A.N – And once again… sorry for leaving this story unfinished for so long. But you'll have to agree with me 2020 and 2021 have been… unusual (just to employ subtlety, like Zorro.)
I've been out of work thanks to the Covid-19 travelling restrictions, and because I do most of my fanfiction writing while at work… Yeah, another excuse for my procrastination. That and being busy writing a TV series and doing lots of courses in screenwriting and copywriting. But now I hurt my back, and I'm in bed taking pills non-stop, so the muse and the shame have returned, and here it is, finally: a new chapter of this super-epic in length, never-ending story.
(I must say: I would like to do to the Covid and to the people behind this plandemic, the same Diego will do to the alcalde)
Chapter 93 – Striking fear
Toronado stepped on the wooden plank to open the secret entrance to the cave. Zorro pulled from the reins of the alcalde's horse, and the docile animal followed them into the dark passage without resistance. De Soto still lay unconscious across the saddle, not giving Zorro any trouble... yet.
Felipe waited for him at the cave, and he couldn't believe who his mentor brought in as a hunting trophy.
"I know, Felipe, I know," Zorro said when the youngster gesticulated wildly with his hands, as a protest. "But I got carried away when he insulted Victoria. I shouldn't have beaten him up like this, you're right. I'm not proud of it."
Zorro moved the small, rickety bed he had at his improvised infirmary away from the stairs and the lab area, closer to the dark, back passage, and left the alcalde lying on it while Felipe took care of his horse.
"I need to get him better, and then have a serious talk when he wakes up."
De Soto was breathing regularly, but shallowly. He didn't look too good, with a bruised, swollen face, but his injuries were not fatal. Zorro took his pulse and checked his pupils. He was improving fast.
"Keep an eye on him, will you? I don't think he will wake up yet, but if he does, don't let him see your face. Always keep your distance."
As a precaution, he chained De Soto's left wrist to a ring on the wall he used to tether horses.
"With this, he won't go far if he wakes up and tries to escape. As I said: don't let him see you, no matter what he does. And don't trust him."
Zorro looked through the spy hole then, and cursed when he saw all the "elite" citizens of Los Angeles, prisoners at the hacienda De la Vega, immersed in a heated discussion at the library.
"Drat. I'll have to get in through the main entrance."
ZZZ
When Zorro arrived at the hacienda, riding on Toronado, a couple of lancers had finished their round of the perimeter and had stopped by the entrance gate for a chat.
"Zorro!" they cried when they spotted the masked bandit.
The lancers reached for their swords, but before they could unsheathe them, Zorro jumped off the saddle and knocked them both down with a couple of mighty punches.
It feels good to be back! he thought, grinning. His sense of hearing had not returned completely yet on his damaged ear, but other than that, this was the best he had felt in months.
"What are you doing dressed like that? I thought you would not ride as Zorro anymore," Pedro said when Zorro walked into the hacienda. He was feeling much better, finally on the way to recovery, and was out in the patio for a little stroll, venturing out of his room.
"So did I, but desperate times call for desperate measures... How are you doing? It's so good to see you up and about, Pedro."
"All thanks to you and your excellent care, Don…" he stopped and looked around, then finished the sentence whispering: "…Diego."
"I told you not to use the don, but please, don't ever say my name when I'm wearing this outfit!" Zorro whispered back.
"Yes, you're right, sorry."
Pedro winced then, and held onto the external wall for support, holding onto his stomach.
"Are you sure you are well enough to be walking?" Zorro said, offering a helping hand to support him, taking him inside to sit on a chair at the parlour.
"I thought I was," Pedro said, relaxing a bit. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, Pedro, but please, don't over do it, take it easy. Now, tell me: how are you doing with the cravings?"
"To be honest, I could do with some more of your magic stuff…"
"Sorry, you know I reduced the dose for a reason. Don't worry, it will pass soon. At least you don't seem to be suffering with bizarre mood swings, as I did, getting angry just because."
"No, thank God for that! That would drive my wife insane."
"Now, rest here as much as you need. I have something to do."
"How was your encounter with the new alcalde?"
"That's precisely the problem… It didn't go too well."
He looked back at the entrance, where the lancers lay unconscious.
"As you are sitting nicely here, would you mind to keep an eye on these two out there while I sort things out?"
