AN: I am glad to see you liked the first chapter of the new story and I hope you'll like the next. Please do continue to review as I move on and I promise to publish faster. It will take at least two weeks for all the chapters to be up, even if I do one per day (though that depends on you…)
Enjoy!
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For years he had been waiting. Years spent planning, deceiving, and risking his life, pretending he was someone he was not, so that he might ingratiate himself to those able to help him accomplish his goal. Years spent lying, thinking and rethinking his strategies, laying traps and buying loyalty, always trying to be one step ahead of everyone else.
The ruthlessness had come with time. It had not always been there and still, there were moments when it wasn't there.
Sometimes, he'd look at the children playing in the plaza and smile, remembering he had, himself, once been small, and full of dreams and illusions about life. Children he had never harmed, at least, not intentionally. Grownups, on the other hand, he didn't have an issue with either hurting or killing.
If he tried to remember a time before California had turned into an obsession for him, he couldn't. Sometimes, he even had a hard time remembering his true name. But, then, he had never used it. For all he knew, he was a De la Cruz.
Fernando had been born in California, just like his parents, who had both been children of the first colonists having settled the territory, when Monterey was nothing more than a name given to some rocks and pastures. In fact, his father and his mother had been children of the lancers who had built the very palace he was now living in as Deputy Governor. Not that they had also lived there.
No… His parents had grown up in utter poverty, as had the rest of the children born to the first Spanish soldiers to arrive in California. As Fernando's grandfather once put it, in his times, "the lancers dressed worse than the savages the Missions were trying to teach about Christ, despite all the blood, sweat, and tears they had given for that land."*
The young man had been barely a few days old when his family's fate changed.
One day, Fernando's father found the body of an unknown man that had washed to shore. Next to it, in a small chest that the dead man's right hand was still clutching, were the deeds to a large estate in the Philippines, together with enough money for them to live off for years to come or even buy a farm in California. The lancer decided to take the little chest and erased all trace of its true owner by burying him in an unmarked grave he dug on the beach.
After debating the issue with the family, everyone agreed that, should they use the money to go to the Philippines and claim the estate, they'd still be left with enough to make it prosper. After all, how often does a man receive such a gift from God?
Gathering all they had, his parents and grandparents, together with Fernando's uncle, aunt, and cousin – his mother's only living relatives – left California, hoping for a better future half a world away.
Neither his aunt nor his paternal grandmother survived the sea voyage. Yet, he and everyone else made it. Despite the storms and the mysterious sickness they had caught from one of the islands on which they had stopped for provisions, they arrived on the other side of the world safe and sound.
In the Philippines, they got their hands on the hacienda whose real owner, Victor de la Cruz by his name, was now resting in that unmarked grave on a beach in California, Fernando's father assuming the dead man's name. Nobody there knew any better, so nobody even dared dispute their right to the estate.
Though he possessed no memory of the land in which he had been born, Fernando, just like his cousin, Berto, grew up on their grandfather's stories of it; on accounts about him having single-handedly fought and subdued the savages living in the Monterey area to make the region safe for the colonists; of a first winter spent with a small son and a wife living in a drafty tent, for there were yet no buildings for the lancers and their families to live in; about the sacrifices they had had to make and the hardship they had endured only so that the Spanish King might reward with the lands they had conquered people who had done nothing to deserve them.
Now, however, in that new land, they had a new chance, a hacienda, and every intention of forging a new destiny for themselves.
For almost two decades, Fernando's family amassed more and more money. Slaves were cheap in the Philippines and worked hard, so the new landowners did little but watch their crops grow and use the money their sale brought them to buy everything they could have never afforded had they remained in California. And, by the time Fernando had turned 15, his family was one of the richest on the islands.
Yet money has a strange effect on most people. The more they have, the more they want.
It was part of the reasons why Fernando's uncle, having lost his wife years earlier, married a rich, older widow and adopted her small daughter, Ursula. And it was also why Fernando's father was killed a few years later, after being caught cheating at cards in a bid to deprive another haciendado of his lands.
The boys were already adults at that point, and Berto had, years earlier, left home after a fight with his father, dedicating himself to the Navy, where most of his activity revolved around state-sanctioned piracy.
With the Spanish authorities refusing to punish the ones having killed Fernando's father, for no evidence or witness was found in the case, a few weeks later, while the young man was already working on a plan to properly punish the guilty ones, his uncle made sure to avenge his brother-in-law by burning down the hacienda of the man he held responsibly, his wife, children, and servants with it.
Witnesses abounded this time.
Thus, a couple of days later, as the fire was finally completely extinguished, Fernando witnessed his uncle's death at the end of a noose, courtesy of Spanish justice, the same that had refused to do anything to punish his own father's murderers.
