Already warned about Plomarez, Diego entered the pueblo through a back alley. Leaving his mare behind the tavern, he carefully approached one of the windows at hearing the noise coming from inside, just in time to overhear Luis Ramone confronting the colonel about the latter's decision to seize the tavern for him and his men.

Taking a few moments to process what was going on, the tall caballero then made his way inside the kitchen, trying to look as carefree as he usually did at spotting Victoria and Mendoza taking refuge there.

*In fact, he entered just in time to see the sergeant almost stab himself in the behind with a knife that lay on Victoria's work table.

"Careful, Sergeant, that's sharp." He warned as the poor soldier cursed the knife.

"What are you doing here, Don Diego?" Mendoza inquired as he and Victoria glanced toward him.

"Well, I saw the glorious Colonel and his men approaching, and I decided that discretion might be the better part of valor. Certainly would have been for the alcalde!" He replied.

"And what is the alcalde going to do about Palomarez?" Victoria asked, clearly annoyed with the newcomer.

"What can he do? Palomaez is a Colonel under orders from the king." Mendoza explained.

"So we're just gonna' let a madman take control of the pueblo?" The young woman inquired instead.

"Believe me, the alcalde would like nothing better than to have Palomarez gone. But until Zorro's capture, what can he do?" The poor lancer asked.*

"And how does he plan to capture Zorro, Sergeant?" Diego inquired.

"He… He is going to organize a lottery at midnight to extract the name of someone to be executed at dawn. He plans on hanging one of the pueblo's citizens every day, until Zorro is delivered to him." Mendoza explained.

"But… But he can't do that! Can he, Diego?" Victoria asked her friend, predictably outraged about that cruel man's initiative. "It can't be legal!"

"He can do whatever he wants, Señorita! He's in charge now!" Mendoza answered. "And the alcalde told me Colonel Palomarez was known as "The Butcher" during the Yucatan Campaign… He's not someone to be trifled with!"

"There must be some limits to the powers he was granted…" Diego said, in turn, pensively.

"We must stand up to him! We can't allow innocents to die unjustly because that tyrant so wishes it!" The young woman insisted, her gaze switching between the two men in her kitchen.

"Actually, should anyone try to interfere, that would only give this Colonel more reasons to kill people. He can always tell the king he leveled this pueblo to quench a rebellion, and who will contradict him should there be no one left alive to do so?" The caballero retorted. "I should go home…" he said next. "My father will want to hear about this."

"Isn't Don Alejandro visiting your relatives in Santa Barbara?" Victoria inquired.

"Yes. Fortunately… But I intend to send him a letter with one of our men. And he'll need to leave as soon as possible if he is to reach Buenaventura before nightfall."

ZZZ

"Felipe," Diego called as soon as he returned, finding his ward sweeping the floor in the library.

The boy abandoned the broom by the fireplace and headed towards the caballero, who had meanwhile sat at the desk and started to write.

"A certain Colonel Palomarez has taken over the pueblo," Diego informed the boy as he finished composing a letter, just before starting to write another one. "He is under orders to capture Zorro at any price," he continued, pausing for a few moments, "and intends to do so by executing one of the pueblo's citizens every day until his mission is fulfilled."

The boy's eyes grew as he watched him worriedly, just waiting for his mentor to finish writing the second letter.

"Don't worry, Felipe," Diego smiled as he glanced at him. "Zorro will have something to say about such an initiative. Now, take this note –" he continued, folding the first paper he had written and pouring some wax on it before sealing it and handing it to Felipe "to Pablo and ask him to ride to Santa Barbara to deliver it to my father. Then," he said, proceeding to do with the second letter the same as he had done with the first, "take this letter to San Pedro yourself. Deliver it to Don Arturo and wait for his reply. Make sure he understands it's urgent and of utmost importance."

Felipe shook his head, wondering why take a message to said haciendado.

"The Sergeant mentioned that Palomarez had fought in the Yucatan Campaign, just like Don Arturo. I'm hoping he might have some information to give me about the man…" Diego explained. "Know thy enemy, Felipe!" he added with a reassuring smile before the boy headed away.

Taking a few moments to think, Diego headed for his library and reached for a couple of books, which he took with him to the cave; then spent about an hour perusing them until he found the information he needed.

ZZZ

Felipe returned as he was getting ready to head for the pueblo.

