screamed in from port, running almost parallel, closing the trap with precision that screamed professional training.

Kweku fired a short, controlled burst toward the port-side vessel. The sharp crack of the rifle was swallowed by the wind and water, but the muzzle flashes briefly lit his face...jaw set, eyes cold. A shadow on the other boat ducked low, but the craft never slowed.

“They’re not amateurs,” Kweku muttered.

Kojo yanked the skiff into a sharp port turn, the violent motion slamming Amara into the bench and almost knocking the breath from her lungs. The bow climbed a breaking wave, hung weightless for a second, then came crashing down with bone-rattling force.

The port-side boat adjusted to follow....and that was when Kojo killed the throttle without warning.

The skiff slewed sideways in a jarring skid. The pursuing vessel overshot them by several meters before its pilot realized what had happened.

“Now!” Kojo barked.

Kweku didn’t waste the opening. Two quick bursts....and the enemy’s engine screamed, coughed smoke, and died. The boat began to drift helplessly, its crew shouting into the wind.

“One down,” Kweku said.

The starboard boat surged forward, cutting across their wake, its prow angled like a spear toward their stern. A harsh white searchlight exploded across the water, blinding Amara in its beam. She flinched, one hand coming up instinctively, heart pounding so hard it made her ribs ache.

Kojo rammed the throttle forward again. “Hold on!”

They hurtled toward a stretch of coastline littered with jagged rock spires, jutting from the water like the ribs of some long-dead beast. The narrow gap between them seemed barely wide enough for the skiff.

“You’ll wreck us,” Kweku barked.

Kojo’s eyes were locked dead ahead. “Not if I thread it clean.”

The second boat hesitated just long enough....that one heartbeat of doubt.

Kojo didn’t give them a second. The skiff roared into the gap, the hull skimming so close that Amara could hear the whisper of stone against fiberglass. The passage funneled them into shadow, the air suddenly damp and echoing with the hiss of waves smashing against rock.

Then.....open water.

They burst into sudden calm, the roar of the chase muffled to nothing. Behind them, the pursuing boat idled at the mouth of the rocks, unwilling to follow.

Kojo eased the throttle and guided them toward a dark shape ahead....a hidden cove nestled beneath an overhang. The water here was black as oil and as still as glass.

The skiff’s bow slid onto a strip of sand. Kojo killed the engine, stepped into the shallows, and dragged the boat higher onto the beach. “This place isn’t on TALON’s maps. We’ve got maybe an hour before they figure it out.”

Amara stepped ashore, her legs trembling from adrenaline and exhaustion. “Where exactly is ‘here’?”

Kojo smirked faintly. “A ghost on the map.”

They moved into the cliff’s shadow. The air was cooler here, thick with the smell of damp stone and salt.

Kweku finally broke the silence. “We need to talk about what Kojo said earlier.”

Amara’s chest tightened. “About my mother.”

Kojo leaned against the rock wall, arms crossed. “She didn’t vanish. She ran. And she left something behind....something TALON will kill for.”

“What?”

“A drive. Encrypted. If the rumors are true, it contains the formula for a compound she was developing. Something that could alter human physiology at the genetic level. Military wanted it. The pharmaceutical giants wanted it more. TALON wanted both.”

“That’s insane.”

Kojo’s gaze didn’t waver. “They think you have it. Or know where it is. That’s why they haven’t killed you yet. They need you alive… for now.”

The words felt like ice down her spine. “And if they decide I don’t have it?”

Kweku’s voice was flat. “Then we’re not the chase anymore. We’re the cleanup.”

A heavy silence settled over the cove. Somewhere in the distance, a gull screamed, the sound sharp against the blanket of quiet.

Kojo pulled a weatherproof bag from under the skiff’s bench. “We move at first light. Until then, rest.”

Rest. As if that were possible. Amara sat with her back against the cliff wall, staring up at the sliver of night sky between the rock faces. Beyond that horizon, engines still prowled, hunters still searched.

And if Kojo was right… they would never stop.

Amara didn’t notice how tightly she’d been gripping the sand until her fingers ached. She released it slowly, letting the grains spill between her knuckles like seconds slipping away.

The cove was quiet in that deceptive way only dangerous places could be...like the world was holding its breath. Somewhere beyond the mouth of the rocks, she imagined those engines circling in the dark, patient, waiting.

Kweku was a restless silhouette, moving from one edge of the cove to the other, his rifle hanging at his side. Even in the dim starlight, his gaze swept the perimeter with the sharpness of a predator expecting another attack.

Kojo sat on a flat rock, pulling a cigarette from a battered tin. He lit it with one hand cupped around the flame, the tiny flare of orange briefly illuminating the hard lines of his face.

“You shouldn’t,” Amara said quietly, nodding toward the smoke curling upward.

“They already know we’re here,” he replied, exhaling into the night. “If they’re smart, they’re not stupid enough to follow into these waters.”

She looked at him sharply. “And if they’re desperate?”

Kojo took another drag. “Then we die here. Or we kill them first.”

The bluntness made her throat tighten. Kweku paused in his pacing but didn’t argue.

The silence stretched until it became a fourth presence in the cove. The waves lapped gently at the sand, and somewhere deeper within the cliff, water dripped in slow, irregular beats.

Finally, Kweku came to stand beside her. “You should sleep.”

“I can’t,” she admitted.

He crouched down, lowering his voice. “Then at least close your eyes. Even an hour will keep you sharp.”

Reluctantly, she leaned back against the stone wall. She didn’t sleep....not really. Her mind wandered through jagged memories: her mother’s face the day she vanished, the scent of antiseptic in that hospital vault, the heat of Kweku’s skin under her palms the night before. Every image seemed threaded with the same sense of inevitability.....a road she couldn’t turn back from.

When she opened her eyes again, Kojo was gone.

Kweku noticed her looking. “He’s checking the cliffs,” he said.

“Alone?”

“He moves quieter than both of us combined,” Kweku replied. Then, after a pause: “You can trust him. Mostly.”

Her brow furrowed. “Mostly?”

Kweku didn’t elaborate.

Moments later, Kojo emerged from the shadows, moving like the darkness itself had spat him back out. His cigarette was gone.

“We’re not staying until dawn,” he said, grabbing the bag he’d brought earlier. “Change of plan. They’ve got a drone grid moving toward this stretch. We leave now.”

Amara’s stomach sank. “By boat?”

Kojo shook his head. “By cliff.”

She stared at the jagged wall behind them. “That’s insane.”

“It’s the only way we slip the net without a signature on open water,” Kojo said. “You want to live, you climb.”

Kweku had already slung his rifle across his back. “Let’s move.”

The climb was brutal. The stone was slick with moss and seawater, and more than once Amara’s foot slipped, forcing Kweku to grab her wrist and haul her upward. Her arms burned, her breath came ragged, and every muscle screamed in protest.

Halfway up, the low hum of distant drones reached her ears....cold, mechanical, and unyielding. She didn’t dare look down.

By the time they reached the ridge, her palms were raw, her knees scraped. Kojo didn’t give them a moment to collapse. “We move inland before the moon clears the cloud cover. TALON’s eyes will be on the water first. That buys us fifteen minutes, maybe less.”

They slipped into the treeline, the scent of wet earth and night-blooming flowers replacing the salt air. Shadows pooled thick between the trees, and the sound of the sea faded into a distant memory.

Somewhere ahead, a nightjar called once, twice....then silence. Kojo’s hand shot up, signaling them to stop.

The faintest crunch of boots on dry leaves drifted through the dark.

They weren’t alone.