"Don't worry. I'll take care of this," Pedro said, but when he turned, the sneaky black shadow had already left.
ZZZ
Zorro stopped by the library door and looked inside, apprehensive. It was a good job he could tolerate that room now, once he had learned to control his thoughts. But the exchange with the alcalde had left a dent in his confidence, making him remember the episode in full detail again. Damn you, Ignacio!
The heated discussion he had heard from the cave continued.
"Who the hell does he think he is, that new alcalde?" one of the dons said. "He can't keep us prisoners here. It's ridiculous!"
"And where is Zorro? Nobody has seen him for a while," another caballero said.
"That certainly could be a problem, because he left the territory, but… don't you think we shouldn't rely on that man so much for everything?" Don Alejandro said.
"Zorro said he would leave the pueblo only because… because you didn't love him anymore!" one of the doñas said, sending an accusatory look at Victoria.
Upset, Victoria was about to reply to that unfair comment when Zorro walked in.
"Señoras y señores, it's my utter pleasure to announce our new alcalde has changed his mind, and he now reckons that keeping you all here until he can apprehend me is absurd, because that's never going to happen. So, you are free to go, amigos," he said, coming closer to Victoria, delicately taking her hand to kiss it. "And, by the way, you shouldn't blame Doña Victoria de la Vega, because she has nothing to do with this unfortunate situation."
"Zorro, it was time you showed up!" one of the angry dons said, heading for the door with his wife and daughter. "Thank you for your hospitality, Alejandro."
"You are welcome. Take care," Don Alejandro said, hardly looking at the man, baffled as he was by his son's sudden appearance. Deep down, he still had trouble accepting Diego could be the man under that mask.
One by one, all the leaders of the pueblo held against their will at the hacienda De la Vega left the building, followed by Zorro. More lancers at the gate tried to stop them, but when Zorro sent them a simple, menacing headshake, they reconsidered and retreated outside, beyond the gate, unwilling to be whacked unconscious like their fallen comrades.
Mendoza arrived then at the hacienda, and the lancers looked at him, awaiting his instructions. The sergeant looked at Zorro, then at the angry guests, and ordered:
"Let them go. These people shouldn't be held prisoners. They are not criminals."
"Good choice, Sergeant," Zorro said, glad the new, confident Mendoza was still around to make sensible decisions on his own.
"Lancers, help these men, and return to the garrison. Now!"
"What about Zorro?" Corporal Sepúlveda said.
"I'll deal with him myself!" Mendoza said, standing tall, resting a hand on his sword's pommel; an assertion nobody would have believed before, but now, with his current hero status, it was within the realm of possibilities.
After all the guests and the lancers left, Zorro laughed, tapping his own sword's pommel.
"Really, Sergeant?"
"Men of steel," Mendoza replied with a cheeky smile, shrugging his shoulders.
They helped Pedro to the library, where they joined Don Alejandro and Victoria. Only then Victoria hugged her husband, relieved.
"I thought I would never see you dress like that ever again! But this time, I have to admit I don't mind."
"I'm so sorry some people will always blame you for anything that happens in this pueblo," Zorro said, kissing her head. "But you shouldn't pay any attention to them. It's not your fault."
"Where is the new alcalde?" Don Alejandro asked. "What did you do to make him change his mind?"
"Well… about that…"
When he told them how De Soto was tethered to a wall at the cave, and so badly injured, they could not believe it.
"Why on Earth did you do that for? Are you insane?" Don Alejandro exploded.
"Father, I'm not proud of how I lost control, but what is done, is done. And now I need to fix it, and make that man understand he should leave us well alone."
"What do you need?" Victoria asked.
"For starters, a bowl of warm water and a cloth to clean his wounds."
"I'll take care of that," she said, heading for the kitchen, glad to leave the room that still made her so uneasy.
"I hope you know what you are doing," Don Alejandro said, taking a seat by Pedro. "We'll guard the secret door while you deal with this. But get that man out of this house as soon as possible, please, before we all get in more trouble!"
ZZZ
De Soto opened his sore, swollen, bruised eyes slowly, blinking, feeling the familiar metallic taste of blood in his mouth, that was also hurting. He moaned, licking his split lip, wondering who had attacked him so brutally. Slowly, he started to remember.
