CERK goes AWOL! (1/5)
Radio Hijacking for Fun and Profit
by Christina Kamnikar (w/bits from the Sisters Morrigna & Jamie Randell)

Merc Central, 12:15 AM Monday morning

        Chris smiled sweetly at Dianne's retreating back, then turned and
walked down the basement stairs with a sense of relief. Not that it would
have been any more difficult to escape from Merc Central if Dianne
*hadn't* believed she was still a loyal Merc. But it might have meant that
the GHP would send more reinforcements after them in about half an hour,
when both she and Jamie were found missing.  After all, you couldn't
really keep the Merc Mommy General prisoner in her own palace. But it was
nice to know that only the Cousins would be actively looking for them over
the next few hours. 

        Humming happily, the MMG grabbed her leather jacket, Jamie's
Forever Knight jacket, and the keys to the gray, inconspicuous Merc van on
her way to the storage room where Jamie was locked in. Checking the
hallway and shaking her head at Dianne's sloppiness (you really should
have posted guards, Dianne, she thought) Chris unlocked the storage room,
let herself in, then locked the door behind her before Jamie could stop
her. 

        "What are you doing here? And why did you just lock yourself in?" 
the Web Goddess asked in surprise, catching her jacket reflexively when
Chris threw it. Chaos didn't reply, but walked to the far wall behind the
filing cabinet, pulled a few boxes out of the way, and revealed a small
metal door set into a steel frame in the wall. A sophisticated-looking
voicebox and lightpad next to it lit up when she placed her palm on it. 
"Christina L. Kamnikar, "Chaos", Merc Mommy General," she said aloud, and
the little red light went turned green, and the door slid upward into the
wall. Jamie's jaw dropped. 

        "Time to make tracks, kiddo." Chris grinned, and gestured toward
the little tunnel now visible. "We've got a job to do." 


        The secret passage had ended in a deserted part of Little Italy
where Chaos had parked the van behind a coffeeshop, long before the
kidnapping that afternoon. "Lisa Prince put these in; there's about half a
dozen of them that go to different parts of town.  Dianne and I and Lisa
are the only ones with the clearance to use them." The Merc General
chuckled as she steered the van toward the main area of downtown. "Dianne
should've remembered that one, and kept you locked up somewhere less
convenient. She's going to be *peeved* when she realizes you're gone." 
Chris didn't seem particularly worried by this. 

        Jamie shook her head in amusement, then asked, "Don't you want to
be there for Maureen's trial? And why don't you want me to go on trial
with her? I thought Dianne put me under arrest too." 

        "Mmm, kind of. We just think you're deluded, since you're a
Natpacker/Merc. Maureen's probably a traitor,though," Chris responded
cheerfully. "Besides, this job is going to remind you why you're a Merc. I
wish we _could_ be there when they put Maureen on trial... but maybe we'll
get back before it starts. Dianne could delay it for a while if she thinks
I'll bring you back. I did leave her a note after all..." 

        The van turned down the street where the main offices of CERK were
located. Jamie sat up straighter in her seat, anticipation making her eyes
sparkle. "This is it, isn't it? This is the job, right?"  It didn't take a
genius to figure out what the equipment filling most of the back of the
van was for. A crystal receiver, transmitting equipment, portable radio, a
length of cable, various bolt-cutters... they were hijacking CERK again! 
Adrenaline started to thrum through Jamie's veins. She should've been
worried about Maureen; she should have tried to contact the 'Pack and let
them know she was okay; but all she could think of was the thrill of
illicit activity again. It had been *far* too long since she'd done
something like this. 

        "Yes. But not in the way you think," her friend laughed, driving a
little farther down the street, pulling over and stopping the van to open
the side door. 

        Two people that Jamie knew quite well got in. After all, she'd
spent most of the last War hanging out with them and Ralph, Sidney
Lambert's portrayer. "I don't believe it!" 

        "Believe it," erica said dryly, settling down onto the floor of
the van next to the cooler whose purpose Jamie hadn't been able to figure
out.  "Bonka and I _were_ going to be good this War, but Chris's rates
were *so* reasonable... we just couldn't resist." 

        "Do you have any soft drinks in there?" Bianca asked, eyeing the
cooler, and leaning against the motorcycle and sidecar that didn't make
any more sense than the cooler. The younger Sister Morrigna was a younger,
slightly more energetic version of her brown-haired, pale older sister
erica, without the self-effacement that led to erica's ability to talk
about herself in lower-case letters. 

        "NO. And don't touch it," Chris said adamantly. "erica, do you
have the paperwork I sent you?" 

        "Yup." The older Sister Morrigna waved a manila folder at the
driver, who started up the van and turned onto the Garden Parkway heading
out of town. "Ham operator's license, yacht license, docking permit... I
still don't understand why we need it all, though." 

        "'Two words: plausible deniability,'" Chris quoted. "If you get
caught, at least you won't go to jail. Just claim you have no idea how you
wandered onto CERK's frequency, and look as innocent as possible." 

