Chapter 3

Tornado knew well the way to Los Angeles. Both horse and rider thoroughly enjoyed the moonlit ride with the crisp, cool, night wind at their backs. That moon could be a problem later. He had hoped for a dark night for his "first" crime. But he was strangely confident in his abilities to get through all this successfully.

A little way from the gates of the pueblo, he dismounted and led Tornado to a quiet place near the back of the tavern. He left the horse there and made his way soundlessly across the street and down toward the quartel.

He dodged a lone soldier on sentry duty easily by dissolving into the shadows, the black of his costume blending into the darkness. Before long, he had determined which building the office of the Alcalde was in and was ascending to the rooftops. It would be easier to avoid the lancers straggling back from the tavern if he were above them.

He discovered a skylight that led directly down into the room. How easy this was! Within minutes, he was dropping silently down from the ceiling rafters. His search took only few minutes, and within half an hour of entering the pueblo, Zorro was back with Tornado secreting his 'loot' in his saddlebags.

Light from a window above suddenly shown, and he retreated to the shadows once more. He stared at the window and calculated the location of the room inside the building. He was fairly sure it was Victoria's room. He mentally went over the layout of the tavern's upper floor. At least it was a place he had been in recently. Yes, it had to be her room. Well, he might as well try this now. After all, he was dressed for the occasion!

He made a leap for a handhold on the wall and began climbing. Just outside the window, he paused to watch Victoria as she brushed her hair before her dresser. This was going to take far greater courage than breaking into the Alcalde's office! Swallowing hard, he knocked softly on the window.

As Victoria whirled around, her hand went to her throat. When she made out a black, shadowy shape, she flew to the window to open the latch.

"Zorro!"

"Victoria." He tried to make his voice a bit huskier and deeper than usual. Would that be what he had done before as Zorro? Taking her hand, he kissed it gently. Surely Zorro was a gentleman. Wouldn't he greet her with a kiss of the hand? He was beginning to wonder if he had made a mistake in coming to her. If he had no idea how to act toward her, how could he possible know how she was going to react to his presence?

"Well, don't just stay there. Get in. Get in!" She pulled him into the room. "I can't believe it. You're here!" She hugged him tightly. "Are you all right? Are they chasing you?" She was checking him over for wounds as if she feared to find them and as if she had always done it!

"Victoria, I am quite well." He must remember to keep his voice deeper. "I just thought I would take the opportunity to see you for a few minutes. I had some… business… in town."

"Business! Yes, you do conduct your business at this time of night." She grinned at him. It was the first time since her discovery that she had seen him as Zorro and she searched his face for the look of Diego. Just to be sure, she thought. And it was there. But still, there was a difference.

He did seem larger than life dressed this way. Maybe it was understandable that she had missed Diego underneath the mask. Even now that she knew, it was hard to imagine removing the mask and seeing Diego's gentle face. Suddenly, she was alarmed. How should she act toward Zorro? She had only been dealing with Diego. And he did not know that she knew!

"Victoria, I need some answers to some questions."

She nodded. She knew that his "business" always took precedence over any personal conversation between them. He continued in a low serious tone, "I need to know the general 'feel' of the people toward the Alcalde right now. I have been…. away….and I have come across some information that may hinge on the attitude they have for the military presence in the pueblo right now."

The people feel the same as always about the Alcalde and his men."

"Oh, wonderful!" Zorro thought. This kind of answer he didn't need! He had hoped he would be the one being vague. She had to give him some answers. "Continue," he said simply, hoping she would regard it as a command.

"So," she thought to herself, "maybe he has remembered being Zorro, but he hasn't remembered much else. He's fishing for information! Well, at least he's come to me for the answers."

She turned away from him to collect her thoughts and then continued aloud, "The people of this pueblo have been just about pushed to their limit with the ridiculous taxes that De Soto and the former alcalde, Ramon, have imposed on them. As soon as they get away with one tax, they come up with something new. And the people never have anything to show for it! You have been our only hope against this so-called government. We are so far away from Spain and the governor, and it is hard to make them see our problems."

Talking to him passionately for what seemed like hours, she told him of the atrocities that had been enacted by the two alcaldes. She described his own adventures to him by telling him the reactions of some of the people he had helped.

Watching his eyes intently, she finally brought the subject around to their own relationship. She had been going over what she was going to have to say to him for days now. It was the only way. She knew that. But, oh how she loathed doing this!