Exiled from the high society and, at the same time, as a consequence, abandoned by the woman he was due to marry, the young man was, at that point, forced to sell everything his father had left him and head for Spain. There, with no connections and his money rapidly vanishing, he joined the Military Academy of Segovia, graduating with honors just a year before Napoleon's invasion.
After graduation, he was sent to New Spain, where he was assigned to a newly-appointed Lieutenant called Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Arámburu. The Lieutenant easily took a liking of his new Sergeant De la Cruz, whom he kept by his side for more than five years, including during the fight against the rebel forces led by his own distant relative, Miguel Hidalgo**. Eventually, after being promoted to Colonel for the capture of the rebel leader Albino Licéaga y Rayón, Iturbide promoted his (by-then) Lieutenant De la Cruz to the rank of Captain, appointing him to the command of the garrison in Acapulco, a flourishing town at the other side of the continent, which served as the colony's main port to the Pacific Ocean.
Once there, Fernando first ensured the loyalty of his men, then, unwilling to live out of the money the Army was giving him and with the remainder of his fortune already gone in his efforts to ensure Iturbide's trust, he started scheming to enrich himself, not by taking a rich wife, as most men did at the time, but by winning the trust of the local haciendados and rich merchants, then using all their secrets to either get his hands on their properties or to extort them out of their fortunes.
It was during those years spent in Acapulco that stories reached him of a masked bandit called Zorro, who protected one of the southern Californian pueblos. About a year later, he also heard about a Spanish Colonel who had tried to sell that barely-populated pueblo to the British, using a forged document from the Spanish King granting him ownership over Los Angeles and the nearby territory. The man had lost his game, as well as his position in the Spanish Army and, eventually, his life by order of the King. Yet the story stuck with Fernando, as did one of the Colonel's men.
Meanwhile, back in the Philippines, Octavio, Ursula's older brother, who was only interested in women, card games, and alcohol, managed to squander most of the inheritance they were left with after his natural father's passing. By 1815, all they had was a small hacienda and a few slaves who, abused and forced to live worse than animals, were barely able to work the land. Bad weather, a pandemic, and new taxes imposed by the New Spain's Viceroy, under whose authority the Philippines were***, eventually left them destitute and reaching out to both Berto and Fernando for help.
Their letter happened to reach him just as the Captain found himself replaced as Commander of the garrison in Acapulco, after several accusations of corruption and mismanagement were brought against him in Mexico City. Though having made sure nobody was left alive to stand as witnesses against him, not that there were many, Fernando declared himself insulted by the accusations and the lack of faith Mexico City now had in him, so he decided to make his fortune and return to the Philippines.
He arrived there barely a month after Berto, who, having made his own fortune while advancing to become a Captain in the Navy – a rank he was granted thanks to the number of British and the French commercial vessels he had sunk with their full crew – had, by that time already bought another hacienda for his stepmother to live in together with her children. And, in doing so, he had gained Ursula's undying love. In fact, upon his return, Fernando had little trouble realizing that the young woman, who was barely 18 at the time, had already become Berto's mistress.
For a while, with him running the hacienda and Berto a slave-trade business – that the two cousins had started by investing most of their remaining money in two fast ships, their crews and about 300 slaves for starter – their fortunes again started growing.
Their social life, on the other hand, was nonexistent for they were never able to rejoin their island's high society. Despite all their money and the ranks they had earned, they were still outcasts, and the Philippines were no longer their true home.
When Ursula's mother died, no more than a year after Fernando's return, her funeral was only attended by the family and the hacienda's slaves; the young orphaned woman herself, in spite of her beauty and the large dowry Berto offered her, found no suitors on the island – not that either her or her stepbrother were interested in finding any; and, when Fernando tried, once more, to marry, this time the younger cousin of the woman he had been engaged to once, he found his proposal firmly rejected by her family.
Finally realizing he'd be unable to lead the life he had been accustomed to while he remained in the Philippines, Fernando, thus, started considering the idea of returning to the land of his birth.
From what he knew, the Californias were still a scarcely-populated land of opportunity. There, the caballeros were few and their fortunes barely compared to his own. Besides, nobody knew him or his family, and information about their controversial past was surely (at least) hard to come by.
They could take their slaves with them, sell the lands in the Philippines, dedicate their ships to commerce, and move to Monterey or to any other pueblo, where their fortune could buy them more than one hacienda, a reasoning his cousins all agreed with. At least, that had been their initial idea.
The plan to succeed where Palomarez had failed only started taking roots in the young man's mind when, at searching for new slaves one day, he and Berto stumbled upon a middle-aged Filipino slave, called Benedeto, endowed with the ability to make any man do his bidding.
After buying him, the two cousins took several months to come up with a plan to take over California – which, at that point, they planned to rule as their kingdom – then several more years to put that plan into motion, adding Ursula and Octavio into the equation.