Everyone had been summoned to the tavern at midnight, and Diego simply informed his ward that he was going, especially since he had no intention of allowing any of his employees to attend, and his presence mainly made up for their absence.

"What if he extracts your name?" Felipe signed to ask, worriedly.

"I took some gunpowder with me, Felipe, just in case. If mine is the name extracted from the bowl, I will use it to escape," he said. "I can neither confess to being Zorro nor stop the executions if I am dead, can I? Now, do you have a letter for me?"

The boy handed him Don Arturo's message, and the caballero hurriedly opened and read it, then gave it back to the boy and, putting on his jacket, headed for the door. "I'll be back shortly, Felipe. Don't worry!" he turned to say before exiting.

ZZZ

A large crowd had already gathered in and around the tavern by the time Diego arrived in the plaza. The caballero left his horse in the municipal corral and headed inside, stopping on the way to exchange a few words with one or another of his acquaintances, trying to reassure them that things would be alright and that any drastic action they were discussing was sure to fail or result in even more harm than the Colonel could inflict on them.

*Before the name of the condemned was drawn, Diego tried to prevent the lottery from taking place, explaining to Palomarez that nobody knew Zorro's true identity, and, thus, nobody could give him what he wanted. But the man seemed unconvinced, certain his plan was a truly good one.

Mendoza's name was drawn, and the man almost fainted at being informed he was to hang the following day. The alcalde's shock at being told that even his name was in the bowl was almost as great.

"Zorro should have shown himself by now," Victoria muttered as they all watched Mendoza being dragged away to jail.

"Don't worry, Zorro will help somehow," Diego tried to encourage her.

"Unless he's learned what we already know." Ramone contradicted him.

"And what's that, Alcalde?" the caballero wondered, curiously.

"That Colonel Palomarez is a man with no mercy." the official answered, before heading for his office.

After making sure to put a note on Victoria's pillow, asking her to leave the back door of the tavern open. Signing the note with a Z, Diego also left, heading for the hacienda.

ZZZ

Zorro exited the cave about an hour after Mendoza's arrest. First, he headed for the back of the prison, leaving Tornado there, close to the wall. In the faint moonlight, he was quite sure the black horse would be almost impossible to spot.

Then, slowly, he made his way across the plaza, avoiding the men on guard. Halfway, he had to take a few steps back and hide behind a pillar as he noticed the alcalde exiting his office and heading for the church. He remained there, watching a while longer until he saw the young man guarding the white adobe building at night opening to allow the official inside.

Shaking his head, Zorro then continued on his way.

*A coyote howled in the distance as he entered through the unlocked back door of the tavern to find Palomarez writing in the taproom, by candlelight.

The man didn't even realize he was there until he felt a sword tapping his chest to attract his attention. "Zorro!" the Colonel exclaimed, realizing his situation.

"Shh!" The black-clad outlaw uttered.

"Guards!" Palomarez then tried to call, but his tone was dimmed by the tip of Zorro's sword pressed against his throat.

"Please! People are trying to sleep," he said in a mocking tone which soon became menacing. "Keep your voice down or your sleep could be longer than you'd like."

"In the event of my death, I have given orders for my men to execute two people each day, until your capture," Palomarez warned.

"I'm not here to take your life, Señor," Zorro told him.

"Prove it!" The Colonel retorted.

"Under certain conditions, I'm prepared to surrender." The masked man informed him, taking his sword from the older man's throat and sheathing it.

That gesture and the outlaw's words determined the official to believe he had the upper hand. He, thus, stood up, a glass in his hand, and smiled as he asked what said conditions were.

"That you and I meet on the field of honor, man to man," Zorro answered.

"I'm a master swordsman. You wouldn't dare challenge me!" Palomarez retorted, his self-confidence growing by the second.

"I would indeed, Señor," Zorro assured him.

"I promise you an agonizing death." the Colonel threatened.

"Justice for the people is not without its price." the masked outlaw answered.

"Shall we say the plaza, at sunrise?" Palomarez asked, certain he had already won.

"Si." Zorro agreed. "If I win, you and your men must leave Los Angeles."

"And if you lose, then you die."

"In either case, innocent people will be kept from the gallows."

"You are indeed a man of honor." the Colonel remarked at those words.

"Gracias, Señor!"

