After the Sinestra affair, which caused him more than a little embarrassment (for several reasons), De Soto decided he needed to take a more active stance against his new nemesis and come up with a trap he'd be unable to escape. And, as chance had it, the arrival in San Pedro of a ship transporting military equipment to Monterey provided him with a perfect idea for one.
As a first step, seeing how the pueblo had a newspaper office and a printing press that just gathered dust, Ignacio decided to start publishing a series of defamatory articles against Zorro, accusing him of various misdeeds across California, and claiming that proof of his words would be revealed in a following edition.
The spelling mistakes in those articles amused Diego and Emmanuel but the content of the articles, itself, served to worry the two young men.
"What can he be up to?" Emmanuel wondered one evening, after finishing reading an article claiming that the proof against Zorro was to be presented the next day at noon, and, should the masked man be brave enough and think of himself as innocent, he should come to the plaza at noon precisely and face his accusers. The rest of the pueblo was also invited to attend the so-called "confrontation".
"It is quite obviously a trap... Shooters on the roofs, perhaps… Or some other way to get rid of me. I doubt he will respect the armistice he promises." Diego pointed out.
"Obviously. But what is he up to?"
"Perhaps the abbot might find out," the tall caballero suggested. "I think he'll invite Sergeant Mendoza to lunch with him…"
With a smile on his face, he put on his vaquero disguise and soon left, heading for the padre's hacienda.
About an hour later the abbot was entering the pueblo, heading for Victoria's establishment. Once there, he glanced around, noticing the sergeant had not yet arrived for lunch, and ordered everything on Victoria's menu for the day.
A while later, just after finishing his albondigas soup, he saw the man he wished to see. "Sergeant!" he called out enthusiastically.
"Hola, Padre!" the man said, nearing his table.
"Would you please join me? I think I might have ordered more than I can eat."
Mendoza's eyes sparkled at hearing that. "I can help you there, Padre!" he said, sitting down.
The abbot smiled, and slowly pushed a plate of tamales towards him. "Please, help yourself, Sergeant. I think I'm going to take a break before moving on to the next course…."
Smiling gratefully, Mendoza reached for the plate and started eating.
"You seem to have quite an appetite today, Sergeant," the abbot remarked casually after a couple of minutes spent watching Mendoza devouring the food on the plate. "Have you skipped breakfast?"
"Si, Padre…" Mendoza replied as he was chewing. "I had to! Most of the garrison is away to San Pedro and it's up to me and a couple of my men to do everything here until they return. I woke up at five and this is my first break today!"
"Really? But why are so many of the men away to the port?"
"They are bringing here a statue to be installed right next to the fountain. A statue of King Ferdinand, from what the alcalde says."
"I see. Must be a valuable statue, then…"
"Si…" Mendoza uttered with a half-full mouth as he went on eating. "The alcalde says it will help bring about Zorro's demise…" he stopped himself from uttering that, but not in time. Glancing around to see whether he had been overheard, he lowered his voice. "Please don't tell that to anyone else, Padre. The alcalde is afraid Zorro might find out if I don't keep quiet, and, while I trust you to keep the secret, I am not sure about other people…"
"Don't worry, Sergeant! Zorro won't hear it from me," the abbot said, then smiled as he watched Mendoza finish his meal.
ZZZ
*It was around 4 a.m. when the lancers handling the "special transport" heard steps approaching. Then a bump was heard, just as they had expected. Moments later, ten men had surrounded the trap they had used to protect the shipment from unwanted guests, muskets in hand, pointed at Zorro.
"We got him! Zorro's ours! We got you, Zorro!" one of the lancers exclaimed enthusiastically, already planning how to use the reward money.
The masked man had been taken by surprise and it had been only pure luck that he avoided breaking anything. Fortunately for him, the lancers were by no means good shots, nor did they pull their triggers quickly. So, after a few first moments of concern, he smiled, looking at them while using his right hand to slowly uncurl his whip.