When the time finally came, though, when all the pieces were in place, they found out the hard way that theory and practice were two very different matters.
Instead of doing as Fernando had asked and kill De Soto, Octavio decided to use Benedeto to have the alcalde become his slave, in an act of twisted revenge against him.
Then, the poor Filipino they intended to use to do their dirty work, sick and tired of using his gifts in a way that went against his principles and faith, found a way to escape in the hope to warn others, eventually ending up dying at the San Gabriel Mission, despite the padre's efforts to help him. His last word was the one he always used to wake those he had put under his strange spell, and he died hoping others might succeed where he had failed – not that Fernando ever knew that.
Adding offense to injury, Don Alejandro took over as temporary Alcalde, undermining the De Yeros' plan for Berto to become the new ruler of the pueblo.
And it all went downhill from there.
Within a week, only Fernando, Ursula, and a few of their men were still alive and free, heading south. Furthermore, half of their money was already spent, most of it lost when De Soto confiscated Berto's and Octavio's haciendas and freed their slaves.
At that point, Fernando had two choices: he could cut his losses and give up his plan, or adapt it to the new circumstances in the hope that he might still succeed. He chose to adapt it.
So, with Ursula by his side, he joined Iturbide's forces and managed to make himself useful enough for the General to accept him again in his circle, while the young woman fed him secrets she managed to extract from the high-ranking men who allowed themselves seduced by her.
Having found a certain potential in one of Berto's men, a certain Iago Aguila, Fernando arranged for him to replace a Spanish Colonel he had killed, and head to Monterey as the new Commander of the garrison. From that new position, Iago could not only act as his eyes and ears but also have enough power to implement whatever order he'd give him.
Most of Berto's other men he sent as envoys to Russia, Great Britain, the United States, and even Spain.
At the end of the summer of 1821, around the time the Mexicans were celebrating the signing of El plan de Iguala, the envoy he had sent to Russia returned with a delegate willing to offer the equivalent of 8 million pesos in gold to the man able to help his country annex Alta California.
Fernando allowed Ursula to convince him to take that deal and, together, they came up with a plan of immersing the land into chaos to the point that the Mexicans would rather recognize its annexation by the Russians than try to appease it.
As per Fernando's plan, all the Russians had to do, in fact, was let the colonists and the Indians kill each other before stepping in to get rid of whoever remained alive, claiming the land for themselves.
But their plan failed, and, as it did, Iago decided it was time to end the man responsible for its failure: the outlaw known as El Zorro.
The masked man had stood in their way once too many times and was becoming quite a nuisance. So, as Colonel in charge of Governor Frasquez's men, and enjoying his superior's confidence, Aguila barely needed to do much to convince him to act. That new plan, however, only managed to bring another defeat.
And, as news of said defeat quickly reached her, Ursula decided to come up with her own scheme to sell California.
At the time Iago thought it to be just another strategy to rid themselves of Zorro for, if all young men in California were to die, so would the masked outlaw. His overconfidence, though, was that plan's undoing, even though he never lived to see it fail.
Meanwhile, the Russians recanted their offer, but the Brits made Fernando a better one. The only catch was that they needed to get control over the territory legally, with the locals posing no trouble. So a new plan emerged, one due to transform him into the founding father of a new nation, meant from the start to only exist for a few months until the British could legally buy the territory and establish there a new foothold after having lost the States. From then on, it would have been no more than a matter of strategy, alliances, and opportunity until they'd be, once again, masters of the lands that had declared their independence half a century earlier.
Unwilling to fail again, Fernando first made sure to know the territory as he marched north with the Mexican Army. As he did so, he also took the chance to recruit to his cause as many men as he could, by money or well-chosen words, depending on the man. Still, no matter how many he recruited, if there was one thing he knew by that point, that was that he needed a certain masked legend by his side.
With his fame having long since reached most corners of the earth, Zorro was his best chance to make sure the Mexicans would not be able to regain control of the territory once he'd declared its independence. People of California would fight with him, and most of Spain's former colonies would easily recognize the new state should it be championed by an already-legendary hero.
Yet, in that mere plan lay his worst problem. Fernando was not one to accept any sort of competition for leadership, particularly considering what he was planning on doing. And Zorro was competition, for the masked hero, through no specific effort but by his very nature, threatened his leadership position.
After all, people hardly knew Fernando, yet even in Europe, they recounted stories about Zorro's daring feats.
That was why he needed the masked man under control. And, to achieve that, he had to find out who the man behind the mask truly was, so that he'd be able to know all his vulnerabilities.
Had he focused on that scope, on finding out Zorro's identity, perhaps Fernando might have even succeeded. But he also wanted revenge – for someone to pay for the failure of in his previous attempts, and for the people he had lost. Somewhat conveniently from his point of view, those people had all meanwhile become part of one family: the De la Vega.
