~Chapter 17~

Before long, three of Hawk's men came back with a child. It was a little Mexican girl of about ten, tied up and gagged. One of the men carried her slung over his shoulder. She wore a ragged and dirty dress and her feet were bare.

"Found her wandering along the road by herself," he said with a grin, setting her down before Carnal Love and Hawk. "She's a little wildcat. Put up a big fight so we had to tie her up. She bit me, see?"

He laughingly displayed tooth marks on his wrist. Love blanched as he looked at her. The girl could have been Nestrelda's little sister, or Nestrelda herself at that age. The long black braids, the wild eyes that were looking right at him like she knew him and was going to tear his heart out!

He backed up a step or two, telling himself he was imagining things again. Ghosts only walked at night, and it wasn't hardly even noon yet. Besides, who could capture a ghost? Then again, maybe she'd let them capture her....

He didn't even look at any of the others to see if she were having the same effect on them. Evidently she was not.

"Hola, mariquita," Hawk said pinching her cheek. She gave him a look of hatred that would have unnerved a man slightly more sensitive, she would have bared her teeth if she hadn't been gagged. "How'd you like to help us catch a fox, li'l sis?"

Carnal Love didn't want to go near the child. But he forced himself. He removed the gag, trying not to see the way her staring black eyes penetrated his very soul like arrows.

"What's your name?" he asked her. She didn't answer right away, so he said again, more roughly and loudly, "What's your name?"

"Maybe she no speaka Ingles," Hawk suggested with a wink, and asked her, "Como te llamas, chiquita?"

She looked sullenly at him until he repeated the question in cajoling tones. Finally she said, "Estela" so low Love thought she said "Nestrelda." He thought for a minute he would throw up.

"Estela. That's a pretty name," Hawk said, and Love felt leaden with relief. "Estela honey, we don't want to hurt ya none. All we want is for you to help us capture a bad hombre, you hear me?" No response from Estela. Only that same unnerving stare. "Now all we want you to do is to make some noise. See this?"

Hawk took a gold coin from his pocket and held it out to her, turning it so that the sunlight glittered on it. "I'm gonna give you a whole bunch of these if you'll be good and do what you're told. They'll buy you lots and lots of nice things for you and your family. Food, pretty clothes, toys, all sorts of things. Then we'll take you home to your mama and papa so you can give 'em these pretty gold pieces. They'll be so happy, right?"

A shy smile transformed Estela's face, and she reached out a dirty little brown hand for the coin. Hawk held it out of her reach.

"First you have to help us," he said, "then this is yours, and lots more like it. You got that, sweetheart? Come along this way then." And they headed in the direction of the cave.

RoZita slid down the rope.

"I can't see any of them now," she said, "but they may still be out there. Think they'd dare come in the cave?"

"I do not think so," Ahmed said. "They know Zorro is here."

With a smile he looked at his twin who now wore the black mask and cape and black shirt of The Fox, as well as the hat and gloves.

"Is there another costume?" RoZita asked suddenly. "I mean, by any chance have you a spare cape and mask and hat?"

Only the cape and hat that were his -- Don Diego's," Alejandro said sadly, "but they are very old. I hardly think they are fit to wear now."

Elena said, "Take off the cape and hat, Alejandro. You do not need them. They are only for dramatic effect anyway. We can make another mask. And you have other black shirts."

In no time at all there stood not one, but two masked Zorros. And one was teaching the other his moves as the women watched and cheered softly. RoZita felt proud of how fast Ahmed caught on. And he was able to teach Alejandro a few moves of his own, known only in the Mideast.

But she could not spend all her time watching. Soon she was trying to hone her own archery skills, such as they were, with the help of Elena, who was little more experienced at it than she was. There was only one target, but there were two bows and lots of arrows. They giggled as they missed the bull's eye over and over, but every once in a while they managed to hit it, or at least very close to it.

And then, they heard it. A high, piercing cry outside the cave. "Help! Help! HEEEELLLLLPPPP!!"

"Are you sure we are going the right way?" Pancho asked. This road looked strange to him. He had never been this way before that he could remember.

"Yes," Ernesto said. "My master goes to meet his lady love at the waterfall each day at this time. I had a strange dream last night, when I managed at last to fall asleep. A gypsy girl with long braids appeared to me, telling me I should go to the waterfall, for my master needed me."

Pancho spoke soothingly to his horse, which seemed a little agitated all of a sudden, then looked thoughtfully at the little band of peasants he had rounded up. Most of them were men Zorro had saved at the mine, and now they were going with him to return the favor they owed the hero. It had not been difficult to persuade them to help, after young Willy explained to him that Zorro was in trouble. And who better to lead them than Alejandro's manservant Ernesto, who was considerably worried when Alejandro did not show at the house?

Ernesto was one of those peasants from the mine also. He was a rather small man and not young, but he was ready to give his life for his master if necessary.