"Buenas noches, amigos! I refer you to the book of Proverbs: he who diggeth a pit, shall fall in it." As he said that, he used his whip to pull some of the lancers inside the hole, then hurriedly made his escape, mounting Tornado and heading away. "Those lancers are far too unfriendly," he muttered as two of the men took their chances, and shot, one bullet even whistling past his ears.*
ZZZ
*His next attempt at finding out what the trap was took place in broad daylight, some 5 hours later, when he attacked the convoy straight on. The lancers did their best to fight him, but hardly stood a chance. When they were all unconscious on the ground, with only Mendoza remaining coincident, the masked man dismounted and headed for the large wooden box in which the statue was being kept.
"Stop right there, Zorro!" the sergeant warned, hand on the hilt of his sword.
"Don't even bother, Sergeant!" the masked outlaw warned as he signaled for his horse, and Tornado reared, causing the box to break as he kicked it with all his might.
Taking out some of the broken wood so that he might have a better look, Zorro found a cannon.
"Why would the alcalde bring a cannon here, and make us believe it was a statue?" Mendoza wondered out loud.
"Because, Sergeant, this is no ordinary cannon…" the black-clad man replied pensively, taking a cannonball to have a better look at it. *
ZZZ
A couple of minutes before noon, just after the shipment had finally arrived from the port and was installed in the plaza, Ignacio de Soto exited his office and headed for the small platform where everyone expected he would unveil the statue. The cannon itself was covered with a sheet, and many of those present remarked it was not as tall as they would have expected.
"Perhaps it's just a bust…" Don Alejandro, also present, suggested when Victoria remarked the same thing.
"Good people of Los Angeles," the alcalde began, glancing around the plaza, "as you all know, some serious accusations have been brought against the man calling himself El Zorro. In the spirit of fairness, I, thus, offered him a chance to come here today and face the charges, but –"
"That is hardly the reason why you called me here, Alcalde, and we both know that!" the masked man said as he showed up from behind De Soto.
"Zorro!" Victoria exclaimed with a smile at seeing him.
"Señorita," the masked man greeted her with a warm smile.
"You usually come from the other direction…" De Soto remarked instinctively after glancing around as if to make sure he was in the right spot.
"Do I?" Zorro inquired.
"Yes… And… well, Zorro, I have built this platform so that I might better face you if you were standing north. So, if you'd please…" Ignacio indicated, with a hand gesture, inviting the masked outlaw to change his position.
Zorro pretended not to easily realize his intentions, and, nodding, an innocent look on his face, he consented, directing his stallion north.
"So," De Soto returned to his speech, "as I was saying –"
"You have no proof against me, but you do have a trap you flatter yourself might succeed…" Zorro again interrupted him to say. "So, how about we find out?" the masked man asked.
"As you wish," the alcalde said triumphantly, as he took off the sheet covering the so-called statue, revealing it to be, in fact, a large cannon. "Prepare to die, Zorro!"
At that point, people standing behind the masked outlaw started panicking, many of them running scared towards the nearby houses.
*"Be reasonable, Alcalde! You could kill every citizen within fifty meters with that diabolical device," Zorro said, silently ordering Tornado to act nervously.
De Soto smiled to himself, already certain of his success. "Ah, then you've heard of Sir Henry Shrapnel's magnificent invention."
"Each cannonball contains hundreds of lead pellets. They cause devastation over a vast area," the masked man uttered.
At that point, Mendoza tried to intervene, hoping to stop the alcalde from making a terrible mistake. "Alcalde!" he uttered, nearing his superior.
"Be quiet, Sergeant!" Ignacio said, before returning his attention to the masked man. "This is one piece of artillery you will not evade, and you cannot outrun. And after I have blasted you out of existence, I will leave it here, mounted in the middle of the plaza as a reminder to the good people of Los Angeles of what can befall them if they try to cross me," he continued to say, causing more people to run for their lives.*
Moments later, Zorro and Tornado were alone facing the cannon.
"You can't do this, De Soto!" Don Alejandro said from the tavern's terrace, looking worriedly at the masked hero. "You will endanger more than only one man!"