"Your fight for justice has taken so long, Zorro. The promise that you made to me….. I look at the ring every night before I go to sleep. I just don't know how long I am supposed to wait. You once told me I should marry someone else, someone like Diego. Well, lately, I have been looking at Diego in a new light. He was so brave when the pueblo was attacked. He reminded everyone of you on that day. Have you heard that?"

He didn't answer.

She started to slowly pace about the room. That way she wouldn't have to look at him as she talked. His stare was beginning to be painful.

"Diego has been my best friend for years and I never really thought of him as ever being any more than that till now. But he is so good, so kind, and now that I know that he has the same courage in his heart that you have in yours…. I have begun to think that…." She was treading dangerously now. It was difficult to reject someone you loved so desperately, even if it meant you were letting him know that you loved his true self. She thought she knew what she was doing, but would he understand? She had to try to make him. She could feel his bewilderment. "Zorro… I …I don't know how to say this…"

"Victoria," his voice was barely a whisper, "I understand. I … I really need to be going. I have stayed here far too long. You have clarified much for me tonight. Thank you." He crossed over to her and stood looking down at her. They both felt the pull of the other. He wiped a tear from her face with a gloved hand and drew her to him. They kissed passionately. But only once.

He turned and was gone before she opened her eyes.

She cried herself to sleep that night clutching the ring in her hand. Had he noticed that she had not given it back? She probably should have, but it was her one link to him. As long as she had the ring, Zorro was hers. And she really wanted both men. For he was truly both Zorro and Diego.

Zorro kept Tornado to a walk on the way back to the hacienda. He was lost in deep thought about all that he had learned tonight. Victoria's words weighed heavily on him. She had essentially told him that she was ending the relationship with Zorro in order to have one with Diego. That was good, wasn't it? Then why did he feel so badly about this?

And what was that bit about a ring? Zorro had given her a ring. And if he were going to give her a ring, he knew exactly which ring it would be. He'd have to look in his father's room for the emerald ring that belonged to his mother tonight. If it wasn't there…well, that would be another mystery explained. Maybe when he saw her again tomorrow as Diego, he would be able to shake this feeling. This was getting rather complicated. Had he lived like this for the past five years? How had he kept it all straight?

Of course, he hadn't had to deal with these blasted headaches for all that time! They did take their toll on one. He must look through all those books in the cave for one on the medical sciences. Maybe there was some medicinal herb he could find that might help with them. He surely didn't need the distractions they were causing. He had work to do.

The problems of the pueblo seemed overwhelming. Now he knew why Zorro existed. And he suspected this book of the crimes of Zorro was going to be able to explain that fact even better. After hearing Victoria expound on the virtues of Zorro, he was no longer consumed with guilt over unknown deeds. He may have acted outside the law, but it did appear that he had never taken a life. And he had been on the side of justice even when the law had failed to be.

That brought to mind those bandits. He wished he could remember that day. It would help if he knew what they had all looked like. After so long a time, it would be impossible to track the ones who escaped. So it would be the captured ones that would have to help him. He would have to think about this. They were apparently going to be transferred day after tommorow. That would give him time to think of something.

He guided Tornado to the formation of rocks that hid the entrance to the cave. The horse stepped precisely on the concealed plate and the doorway opened. And for one brief moment, a memory of this slice of time replayed across Diego's mind. What was that word the French had for it? Déjà vu? Yes, he had done this many times before tonight.

Once he had Tornado brushed down, Diego slipped out of his costume and into his customary ruffled shirt and slim pants. He fetched the book from the saddlebags and settled into the chair, propped his legs upon the huge table and began reading.

From page one, the accounts of "Zorro the outlaw" read like a litany of sins against humanity itself. Alcalde Luiz Ramon had begun this tome just after Diego had returned from Madrid. It had been continued by De Soto with the last entry being made just 3 weeks ago. Zorro had released prisoners from jail, prevented floggings, stolen money (from the de la Vega's accounts at the bank, imagine that!) and generally made fools of a good many military men. He had also captured bandits, rescued a couple of kidnapped children, prevented several robberies and come to the aid of many peasants, peons and caballeros in need of help.

"Both of the alcaldes should have gone into literary careers," Diego mumbled, "for in making the exploits of Zorro sound like crimes in print, they have accomplished a work of fiction indeed!"

He would return the book tomorrow when he went into town to see Victoria. Tomorrow might prove to be a very interesting day.