"My master was ill when he started for the waterfall yesterday," he said. "And Señor Love did not return home either?"

"No, may the tree of his family dry up and rot throughout eternity," growled Pancho. "But the little Willy told me that his filthy cabron of a father had El Zorro abducted and taken to the lair of the dreaded pirate Scourge. At first I did not quite believe such wild tales from a small boy, but at last he convinced me he was telling the truth. Certainly he was not the same pesky little gordito who ran off yesterday morning with lots of big talk, it was as though he had been magically transformed. And I knew I must help the champion of our people. So, I went to El Blanco Caballito and rounded as many men as I could. Of course these men are only too willing to help after what El Zorro did for them."

"I too," Ernesto said, his voice a little unsteady.

"I never knew Murieta had a twin brother," Pancho continued. "The little Willy told me of a white camel ridden by the other Zorro. I found it hard to believe at first. I thought, at first the boy has gone loco. Making up stories. But the way he described Murieta was very accurate. And yes, he said Zorro was ill. How could he have known that if he had not been there? Then he showed me a green bottle and a fishbone they gave him. The bottle looked and smelled to be from some foreign country. The boy said he came from Araby. It is very strange, I must say."

Ernesto shook his head silently, then touched the pistol in his belt.

"Look!" whispered one of Hawk's men, pointing. Carnal and Hawk looked where he pointed. A black hat was slowly emerging from the cave skylight, then a black mask, then the cape, and…

Love raised his rifle while Hawk shushed the child. He drew a bead carefully at the figure of Zorro, lining up the head in his sights, and fired. The head exploded, the hat and cape fell away. Everyone looked in awe at each other, slightly sickened by the blood that splattered every which way. Estela was silent, just staring straight ahead.

"I got him," Love sounded disbelieving as he spoke.

"I thought you was gonna take him alive," Hawk said. Love came back to his senses. Yes, of course that was what he meant to do, but the presence of little Estela was affecting his mind again. He wasn't doing a thing he had planned. Now he'd just shot Zorro...or had he?

"There's still the other one," he said, hardly aware of what he was saying. "You don't reckon HE'D be stupid enough to come out too?"

"I doubt it," Hawk said. He turned to the child again. "Scream some more," he ordered. She immediately opened her mouth and cried out, "Help! HEEEELLLLLLP!!"

They waited. No one came out. But a wail from within the cave issued.

"Let's go in," Love said, feeling slightly feverish.

"But --" Hawk started to protest, and Love cut him off.

"We're goin' in. We're goin' after my boy. Zorro's brains are litterin' the cave floor now, and we are gonna kill 'em all and take my boy. If you are too afraid I'll do it myself."

And he set his teeth together and started in the direction of the cave, and the others looked at each other and at Hawk, to see what they should do. Hawk looked at them for a moment, then jerked his head.

"Come on," he said. And he remembered to take little Estela by the hand and lead her along as though he was her daddy.

"Yuck, gross, what a mess," RoZita said, trying to scrub the splattered tomatoes and red peppers off Zorro's cape with an oily old rag. "I just hope that doesn't leave a bad stain."

Elena picked up the remains of the small burlap bag that had formed the head and untied it from the pole that had served as the body.

"That was a stroke of genius, RoZita," she said with a gentle smile.

"Pooh, it's an old trick. I've seen it any number of times on TV," RoZ said modestly. "It's a cliché, actually. But if it works, that's the main thing, I reckon."

The two Zorros peered cautiously out the mouth of the cave.

"They are coming," Alejandro/Zorro said. "I cannot believe they fell for that. They must be crazy...or stupid."

Although Elena knew her Alejandro was used to fighting she felt a terrible fear. The high fever had taken much of his strength away and now did one though circled in her mind, "Oh my God, I'll die if I lose him!"

And as she raised her hand to grab his arm he turned, hugged her and said, " My love, please be careful!" and they gave each other a short but deeply sensitive tongue kiss. Then they whispered simultaneously, "I love you." Elena tried to push the bad thoughts away and trust in their ability to fight.

And she saw next to her Ahmed kissing RoZita's forehead and lips while RoZ caressed his cheek with one hand while with her other hand -- Elena giggled a little to herself--she stroked his butt. Then the four friends put their hands together like the Musketeers, raising their swords and fervently wishing each other luck and strength and courage....

Ahmed/Zorro cocked Cochino's rifle. Then they heard a voice booming right outside, "Gimme my boy, you coward! Or we're comin' in shootin'!"

Alejandro and Ahmed looked puzzled at each other, then they saw the light. Love thought they still had Willy. And he'd never believe it if they told him the boy had been taken home.

Ahmed put a finger to his lips, then crept to the mouth of the cave, poking the rifle out. He could hardly believe Love would actually come into the cave when he knew he could be shot.