"Get out of here, if you're afraid, Don Alejandro!" the alcalde replied as he lit the fuse.
*"No, Alcalde, don't do it!" Mendoza made one more attempt to make him see reason. It was too late, though, and De Soto was in no mood to let himself be stopped.
The cannon fired but no cannon ball exited its barrel. Instead, the explosion only affected its functioning, taking the canon out of commission quite permanently, and causing the alcalde and the lancers near him to fall on their backs due to the shock of the implosion.
"I tried to tell you, Alcalde," Mendoza uttered as he and De Soto were picking themselves up, "Zorro tinkered with the cannon."
"He replaced the cannonballs!" De Soto realized.
Mendoza nodded. "But he did promise to destroy them," he said.
"And you believed it? He'll use them against us!" the alcalde uttered just as the black-clad man, who had made his escape from the plaza right after the explosion, lit his own fuse, then hurried away as a new explosion was heard, and debris started falling on De Soto and Mendoza, causing them to fall again to the ground.*
"At least he told the truth…" Mendoza pointed out, rather certain he was again due for latrine duty for at least the following month.
ZZZ
After that debacle, De Soto kept to himself for a few days.
Diego, on the other hand, decided to spend that time as close as he could to Victoria, under the guise of the abbot, even ending up sharing his table with Gilberto on a couple of occasions.
"I'll wear her out!" Risendo told him one day, as they were sitting together in the tavern, the disguised man having just pointed out that he didn't seem to make much progress with the innkeeper.
"You really think so?" the padre asked.
"I am quite certain."
The abbot nodded, doubtful. "Tell me, Don Gilberto, how come you have decided to stay here?" he asked just as Victoria's helper brought them two plates of albondigas soups. "I hear you were due for Madrid just a few months ago, but only made it halfway before you returned."
"What can I say, Padre?" Gilberto inquired as he started eating. "I am a man in love. As soon as I realized that, I could no longer stand the distance between me and that beautiful young woman," he said, pointing at Victoria, who was serving at the bar.
"Really? But you are still in the army, are you not? Just like your men…"
"Well, it's complicated, Padre. I don't expect a man of the cloth to understand. But aren't you going to eat your soup?" he then asked, noticing the monk had not touched the plate before him.
"Ah… No. I don't feel very hungry, to be fair. I think I'll ask Señorita Escalate to give it to someone in need of a good meal but unable to pay for one," saying that, the padre took out a few coins and left them on the table. "Now," he said, "if you'll excuse me, I must return to collecting plants for my study."
"At noon?"
"It's the best time to collect flowers. If you are interested, I can bring tomorrow some of the specimens I've collected, and show them to you. The nature here is quite fascinating…"
"I'm sure that is… so… But… Happy as I would be to have a look, Padre, I fear I will be leaving in the morning, and I am going to be away for a few days."
"A few days? You are going far?"
"Far enough. San Diego."
"I see? You are buying or selling horses there?"
"Neither. I have some other issues to attend to."
Realizing the young man had no intention to share more and unwilling to risk causing him to become suspicious, the abbot nodded and decided it was the perfect time to withdraw. "In that case, I wish you a safe trip, Don Gilberto! I'm sure there will be other opportunities for me to show you my work," he said before standing up and taking his plate of soup to the bar to give to Victoria.
Risendo followed him with his eyes for a few moments, then returned to his meal.
ZZZ
"Gilberto is leaving tomorrow morning," Diego told Emmanuel a couple of hours later, in the cave.
"Do you know where he is going?"
"South. To San Diego. At least, that is what he told the abbot."
"Did he also say why?" Emmanuel wondered.
"He didn't seem willing to share that information…"
"I shall have Gabriel follow him." Emanuel decided.
"Yes… that would be a good idea. And send word to our man in the presidio." Diego replied. "We need to find out what he is up to…"
ZZZ
The next morning, as Gilberto, followed from a distance by one of the men working for Diego and Emmanuel, headed south, news arrived of a bandit gang attacking a small farmer and a haciendado living near Los Angeles, and causing an old man's death during the attack.
