The Escape in the Fog"
Jack Dawkins and Captain Rourke must flee the lighthouse before the noble assassins close in.
The air turned cold.
The ocean's waves slapped violently against the rocks below the lighthouse, sending sprays of white foam into the dark. Jack Dawkins didn't move, didn't breathe—he simply watched the two silhouettes at the cliff above.
Rourke tensed beside him.
Rourke: "They aren't soldiers."
Jack: "No. Soldiers ask questions. These ones bury answers."
The silhouettes moved with discipline… and silence. Professionals. Not petty killers. Not guards.
Noble agents.
And worse—trained.
Jack's jaw tightened.
It really has begun.
1. Jack Makes the First Move
Without looking back, Jack murmured:
"We leave. Now."
He grabbed Rourke's sleeve and pulled him toward the stairwell spiraling down the lighthouse interior.
Rourke hesitated.
Rourke: "My duty—"
Jack: "—will end with your corpse if you stay still."
The captain swallowed his pride and followed.
Jack snatched a lantern off the wall, smashed the glass against the metal stairs, and shoved the remaining flame into a hanging net of dried rope.
It erupted instantly.
Rourke: "You're burning the lighthouse?!"
Jack: "Distraction. They'll assume we panicked."
Rourke: "Did we?"
Jack: "I don't panic. I run fast."
2. The Exit Below
They reached the base door—Jack pressed his ear to it.
Nothing.
The sea wind howled outside, masking distant footsteps.
Jack pulled a thin wire from his pocket, looped it silently through the lock mechanism, and snapped it open.
Rourke: "You can pick locks?"
Jack: "Captain, please. I can pick a man's ribs out with a spoon."
They slipped outside.
Fog rolled in thick sheets across the rocky shore, hiding them if they crouched low.
Above them, a voice echoed faintly:
"They're inside—search every level!"
Rourke whispered, shocked.
Rourke: "They moved fast."
Jack: "They were waiting. Watching. For hours."
Jack grabbed the captain by the collar.
Jack: "Listen. From now on, you don't speak unless I tell you. You don't run unless I'm behind you. Understand?"
Rourke nodded sharply.
3. The Ambush Below the Cliff
As they crept along the lower path, Jack spotted it—
A glint of metal in the fog.
A rifle.
Someone was stationed beneath the lighthouse too.
They were surrounded.
Jack whispered:
"Three on the cliff. Two below. One behind us."
Rourke whispered back:
"How do you—"
Jack: "Breathing patterns. Footsteps. oil scent on the stones. Now shut up."
The captain obeyed.
Jack tapped the ground with a pebble—lightly.
A man in the fog shifted.
There.
The weak point.
Jack opened his scalpel case… and took only one.
He didn't need more.
He whispered:
"When I move, don't look surprised."
Rourke didn't get the chance to ask why.
Because Jack vanished into the fog.
4. Jack Dawkins Shows Why He's Feared
A shadow moved.
A grunt.
A thud.
A choked gasp.
Seconds later Jack reappeared, dragging an unconscious agent by the collar.
Rourke: "You killed him?"
Jack: "Do I look sloppy? He's asleep."
Rourke: "You… knocked out a trained assassin with a scalpel?"
Jack: "And his own jawbone. He bit wrong."
Rourke blinked, horrified.
Jack: "Now put on his coat."
Rourke: "What?"
Jack: "Congratulations. You're bait."
5. The Escape
Jack positioned Rourke in the agent's coat and pushed him toward the lower shore path.
The assassins above spotted the coat.
"He's heading for the southern rocks! CUT HIM OFF!"
All eyes turned toward Rourke.
Jack pulled a rope hidden beneath the cliff edge—one Hetty had installed months ago for emergency escapes—and swung himself onto a fishermen's trail far below.
Rourke followed seconds later, landing beside him in the dark.
The assassins sprinted toward the wrong direction entirely.
Jack smirked.
Jack: "They'll search the south cliff all night. We're ghosts."
Rourke: "You planned this escape route… before you knew they existed?"
Jack: "I always plan for enemies I don't know about."
Rourke exhaled.