"I've got a little Mex gal here," Love said, grabbing the child none too gently from Hawk. "You gimme my boy and I'll let her go. If you don't give him up, she dies, you hear me? And she don't die quick neither. I'll cut her up in little pieces. A bit at a time. You'll hear her scream."

The men shuddered. Estela looked oddly unconcerned. She was even smiling a bit. Love could feel her eyes burning into him once more. He held her in front of himself with her back to his front so she couldn't look at him.

"Listen," one of the men said, cupping a hand to his ear. "Somebody's comin'!"

"Let 'em come," Love snapped. He yelled again, "One last chance. If I don't see my boy at the count of three, this little gal gets cut to pieces." He drew his knife from his belt and held it to her throat. "One..."

No one appeared. But the sound of horses' hooves could be heard getting closer and closer.

"Two..." Still no one. The men looked around nervously, less concerned now about little Estela than about who it might be approaching.

No one saw the brown-haired girl in men's clothes climb out onto the skylight with the bow and arrow. No one saw her take aim straight at Lucas Hawkins. No one saw her release the bow that sent the arrow flying straight to Hawk's heart.

"Three..."

And just then Hawk looked up and saw her, then suddenly stepped aside and the arrow meant for him hit the man directly behind him. But the man did not die. Instead he vanished right out into the air!

He reappeared in a street in Graz, Austria, in the year 1889, where he staggered right into a pregnant woman, knocking her into the path of an oncoming carriage, which ran over her, killing her and her unborn child instantly. Her name was Clara Schicklgruber, mother of the baby who would have grown up to be Adolf Hitler…

Carnal Love saw the man's disappearance and right away he knew he was going crazy and little Estela was Nestrelda without a doubt. Releasing her, he reached for his pistol and fired frantically at the skylight, but the girl with the bow had disappeared. She had crawled over the side of the cave and hidden herself in some bushes, where she fired another arrow into the small army, which was now scattering about like a flock of chickens when a hawk, so to speak, flies over.

Even so, she hit another man, and he was knocked into the Caucasian town of Gori, Georgia, in 1879, where he accidentally knocked a pregnant woman into the path of a runaway horse, causing her to miscarry the fetus which would have grown to be the man who would have come to be known as Josef Stalin…

The third man she hit was projected into the year 1960, in the city of Malaga, Spain, where he stumbled into a street and knocked a pregnant woman out of the path of a drunk driver who would have run her over. The woman was named Ana Bandera y Dominguez, and she was carrying the embryo of the movie actor who would come to be internationally known as Antonio Banderas…

Alejandro/Zorro charged out of the cave with his pistol, aiming at Love. Love raised his pistol and pulled the trigger, but a click was the only sound it made. He had run out of bullets. Alejandro threw down his own pistol and drew his sword, and Love drew his own.

Little Estela darted off, to be caught by Hawk, but she slipped out of his grasp and disappeared into the woods. Hawk pulled out his pistol and cocked it at Alejandro/Zorro, when a loud crack rang out and he dropped the pistol with a cry, grabbing his bleeding left arm with his right. Ahmed/Zorro came charging in his direction as Elena blew the smoke from the barrel of her pistol and reloaded it. Hawk, in spite of his wounded arm, was able to draw his sword, warding off the blow Ahmed/Zorro aimed at him.

The clashing of blades rang through the forest with resounding echoes. Ahmed/Zorro seemed intent on piercing Hawk, anywhere, with the point of his sword. Hawk was just as intent on keeping him from doing so. Love fought like the crazy man he now was, but he was not so crazy that he could not give Alejandro/Zorro a good fight.

Alejandro danced all around him, baiting him like a bear. He was remembering all he had been through the day before, both the good and the bad, and he used the memory to his advantage. The knowledge that he was to become a father made him cautious, less reckless than he might have otherwise been. Which was perhaps why Love finally managed to knock the sword out of his hand, at which Alejandro turned a back handspring, then turned a frontward somersault between Love's legs, retrieving the sword. Love tried to kick it away but Alejandro stomped hard on his foot, recovering his weapon. Then he rushed at a tree, jumped up high, bounced off the trunk with both feet, and butted Love in the back with his head. Love went sprawling onto the ground with an "umph" losing his sword.

That was when he saw little Estela again, sitting up in a tree looking right down at him with her mocking eyes. He backed away on his rear, terrified. It was Alejandro who picked up Love's sword and tossed it back to him. Love scrambled to his feet, growled like a rabid wolf and went straight for Zorro once more.

RoZita saw another man creeping up on them from the bushes, raising a pistol toward Alejandro. She took another arrow from her quiver, dipped the tip into the little jar into which she had poured some of the time-travel potion, fitted the arrow into her bow, and took careful aim.

And Osama bin Laden was never born.

But she didn't see the man who was creeping up behind HER.