Chapter 6

It was dusk when the soldiers from the quartel met up with the regimental guards that were to receive the prisoners. The time of day was a little unusual for conducting such business, but it was what the official orders had warranted.

The transfer was done quickly. Mendoza and his men were very anxious to rid themselves of the charge of these particular prisoners. He heaved a sigh of relief as he turned the company around and ordered his men to make for Los Angeles "Muy Pronto!" He couldn't wait to add some miles between him and these zombie-like creatures he had been guarding for so long. The blank expressions of those men made his skin crawl. He would be glad to go back to chasing after outlaws like Zorro after this!

Zorro watched from his vantage point until Mendoza and his men were well out of sight before moving in closer to be able to hear any conversation. It appeared the guards were stopping to set up camp right here.

One soldier gathered firewood while another unloaded supplies. The prisoners, wrists tied securely, were hauled off their horses rather roughly and herded over to an enclosure of rocks. Zorro circled around from the opposite direction and crept quietly up to the other side of the rocks sheltering the camp. He could hear everything perfectly.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Start giving it to them!" one soldier shouted.

"It has to be heated first! It will take some time." The man who was making some sort of preparations near the fire sounded strangely 'un-soldierlike'! He sounded scared to death. "It will do no good to give it to them now." The man also sounded quite a bit older than the others.

"Just hurry! The boss will be here in a few minutes. He will expect his men to be back to normal!"

Zorro listened to the sounds of the camp with interest. There was plenty of grumbling, a good deal of cursing and what sounded like a free-for-all fight among the men. They were obviously getting very drunk and they were, even more obviously, definitely not soldiers!

Soon the sounds of horses' hooves brought many of the men to their feet. The "boss" had arrived. He gave his orders imperiously and the men obeyed even in their drunken state. They feared this man. The drug, or rather antidote, was administered to the prisoners, and slowly, each one began to come out of the stupor. Zorro kept a keen eye on his escape route through the trees, should flight become necessary. This place was beginning to get just a bit crowded.

But he wanted to stay until he was sure of the "boss's" identity. Did he recognize the voice, or was his mind playing tricks on him again with half-remembered dreams? Yes, this voice was somehow familiar.

He crept along the back of the rock and positioned himself for a better view. But what he saw, he was not prepared for at all!

Before him stood — No, it couldn't be! The man was dead! Memories began blasting into his brain with the force of a pistol shot! It was Luiz Ramon! But the picture in his mind was mirroring this man falling from a tower at Devil's Fortress! Falling to his death!

All at once, Zorro realized he had moved out into the open in his astonishment at the man's presence. He quickly returned to the shadows. His thoughts were in chaos. Pictures of people, places and events were pulsing through his brain. He heard the sound of his own labored breathing and sought at once to control it. He couldn't afford to give his position away. There were too many of them and he was in no mental state to handle this right now. His head had begun to ache and his hands were shaking.

Luiz Ramon! What was this overwhelming feeling that he was associating with the man? Guilt? Yes, that was it! Guilt! He was partly responsible for the man's death. It had haunted him for years. Ramon had died that day because he chose to grab for Zorro's mask instead of Zorro's helping hand. The shock of seeing Don Diego's face staring back at him had caused him to lose his footing and fall to his death. Now it was the shock of seeing Ramon's face that was causing this flood of memories to engulf him. This was impossible!

Yet, there he was. No, wait! Ramon had a brother…a twin brother. Vincente! Yes, that was it. This was Vincente Ramon. Zorro heaved a sigh of relief. Thoughts and memories began settling into place. This man was truly evil in his own right and could be a very big threat to Los Angeles, but he was not a dead man returned to life.

Willing his body and mind into a state of calm, Zorro began working out the explanation to what he had just witnessed. These "soldiers" were obviously the missing bandidos, except for the frightened one. "He sounds like he is being held here by force," thought Zorro. "So, it follows, he is the one who is behind the mind-controlling concoction. This is good, for it means that they don't know everything about it yet. He is here to handle this mysterious drug."

For the next half-hour, Zorro listened to the men argue, complain and plan. He paid careful attention to every word of Ramon. The men were to rendezvous the next day, just before sundown, outside the gates of the pueblo. There was to be one more raid on the square, but this time, there would be no soldiers to worry about.

"But what about that man, the one who caused us so much trouble?" one of the men groused.

"De la Vega?" Ramon spat out the name. "Surely, you jest. That bookworm! From what I gather, he threw a couple of lucky punches and you all act like he did something heroic! If Don Diego de le Vega can put a scare into you people, then I have hired the wrong men for this job! Do I make myself clear? Besides, there's only one man in Los Angeles to worry about. Zorro! And if Señor Stanton does his part of the job correctly, we will eliminate that threat once and for all."

Ramon began pacing back and forth in front of the fire as he talked to the men. "Tomorrow, at noon, most of you will be waiting for the soldiers when they ride out to capture Zorro in the hills. You know what to do. The graves for the men have already been dug, I understand?"

The men were beginning to grumble louder. "So, half of your work is already done. What are you complaining about? You will be paid well at the end of it all." His tone silenced most of the men, but a few still, had questions.

"And what about this Zorro? Who is going to take care of him?"

"Zorro is mine! Señor Stanton and I will be having our own little 'private meeting' with him. Señor, you do have that mixture all prepared for our special guest, don't you?"

A weak "Yes" could barely be heard through the rumble of low voices.

"Good, then we have only to entice the fox into our trap. That Escalante woman should do nicely. It's well known that Zorro has some feeling for her. He will come to her aid and Zorro will be no more!" Zorro didn't have to see his face to know that he was smiling.

A strong voice from just the other side of the rock asked "This sounds just fine if all goes according to plan, but what happens afterwards? We get rid of the soldiers, the Alcalde, and this Zorro. But what then? We are still wanted men. The money you offer will only get us so far. You said—"

"I said," Ramon raised his voice, "that I would take care of you all. When my plan is complete, I will be in charge of not only Los Angeles, but the entire southern half of Alta California. I drew up the plans myself! And I saw them signed by the governor's own hand. You forget, this miraculous little liquid can be so, shall we say, influential! Los Angeles will need a whole garrison of soldiers to replace those unfortunate lancers that were killed by that outlaw, Zorro. You men will become that garrison! And Zorro, though he shall remain at large just in case we have need of his services, will be under my control! We will all have a free reign of this district and I will be the governor's specially appointed Lieutenant Governor. Soon, we will even get rid of the governor himself, and then I will be the supreme law of this land!"

Zorro had heard quite enough. He quickly, but silently, circled around the camp and back to a waiting Tornado. He had his own traps to set!