"You're not a surgeon. You're something else."
Jack: "No. I'm a surgeon. A very realistic one."
6. The Final Message
As they reached the abandoned storage hut at the beach, Jack gave Rourke one final look.
His voice turned serious.
Deadly serious.
"Now you understand, Captain."
"If the Crown wants me… others want me dead."
He stepped closer.
"And if you want the Princess to live…"
"You'll do exactly what I say from now on."
Rourke didn't argue.
Not anymore.
Captain Rourke returns to the King after witnessing the Doctor in action.
The royal palace was cold.
Not from weather—from fear. The nobles, the guards, the servants… all felt it. A sickness in the royal bloodline. The Princess's days were numbered unless one man—one impossible surgeon—could be found.
Captain Rourke walked through the gold-trimmed hallway, boots echoing sharply on marble, mind racing with the memory of last night:
Jack Dawkins disappearing into fog.
Assassins falling like puppets with cut strings.
A man healed who should have been dead.
A myth breathing beside him.
He swallowed.
He wasn't ready for this report.
But the King demanded it.
1. Before the Throne
Rourke knelt on one knee.
The King—stern, intelligent, tired—gestured for him to rise.
King: "You return early. And with… weight upon your shoulders, Captain Rourke."
Rourke: "Your Majesty, I have found him."
King: "The Doctor?"
Rourke: "Yes. And he is nothing like the crown expects."
A flicker of interest crossed the King's eyes.
2. The King Tests Him
King Edmund rested his chin on his hand.
King: "Tell me everything. Every detail. Leave nothing unsaid."
Rourke obeyed.
He described:
The criminals who whispered the same five rules.
The man who walked in expecting death and walked out breathing.
The underground clinic that vanished like smoke.
The surgeon who moved faster than the eye, without magic, without medicine of this world.
And then—
He described the assassination attempt.
How the Doctor predicted it.
How he escaped it.
How he played the killers like a game.
The King leaned forward slightly.
King: "So he is real. More than rumor. More than ghost."
Rourke: "He is… strategic. Calculating. Dangerous."
King: "To the Crown?"
Rourke: "To anyone who tries to cage him."
That earned a smile—thin, sharp, predatory.
3. Rourke Tells the King the Truth
Rourke lowered his voice.
Rourke: "Your Majesty, with respect… the Doctor is not simply a healer."
Rourke: "He is a survivor. A planner. He sees traps before they are made."
Rourke: "If you send soldiers… he will vanish."
Rourke: "If you send assassins… they will disappear in fog."
Rourke: "If you attempt to leash him… he will run."
The King's eyes hardened.
King: "And yet you suggest I still need him."
Rourke: "Yes. Because he is the only one who can save the Princess."
Silence.
A long, heavy silence.
4. The King's Order
Finally, the King spoke.
King: "Then I give you a new mission."
King: "You will not capture him."
King: "You will court him."
Rourke blinked.
Rourke: "Court him, Majesty?"
King: "Gain his trust. Draw him toward the royal family willingly."
King: "Offer him protection from the nobles who hunt him."
King: "Promise him whatever he demands."
The captain stiffened.
Rourke: "He will test me."
King: "Good. Then prove yourself."
The King rose from his throne.
King: "But hear me well… if you fail—"
King: "—this kingdom dies with my daughter."
Rourke bowed deeply.
Rourke: "I will not fail."
5. The King's Final Question
As Rourke turned to leave, the King asked:
King: "This Doctor… what kind of man is he?"
Rourke paused.
He remembered Jack's calm smile as assassins swarmed the cliff.
He remembered the precision of his hands.
The cold intelligence in his eyes.
The warmth he showed to patients.
The brutal efficiency he used on enemies.
Rourke looked back.
Rourke: "He is the kind of man who saves lives…"
Rourke: "…and ends threats before they begin."
The King narrowed his eyes.
King: "A weapon."
Rourke: "No, Majesty."
Rourke: "A man who refuses to be one."
The King said nothing more.
But the order was clear.
Earn the Doctor's help.
Protect him from the shadows.
Bring him to save the Princess.
And do it before the nobles reach him first.