        Bianca batted her eyelashes, and erica's face went completely
blank. "Good try," Jamie commented in cautious approval. She turned back
around, and realized they were getting farther and farther away from the
radio offices, and didn't seem to be anywhere near the Raven. "Where the
heck are we going?" 

        "The docks. I want to show our clients their new home." Chaos
giggled happily as she got off the turnpike, and Jamie rolled her eyes. 
There was no stopping her Merc Mommy when she got on one of these jags. 
You just had to ride it out.  erica and Bianca exchanged uneasy looks. 

        At the marina, Chris slowly drove the van until she reached slip
#29. "This is it. The good ship "Iron Whim"," she stated, putting the van
in park. erica and Bianca came forward to check out the yacht. Well, not
exactly a yacht---more like a cabin cruiser, Jamie thought. Grey with
silver trim, about thirty feet long, with a Canadian flag flying off the
mast, the soon-to-be location of CERK was jaunty and attractive, with a
little bat painted next to the boat's name on the hull. 

        "Very nice," erica said in approval, "but you couldn't get us
something bigger? More piratical? I could really get into this hijacking
stuff---" 

        "Hey, I'm doing this job for one bar of chocolate plus expenses. 
Jamie gets half the chocolate and I have to give most of mine to the
Guild... so I figured you'd want to keep the 'expenses' down," the MMG
said with a glare. "If you want something bigger, you'll have to hire me
to steal it for you for more than fun and a song dedication." 

        The Nick&Natpacker's attempt to hijack CERK had short-circuited
sometime Sunday afternoon---Chris wasn't really clear on the details,
although she planned on pumping a certain Merc for info later---because
they'd tried to grab it at the source, without securing the station. Which
was why Chris had gone to all these pains to make very, very sure that
when she grabbed it, that (a) no one could get it back for a week, and (b)
her plan would completely bypass the station and its personnel, who would
certainly put up a fight if they knew about it. 

        Christina didn't believe in giving warning if she didn't have to. 

        She put the van back in drive and headed out of the marina. "All
of the broadcasting equipment is on board already, along with enough food
for a week. You remember, after the signal is transferred to your
equipment, it's your responsibility.  And I can't guarantee I won't be
hired to get it back. You're going to have to avoid both the Cousins, the
Coast Guard, *and* the CRTC, as well as anyone else who may want it." 

        "Understood," erica said breezily. "We're not exactly amateurs,
you know. We *have* done covert operations before." 

        Jamie hid a smile as Christina drily said, "Sorry, I forgot who I
was dealing with for a second," then turned up the radio as Seal's "Crazy" 
came on and they headed out of town. 


        It was close to 1 AM by the time the van finally slowed down,
about twenty miles out in the countryside north of Toronto. Jamie was
mystified, but trusting. Chris had a plan, obviously; but why were they
way out here? 

        "Out," the MMG commanded, turning off the engine and hopping out
of the truck in a few fast motions. Jamie obeyed, curiousity overriding
irritation, and erica and Bianca complied also. Chris got the little
sidecar out of the back and unloaded the crystal receiver, the cooler, the
cable splicers, and the walkie talkies into it, then hooked it up to the
all-terrain cycle. 

        Jamie studied the surrounding area, then focused in on the only
visible evidence of civilization: a radio antenna transmitter in the
middle of a field, about five miles away. "So that's how we're going to do
it,"  she said, suddenly getting it. 

        "How?" Bianca asked, frowning at the equipment-filled sidecar

        "We're going to take out CERK's transmitter and replace it with
ours," Jamie explained, grinning happily. 

        "Close enough." Chris dusted off her hands, then took the bolt
cutters and approached the fence surrounding the field where the
transmitter was.  "We're actually going to hook up a receiver to their
transmitter, so it can only broadcast erica & Bianca's transmissions." She
snipped a few wires on the electric fence, then carefully folded back a
portion of the chain-link to allow enough room for the cycle. "Then we'll
switch it over at the source, and the Sisters Morrigna are on the air!" 

        "Cool." Jamie frowned suddenly though, seeing a hole in this plan. 
"But can't the Cousins just come out here and fix it?" 

        "Ahhh, welllll," Chaos smiled brightly, then said to her clients,
"You don't want to know about that part. Get into the van," she threw them
a walkie-talkie, "put CERK on the radio, and power up the transmitting
equipment. When I tell you to, during one of those dead spaces in between
commercials, check to see if the receiver/transmitter link is working for
about five seconds. If it is, we'll come right back.  DON'T start
broadcasting then, give us time to get back here. The terrain here is kind
of rough, so it'll take us twenty minutes to get there, then about twenty
minutes to complete the change-over, and twenty minutes back. We should be
out of here by 2 AM, and you'll be back at the marina by three, ready to
go on the air." 

        "What do we do if the police show up?" erica asked, frowning
uneasily at the thought. 

        Chris got on the cycle, and motioned for Jamie to get on behind
her. "Oh, if it looks like the police are on the way, ditch us and contact
Dianne."  She threw erica the keys to the van. 

        "What!?" Jamie shrieked, stiffening in shock, but her screech was
lost as Chris gunned the motor on the little cycle and drove it through
the gap in the fence, leaving their clients by the side of the road.