Don Alejandro Fernando just disliked but had enough reasons to do so. The elderly don had agreed to become alcalde when he had counted on him not to, for the office was meant for his cousin, Berto. As temporary alcalde, the caballero had stopped the attacks against the farmers and arrested most of his cousins' men.
Half a year later, after being elected to the position, Don Alejandro had asked for a pardon for Zorro when Fernando relied on the Governor not giving him one. And, then, there was the not-exactly-inconsequential issue of him arresting the men the Deputy Governor had sent to find out the masked outlaw's true name, which had also resulted in him losing his "second-hand Benedeto" – Doctor Lozano.
Don Alejandro was no more than a nuisance, though, and he needn't kill the caballero. In fact, he'd much rather killed his future and left him destitute. That seemed like a far better punishment for the head of the De la Vega household in his mind.
And, since that future was Don Diego de la Vega, a man Fernando instinctively disliked the moment he had met him, getting rid of him played right into his plans.
After all, even though, at a first glance, the don barely seemed a threat to him, Fernando knew better than to dismiss him. Despite him being an intellectual interested in medicine, with no talent for swordplay and a predisposition for cowardice – from what the Deputy Governor had been told – for the past year, every time one of his plans had failed, the De la Vega heir had been right there to contribute to its failure, one way or another.
He had not always been set on destroying the slightly younger man, though. That decision he only took after finding out – from the reports the former administration of Alta California had left behind – that it had been Diego to cause Palomarez's plan to fail. Unwilling to repeat any of the mistakes the Colonel had done, after a first failed attempt to soil the caballero's reputation, Fernando, thus, made him a main target.
Last but not least, De Soto he only wanted to kill for revenge. The man had killed his cousins and had ordered their captured men executed for their crimes, so the Deputy Governor simply wanted him to pay for his deeds.
Still, despite his advantages and the number of men at his disposal, all his plans had failed, and they had failed so spectacularly that it was Fernando to end up licking his wounds after each one.
Now, time was running out and he still needed to make sure to buy Zorro's loyalty and, thus, put his plan back on track. His opportunity to seize California was so close that he could almost touch it. And he could no longer risk any more failures.
So, after weighing his options, a few days after he had sent all his remaining men south to remove the De la Vega heir from his path, assassinate the Governor, and finishing to organize the independence movement, he decided that he needed to take command of the operation.
"Are you certain of this? Perhaps you'd better stay here. The men know what they must do…" Ursula said as he was due to leave for Los Angeles, just a day after the Governor, his daughter, the Commander of his guards, and several of his guardsmen had headed that way.
"As recent events proved, I can only truly rely on myself," Fernando answered. "It is my plan, so it will be I to make sure it comes to fruition. I can't afford another failure. Not at this point."
"But... The Governor left you in his place. If our men fail again, what will he think of seeing you in Los Angeles? He'll become suspicious. And Emmanuel is surely looking forward to getting rid of you."
"I already know how to justify my presence there, should the men fail to kill him on his way. And, trust me… If Dos Santos decides to stand in my way, he'll utterly regret it. In fact, he'll utterly regret his decision to come to California anyway…" He told her, an evil smile on his lips.
"But… Fernando, I have a bad feeling about this. Last night I dreamt… about Berto and Octavio. They said –"
"Enough with your superstitious nonsense, Ursula! I loved your brothers but they failed because they underestimated their adversaries. I am not as foolish as they were." He said as he glanced at her. "Unfortunately, the lancers left here are, most of them, loyal to the Governor and to Emmanuel, so be careful! Oviedo may be on our side, but he doesn't have the proper charisma to attract the men. You, on the other hand…I trust you can make sure they are on my side upon my return!"
"You expect me to… to prostitute myself to those dirty soldiers?" She asked, enraged.
"I expect you to do whatever is necessary for our plan to succeed! Unless you want to spend the rest of your life destitute, a mere whore, selling yourself for money to every dirty farmer and sweaty sailor willing to pay." He replied. "Understand this, Ursula: at this point, if we fail, my life will end on the gallows and yours in the gutter!" He added, silencing the young woman.
Leaving a kiss on his cousin's forehead as he signed to his secretary to accompany her to the palace, Fernando turned and, together with two of his loyal lancers, boarded a commercial ship whose captain was under orders to head at full speed towards Los Angeles.
The young woman remained on the shore for as long as she could still see him, then slowly allowed her cousin's man to accompany her back to her quarters, a feeling of foreboding overwhelming her.
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*Based on a true account of how the Spanish lancers were treated in those days as seen through the eyes of a man traveling to California at the beginning of the 19th Century. It stuck with me.
**Historical fact – because God does love irony.
***Rather accurate from a historical POV.