The last thing he could recall was a sword fight with that renegade, Zorro, at his quarters. But how did he get there? He had no idea what had happened since, or where he was, and he felt too dizzy to think clearly. He tried to get up, but his left hand was tied up. He pulled harder, rattling the chain, but that iron manacle was firmly fastened, clasping his wrist tightly.
Right then, he heard footsteps, but lying on his back, from that spot, he couldn't turn his head enough to see who that person was.
"How is he?" a man said. He didn't get a reply, although he carried on talking, as if having a conversation with himself. "Do you think he is waking up already? Let me see."
De Soto closed his eyes and lay totally still then, pretending to be unconscious.
ZZZ
Zorro hung the hat in the rack and approached the alcalde. He nudged the sick man a couple of times, shaking his arm, but he didn't move. Then, he sat in front of him to dab the piece of cloth on his face, cleaning his wounds, still ashamed of himself because he should have stopped the moment the alcalde fell unconscious. In this occasion, he had gone way too far with his wild punches.
When he leaned to a side to rinse the blood-stained cloth in the warm water, De Soto suddenly came back to life, reaching for the mask to pull it off, but he didn't succeed completely because Zorro was faster, holding onto the displaced mask just in time so the alcalde couldn't see his face.
Zorro moved his head back, out of reach, and De Soto changed his target, grabbing his shirt instead. They struggled then, topping off the bowl of water, that splashed them both. De Soto let go of Zorro's shirt to try to punch him, but he missed and ended up falling off the bed, with his arm hanging from the chain in an awkward, painful way, twisted backwards.
"Aaarghh!" he cried, trying to stand unsuccessfully. "You, bastard!"
"Alcalde, if you want to break your arm all by yourself, that's fine for me," Zorro said, standing up, repositioning his now wet black clothes, fastening the mask a bit tighter.
"Son of a bitch! Don't stand there, help me here!"
"Only if you behave."
Zorro helped De Soto up and left him sitting on the bed, where his arm could hang in a more natural, painless position.
"I'm glad you are looking so well all of a sudden, Alcalde. For a moment, I was disappointed you wouldn't even last one round with me."
"Where are we? What do you want from me?"
"At the moment, I only want to make sure you are not too damaged, and that you get a bit better before I drop you back at your office."
Zorro had prepared an herbal mix with a sedative, and offered De Soto a cup. He took it, sniffed it, and grimaced in disgust at the foul smell.
"Come on, drink it. It will do you good."
"No! That must be poison!"
"Alcalde, if I wanted to kill you, I could do it in a hundred, much faster ways right now, no need to go through the hassle of poisoning you. Slicing your throat would be considerably faster, for example, although messier… mmmm… Maybe I'd break your neck instead… So many choices, what a predicament!"
De Soto didn't find that funny.
"I'm trying to help you here, honest. Drink this and you'll feel better."
Zorro pushed the cup to the alcalde's mouth. He drank a couple of sips only before he jerked is head away from it.
"That's disgusting!"
"I said it would help you to feel better, not that it tasted like gourmet cuisine," Zorro said, in an almost perfect, French accent. "Drink."
"Who would have thought? A renegade who knows French… That will narrow my search."
"Not really… In this pueblo we are used to excellent food served at the tavern, that has nothing to envy from the best French restaurants," he said, regretting his blunder. He shouldn't give that man more clues, because he was already suspecting Diego could be the one behind the mask. "Vamos, bebe!"
The alcalde growled, but ended up drinking the whole thing. When Zorro retrieved the cup, De Soto tried one more time to unmask him, but Zorro grabbed his arm, twisting it behind his back.
"If you persist in your attitude, Alcalde, I won't kill you, but I'll break all your bones one by one and I'll leave you a useless cripple, I swear to God!"
He pressed then in an extremely painful pressure point in De Soto's shoulder that left him unconscious.
Damn, this man is going to be so difficult to handle!
ZZZ
"What do you mean, you left him unconscious again?" Don Alejandro said at the library, when Zorro told them what happened. "What part of "get him out of here" you didn't understand?"
"He was very determined to find out my identity. Ramón never tried to pull my mask the way this man is doing, like a vicious monkey, every chance he gets. The only way to make him stop was rendering him unconscious while he recovers. At least, he took my herbal mix, so hopefully I can ship him back to the garrison tomorrow," Zorro said, taking a seat. "Talking about shipping… How are you doing with the packing, Victoria? Have we got everything ready to board that ship for Spain?"