Zorro, thus, spent two whole days trying to track them, eventually finding the thugs one late afternoon, camping in a ravine situated some 7 miles from the pueblo.
Mendoza, on the other hand, was far luckier: he found the thugs in his prison, unconscious, and with Zs decorating their clothes.
ZZZ
"How did he bring them inside without any of the lancers realizing it?" De Soto asked the following morning after being told the news.
"I don't know, Alcalde," Mendoza replied. "Perhaps he has a secret entrance…"
"Don't be absurd, Sergeant! There are no secret entrances to the cuartel."
Mendoza knew of one, but he was not stupid enough to share that knowledge with De Soto. Besides, no one else but him could have known about it, seeing how the other person who knew was dead.
"Did you seal the roof window as I had asked you to do?" the alcalde asked next.
"Si, Alcalde. I did that a few days ago. But the next day, when the men checked, they found it unsealed. So I had them sealed it again…"
"And?"
"They found it open the following day. I think there might be something wrong with the locks we use…"
De Soto sighed his annoyance. "Or, perhaps, Zorro is coming here every night just to break them!"
"That might also be why the locks keep going missing, Alcalde…" the sergeant admitted.
"Well… Now I'll have to inform the governor of this. Do you have any idea how it will make me look? How am I supposed to explain that an outlaw keeps doing your job, and delivers criminals to this garrison?"
"Well…" the sergeant decided to say, "Perhaps you can offer him an amnesty. Then you only need to say that a man who wants no recognition has decided to help the garrison…"
The crimson color adorning De Soto's face at hearing those words easily convinced Mendoza that was by no means the reply his superior had expected.
ZZZ
For two whole hours following that conversation the alcalde did nothing but imagine himself catching and punishing Zorro. "All it takes is a good trap… One he won't see coming…" he uttered at one point.
What kind of trap he was to spring this time, however, he had no idea.
Around 1 p.m., he headed for the tavern, hoping he might find some inspiration in Victoria's tamales, had the sergeant not consumed them all by then.
"…wish a man would look at me the way he looks at you…" Alicia was just telling Victoria as he entered.
"I saw nothing special in the way he looks at me…" the innkeeper replied.
"Oh, please! Zorro is smitten with you, and you very well know it! Not that he's the only one around here."
They headed for the kitchen at that point, so De Soto could not hear anything else, but an idea did come to him. Forgetting all about his meal, Ignacio hurriedly exited the tavern, eager to put it into practice.
An hour later, just as Victoria was about to close for siesta, Mendoza, accompanied by two lancers, entered the tavern, heading for the kitchen. "Señorita Victoria," the sergeant said as they found the young woman cleaning dishes, "I am here to place you under arrest."
"For what?" she asked.
"For being in league with the masked bandit Zorro." The man replied. "Everybody saw how he singled you out, Señorita!" he explained.
"That's absurd! I don't even know who he is!" she tried to defend herself as the lancers grabbed her by her arms, forcing her to go with them.
"I'm sorry, but it's the Alcalde's order," Mendoza apologized as his men dragged her to the cuartel.
ZZZ
"This will not work, Alcalde!" Victoria said as the official came to pay her a visit about an hour later.
Her pride was still intact and her spirit unbroken despite having been forced to endure the stench and the dirty comments of the three bandits locked up in the cell next to hers.
"Whatever do you mean, Señorita?" Ignacio asked.
"This trap for Zorro you are using me for. It won't work! He's far too smart to fall for it."
"Is he? Please, Señorita, he's nothing but a bandit. And a bandit is no match for a Spanish official, such as I." De Soto replied.
Leaving her, a smile on his face at the certainty that he had the perfect plan to capture the masked outlaw, he ordered the lancers to start work on installing the gallows in the middle of the plaza. Next, he wrote an announcement informing the pueblo that Victoria had been sentenced to death for complicity with Zorro, and ordered Mendoza to nail it to one of the tavern's posts.
By the time Pilar, Victoria's helper, opened the tavern that afternoon, the entire pueblo knew her employer was to be executed the following morning, at the alcalde's orders.