Barely had the outlaw uttered those words when Palomarez added, "And a fool... Guards! Guards!" he shouted, and, in moments, Zorro found himself at the wrong end of several muskets. He didn't even attempt any resistance. "Put him behind bars! He hangs at sunrise." the Colonel ordered, raising his glass to drink in honor of his easy victory.*

ZZZ

Diego had risked much that night, but it was the only reasonable plan he could come up with.

From Don Arturo's letter, he had found out that the Colonel – despite his many crimes, clear disdain for others' lives, and the greed he did his best to hide – had always tried to appear as a man of honor. He took much pride in his skills with the sword, considering himself Spain's best swordsman, and was known to always keep his word once given, especially if there were any witnesses to his promises.

The caballero, thus, played it all on one card: he bet the Colonel would accept his challenge and, that, should he win, he would also keep his word and leave Los Angeles.

Having been warned about the man, he also made sure to have a few tricks on hand.

For one, since he already knew that the Colonel would be waiting for him, he also knew there was a good chance that he might end up in prison. That was why Tornado was waiting behind said building with all the gear he needed to escape jail.

The trickiest part, though, was making sure the Colonel would not unmask him right away, but give him the time to make his escape. Anticipating that, should he pose no resistance, Palomarez might believe he could postpone the unmasking, sheathing his sword was a calculated move to obtain said result. Yet, just in case, he had also made sure to have at hand – or in hand – the same trick he had used to create a thick smoke when he had captured that French magician/highway bandit a couple of months earlier.

He didn't have to use it, though. As anticipated, Palomarez, fully certain Zorro was now at his mercy, ordered him taken to jail, and Ramone, for once, was too busy praying to get rid of the Colonel, thus only finding out of Zorro's capture when it was already too late.

*Escaping prison was hardly a difficult task, especially since Mendoza seemed in no way inclined to warn the guards about his actions in that sense. He even made sure to recover his sword – which the Colonel's men had carelessly left attached to a nearby wall – and only escaped after reminding Palomarez of their 'appointment' the following morning.

"I had him! I had him!" The Colonel uttered as he hurried to enter the cell only to see Zorro leave on Tornado.

"Yes, you had him." Mendoza confirmed, annoying the official even more than he already was.

"With Zorro's escape, the sentence is reinstated. You hang at dawn." The cruel man stated, leaving the poor Sergeant to contemplate his fate.*

ZZZ

The masked outlaw did not head straight for the cave after escaping the garrison. Instead, certain the Colonel would spend some time brooding and reproaching his men for their carelessness, perhaps even send them after him, he doubled back and headed for the tavern once more, this time with the sole aim of searching Palomarez's possessions.

Even had the strange, white-haired doctor not mentioned that his capture was just part of Palomarez's plan, something else had already struck the caballero as odd about the man's actions: he could not understand the Colonel's reasons for including Louis Ramone and his lancers in the lottery. Surely he didn't expect an outlaw to give himself up in order to help the men set on killing him? Which meant that something else had brought Palomarez to Los Angeles, not only his capture; and he wanted to know the true reason why he was there.

Careful not to be noticed, and aware of every noise coming from outside, Zorro thus entered what was normally Victoria's room. The Colonel had taken it for himself upon occupying the tavern, sending the young woman to sleep in the small one downstairs, so that she might still be close in hand to cook for him and his men.

"Had Palomarez known how easily I can enter this room, he would have chosen the small one instead." Zorro thought with some amusement as he started looking around, careful not to let anyone know he had been there.

A few minutes later, as he found what seemed to be the Colonel's journal, he heard the man return and, after hurriedly glancing on the last page, he left through the window, closing it from outside just as Palomarez entered his room.

The ride to the cave he spent wondering as to the meaning of the few words he had managed to make out. The Colonel's penmanship was not particularly good, so all he could understand was part of a short sentence stating "Without Zorro in my way, I will have little trouble fulfilling…" It wasn't much, and gave him no new clue as to Palomarez's true reason for coming to Los Angeles, but it did confirm that he was not there for the reason he claimed to have brought him there, and that his efforts to get rid of the one man protecting Los Angeles were justified by the fear that he might stop him from fulfilling his real plan.

What that plan was remained a mystery, though.