"Nearly there," she said. "Only a couple of things missing. Are you sure we can go?"
"Of course. Whatever the situation with the alcalde may be, you'll board that ship," Don Alejandro said, determined. "I'll deal with that man myself if I have to. I'll even take the blame for Zorro, I don't care."
"No, I won't allow that, Father. I have to convince Ignacio chasing Zorro is not worthy, but you shouldn't become the collateral victim of that plot."
"By the way, what will I tell my men when I return to the garrison empty handed?" Mendoza said.
"He could give you a black eye," Pedro said.
"No, thanks. I'll take my chances saying Zorro ran away like a coward."
"Yeap, that will fly," Pedro said, putting a smile on Zorro's face.
"By the way, everybody: I need you to get familiar with the term gourmet cuisine," Zorro said.
"Gorrín cochín?" Mendoza said. "What's that? Roasted pork?"
Zorro facepalmed. It would be hard work, and very time consuming to turn that man into a connoisseur.
ZZZ
The next day, after a whole night resting, De Soto was feeling better, and keen on trying to escape again. He pulled at the chain one more time, but as before, he couldn't move it.
"Hello? Anybody here?"
Zorro had fallen asleep on his mahogany chair, by the desk, out of sight from the alcalde. Felipe woke him up, but he took his time to stretch and be fully awake before he confronted De Soto.
"I need some help here!" De Soto cried then. "Oh, sod it..."
ZZZ
Victoria finished preparing all the stuff they would take with them to Spain, filling two large trunks, excited they could finally leave that place to go on their honeymoon.
"I'm ready, Don Alejandro," she said when she met him at the library. "All packed."
"Good, I'll asked Pablo to take the trunks to the carriage later. Let's just hope Diego manages to strike enough fear into the alcalde's heart so he leaves us alone."
"I'll pray to that," she said taking a seat by his side, looking at the fireplace.
ZZZ
"What the hell do you think you are doing?" Zorro said when he finally approached De Soto. Using his free hand, the man was shamelessly urinating against the wall, soaking the pillow, and when he heard Zorro behind him, he turned around.
"Relieving myself. Your room service is quite substandard. Not a single chamber pot in sight."
Zorro jumped back to avoid a splash of urine. It was just what he needed: a pissing contest with that man. He remembered De Soto as a strong-minded, irreverent, bold individual, and a total pain in the ass. And for the looks of it, he hadn't changed a bit.
De Soto laughed as he spurted the last drops of urine on Zorro's boots, enjoying how disgusted that man looked by his antics. But he didn't laugh for long, because suddenly, the mask bandit stepped forward, held his free hand by the wrist, and with the other gloved hand, he grabbed his balls in an iron grip.
"I had it with you even before we started!"
De Soto howled in pain. If he had ever felt scared about anything, that had been the time.
"Now, pay attention before I push your nuts through your throat! I no longer have any interest in this pueblo. As you have learned, very unfortunate circumstances made me loose the woman I loved. I will leave the territory for good, so you shouldn't apply yourself on the impossible task of trying to catch me, but I'll keep an eye on you from the distance, don't think for a second you would be unsupervised. Do a good job, Alcalde, and treat the people of this pueblo right and fairly, or I'll be back to fulfil my promise. Is that clear?"
De Soto swallowed hard and nodded with his eyes closed, too scared to speak or move. That man certainly looked serious in his threats.
"Is that clear? Say it."
"Yes," De Soto said with tiny voice.
"Louder!"
"Yes!"
"Good. I have your word."
"Let go of me now!"
Zorro let go of De Soto's wrist and testicles, and the alcalde finally breathed out, relieved.
"And put that dick away before I change my mind!
ZZZ
Victoria and Don Alejandro heard De Soto's agonizing cry. They looked at each other then, wondering what could be going on at the cave.
"Whatever Diego is doing to that man, I bet it's working," Don Alejandro said, uneasy, but hopeful at the same time.
ZZZZZ
A.N – I don't know if in any fanfic out there the alcalde has ever peed on Zorro's boots and he has replied with a ball squeeze. I hope not, because I like the "novelty factor", hahaha. (It's always hard to come up with anything new by now, anyway).