ZZZ
"He's bluffing!" Emmanuel pointed out as the news also reached him.
"Perhaps…" Diego replied. "But we both know what he's capable of. We can't underestimate him, my friend."
"He won't hang Victoria! She's not guilty of anything, and he can't prove she is. Besides, Gilberto –"
"Gilberto is in San Diego! And I won't risk Victoria's life. Nor will I allow Ignacio to continue keeping her in his jail!"
"Those criminals are also in that jail!"
"More reason to get her out as soon as possible!" Diego pointed out.
"But if you try anything, they will give the alarm, and you might get caught. You are not invincible! For all we know, those thugs may very well be part of De Soto's plan."
The young De la Vega nodded pensively. "Then we'll need to come up with an even better plan than his…" he said, as he glanced towards the small laboratory they had installed in the cave.
ZZZ
Hearing about Victoria's predicament, Don Alejandro hurried towards the pueblo, where, finding several of his friends in the tavern, convinced them to go together and convince the alcalde to release her. They returned 20 minutes later, their arguments ignored.
Consequently, an hour later, some forty people were demonstrating outside the garrison, demanding the release of the señorita, and forcing Ignacio to send Mendoza and eight of his men to disperse them.
"Mendoza!" he called a while later, as the crowd seemed to calm down.
"Si, Alcalde?" the good man entered to ask.
"How are things out there?"
"Some of the people left, but most of them are still there, demanding the release of Señorita Escalante."
"Have two men guard the entrances to the prison with instructions to give the signal if Zorro shows up, but not put too much effort in trying to stop him. The rest of the men know what to do."
"Si, Alcalde," Mendoza replied, then hurried to leave.
"Now I'll catch you, Señor Fox!" Ignacio mused out loud.
"And how will you do that, Alcalde?" he heard a voice asking, and turned to see the masked outlaw suddenly landing next to him, sword drawn and already at his neck.
That was not what he had imagined would happen, and De Soto swallowed hard, looking at his nemesis with some terror. Moments later, he remembered, with frustration, that he had forgotten to re-seal the roof window.
"Hanging innocents, endangering the citizens of the pueblo, and resorting to using women to spring your traps… that does speak loudly about your sense of duty," Zorro said mockingly.
"What does a masked bandit know about duty?" Ignacio tried to seem more defiant than he felt.
"More than the current alcalde of Los Angeles, as it turns out," Zorro replied with a smile that seemed rather menacing to De Soto. "Release the señorita! At once!"
Nodding, the official smiled and headed for the jail, just as Mendoza walked into the office. At the same time, the masked bandit realized that it was strange for De Soto not to pose any resistance to his actions, and stopped him in his tracks.
"Alcalde, I…" Mendoza started to say, then stopped. "Zorro!?" he uttered in shock.
"Don't utter another word if you want the alcalde to live!" the masked man warned. The sergeant nodded, glancing towards his superior. "Slowly close the door, then free Señorita Escalante and have her join us here!" Zorro ordered next and, again, the lancer obeyed. Ignacio wanted to say something at that, but Zorro, noticing his intentions, pushed his sword into his neck's soft skin, silencing him.
Meanwhile, Mendoza, taking the keys to the cells, hurried to release the young woman, indicating for her to follow him. Upon his return, the Alcalde was lying on the floor, a Z decorating his pristine jacket.
"Señor Zorro!" the young woman exclaimed at noticing her savior.
"Are you alright, Señorita?" he asked, and she nodded.
"You killed the alcalde, Zorro?" Mendoza inquired.
"No. He's just unconscious. Just like you are about to be." The black-clad man replied. "I'm sorry about this, Sergeant!" he continued as he punched the man, then caught him as he fell, lowering him to the ground.
"You must know that the alcade was using me to spring a trap meant to capture you," the young woman said as the masked man left Mendoza to his well-deserved rest and stood up.
"And yet, he is the one to have fallen in it," Zorro said with some humor just as the captured bandits, who had heard some of the conversation going on in the nearby room, decided to alert the lancers.