ZZZ

The following morning, after Zorro had managed to save Mendoza and completely humiliate Palomarez, he abandoned the black clothes in favor of his normal blue suit, and headed to Los Angeles, where he pretended surprise at finding the Sergeant in the tavern, enjoying a large breakfast, instead of dangling at the end of a rope. Sitting at his table, a large smile on his face, he encouraged the good man to recount for him the events of that morning, and Victoria sat next to him, eager to add to the Sergeant's story.

"So? What happened then?" Diego inquired at one point.

"He and Palomarez fought," the Sergeant answered. "Oh, Don Diego, it was like nothing I had ever seen before! I knew Zorro was good with the sword, a little better than me, perhaps, but not even the Colonel, who is a master swordsman, was able to defeat him! Though, Zorro did trick him a little bit…"

"How so?"

"Well," Mendoza said, "as they were fighting, Zorro retreated towards the gallows, climbed the stairs, Palomarez following him, then, when they were up there, he made sure the Colonel was above the trap door and, at the right time, he released the lever. That caused Palomarez to fall, lose his sword, and become quite injured…"

"Of course, his state was also due to the fact that Zorro punched him unconscious soon after he fell," Victoria continued from where the Sergeant had left the story. "Then, he put the Colonel on Pancho's donkey, and let him head out of town on his own, just as the alcalde returned with the guardsmen. Palomarez felt so humiliated at returning to his senses that he ordered his men to gather his belongings and prepare to leave. They started for San Pedro just about 30 minutes before your arrival."

Diego took a minute to think. "So you saw Zorro up close?" He asked Mendoza.

*"He was sitting right next to me in jail." The lancer confirmed.

"You actually saw him there, Sergeant?" he again asked, pretending he was unconvinced.

"Si, Don Diego," the man assured him. "Zorro came this close to the gallows."

"Yet he managed to escape from the alcalde's prison." Victoria pointed out.

"Ah, between you and me, this Zorro is a pretty smart fellow. He is, perhaps, even a little smarter than the alcalde." Mendoza said as if sharing a secret.

"No! You really think so?" Diego asked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Zorro was completely responsible for Palomarez's departure," Mendoza confirmed.

"But how could he single-handedly drive such a tyrant from the pueblo? He must have had help," Diego encouraged the good man to assume some of the credit.

"Well, I was there, so there was a certain official military presence," he predictably answered, standing up a little straighter, proud of himself.

"That's what I thought, Sergeant. So when Colonel Palomarez returns, he'll surely be looking for you, as well." Diego noted, certain that was not the last they'd see of that cruel man.

"No problem. When Palomarez returns, I will si…" Mendoza started, then heard himself as the words left his mouth and stopped mid-sentence. "Madre de Dios! Palomarez is coming back?" he asked in a squeaky voice.*

Diego shrugged his confirmation. Certain another plan was afoot, something told him that Palomarez would not just give up so easily. For now, he was gone, however; the pueblo was safe from him; and its masked defender had a little more time to come up with a plan of his own.

Yet, such a plan required more information, the source of which was quite a problem.

Diego's grandfather, back in Spain, was not exactly welcomed at Court, since he still refused to swear his allegiance to the Bonapartes. His uncles had followed their father's example, so they were also hardly useful. In fact, he knew no one close to the throne at that point.

The only one he could actually think of asking for help was his aunt Carolina. As a woman of high birth, daughter, and daughter-in-law of counts, she was invited to most parties at court. And, while the men close to the king would hardly dare betray his trust by sharing his plans with noblemen that were outside their inner circle, their wives, who knew much about their husband's affairs, were far more inclined to share with other women whatever information they possessed. Especially with a smart, spiritual, and pleasant woman such as Diego's aunt. Figuring out how to send her a message while avoiding that others might find out about his request, proved to be the trickiest part.

ZZZ

Don Alejandro returned home about a week later. By that time, the shock of Palomarez's arrival in Los Angeles had passed, the gossip about it long since replaced by the news of the unexpected death of the pueblo's padre. The man, though he had been in the pueblo for just a few years, had been kind and generous with all those in need of help. And, as he was quite beloved by the people of the pueblo, it was no wonder that his death had caused them to forget all about the cruel Colonel who had made a short "visit" to Los Angeles before Zorro utterly humiliated him, forcing him and his men to return from whence they'd come. After all, none but Diego even believed that he might, one day, be back.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

AN: Excerpts marked with * are from the NWZ episode "A Deal with the Devil" written by Suzanne Herrera.