"You need to go!" Victoria said, worried, just as five soldiers entered the office through the door leading there from the jail. Only seconds later, five more entered from the direction of the alcalde's quarters.
"Go to the tavern! I'll take care of De Soto's men." Zorro said, encouraging Victoria to leave as, sword in one hand and whip in the other, he prepared to face the lancers.
Four of the men shot just as Victoria was exiting the door, and Zorro ducked under the alcalde's desk before pushing it toward his attackers, injuring three of them. Two more stumbled over De Soto's and Mendoza's bodies and found themselves on the ground as their adversary jumped on the table and started fighting their other compadres. It was not easy fighting five men at once, but, fortunately for Zorro, they were never very good fighters to begin with. One after the other, they all lost their swords and ended up unconscious, on the floor, before the ones who had tripped over their superiors even had the chance to fully recover.
Outside, in the plaza, the crowd was cheering Victoria's release.
Temporarily deprived of all adversaries, the masked man hurried towards the courtyard, hoping for just enough time to make his escape. Using his whip, he tried to reach the roof, but two overzealous lancers, spotting him, decided to attack, and, reaching for his legs, they managed to force him back on the ground. As Zorro turned his attention towards them, they then glanced at each other, just before their heads were forced to bump into a nearby wall.
De Soto, awakened and helped up by his men, hurried towards the courtyard at hearing the noises there, two of his lancers following him. Just as they reached their destination, five other lancers reached it as well, coming from the armory, swords drawn and ready to fight.
"Give up, Zorro! We have you surrounded. You have nowhere to run!" Ignacio said, certain his nemesis had no way out at that point, nor could he face the eight soldiers in the courtyard and the ones standing just behind the gates to the plaza.
"I fear, Alcalde, that, as usual, you are misreading the situation," his adversary replied as he took a few steps towards the wall opposite the cuartel's main entrance, then, producing a small pistol, fired up. A red flare headed towards the sky at that point and, moments later, several projectiles fell inside the courtyard, exploding on impact and dispersing a thick gas. The main gates opened at that, and the men still on crowd control entered the courtyard in a hurry, just to find themselves completely engulfed by the smoke. Some strange noises followed – De Soto would have sworn they were the noises caused by punches and bodies impacting with each other, but he could hardly see what was going on. Then, as that ended, the official, once again, found himself at the wrong end of Zorro's sword.
"Head towards the plaza!" the black-clad man ordered, directing Ignacio towards the cuartel's main entrance.
As he obeyed and the smoke started to disperse, the white-haired man could not avoid noticing that all his men were now lying unconscious on the ground.
The crowd, at hearing all that was happening in the cuartel, remained there to find out the outcome of that battle, and erupted into cheers at seeing the Alcalde emerge from the smoke, a sword at his neck and a black glove holding it.
"I believe you have an announcement to make. About the Señorita…" Zorro said, his tone indicating to Ignacio that he was giving him an order.
"Yes… Alright…" the official muttered. "I hereby declare that Señorita Victoria Escalante is innocent of all charges brought against her! She is free to go…" He said, and new cheers erupted.
His job done, Zorro let out a whistle and Tornado galloped toward him, causing the crowd to part to make way for him. "If you ever again try to execute an innocent, Alcalde, I will finish what I have started that morning when we first met!" the masked man threatened before mounting the horse. He didn't leave right away, however. Instead, reaching for one of the torches used to provide light to the plaza, he headed for the gallows and, after a glance at the alcalde, set them on fire. "Have I made myself clear, De Soto?" he asked.
"Yes…" De Soto answered through gritted teeth as he was watching the wooden structure being devoured by flames.
Saluting the people there, many of whom were still cheering him, the masked man then guided Tornado towards the pueblo's gates, for once not seeming to be in any hurry.
"I'll get you one day…" Ignacio uttered as he watched him go.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
AN: Part of this chapter is a re-writing of the episode "A new lease on love" of the NWZ, re-imagined for this story. All familiar conversations and scenes are from that episode and I take no credit for them.