CERK goes AWOL! (2/5)
MacGyver Would Be So Proud of Us
by Christina Kamnikar (w/the Sisters Morrigna & Jamie Randell)

1:19 AM, Monday morning, July 29th, somewhere in the Canadian
countryside

        Twenty minutes later at the transmitter, Jamie was still fuming. 
"Are you out of your mind? Why did you tell them to ditch us if we might
get caught?" She still hadn't quite forgiven Chris for the CN Tower yet,
either. But she was starting to enjoy herself... if she could just stop
thinking about police. 
        "Because they're our clients," Christina said patiently, "And if
they get caught, we don't get paid. I am *not* paying Guild fees for
putting my client in jail.  They agreed to expenses anyway, and that
covers bail." Jamie was chewing her lower lip, and Chris sighed. "Will you
relax? We're not going to get caught. I just had to cover all our bases."
She set up the small crystal receiver on the ground, and connected a cable
to it, saying, "Hold this while I get the door, will you?" 
        "I still can't believe we're only doing this for one chocolate bar
and a song dedication," Jamie muttered, shaking her head as Chris used the
wire snippers to cut out the intruder alarm on the door to the
transmitter's entrance. "I mean, this *is* fun... and I assume we're going
to stay on board the Iron Whim tonight?" 
        "Oh, I think that's possible." 
        "So we'll get to help broadcast tonight at least.  But why didn't
you charge them more?"
        Chris frowned, turning on the lights inside the transmitter
control house. A short hallway with three doors, labelled BROADCAST ROOM,
SUPPLIES, and ELECTRICAL ROOM. She opened the last, unspooling the cable
as she went in, Jamie trailing after her. "Because I would have hijacked
it anyway. They were just the first clients I could find." 
        "So why didn't we hijack it for ourselves?" 
        "What, and not make a profit from it?" Chris shook her head. 
"You've been hanging with the 'Pack too long." 
        "Have not." 
        "Have too. Oh, goody, here's the one I was looking for. Hand me
those cable cutters?" 
        Jamie handed them over. "Have _not_. And why do this if we're
going to give it to erica and Bianca? Especially for so little profit?" 
        "It's not the *having*, Jamie. Having CERK is not the point.  I'm
not obsessed with possession," Chris replied, carefully exposing the inner
wires of the CERK transmission cable, and using the splicers to connect
the Sister Morrigna cable to the CERK one. "It's the taking.  It's being
able to pull it off. It's... well, it's not nice, but it's the rush I get
from doing something illegal and getting away with it.  It's a Merc
thing." She finished splicing in the transmission cable and soldered the
wires in place. 
        "Alright, maybe I do understand," Jamie admitted, thinking of
 her first job and her pride in pulling it off; but also thinking 'the
lady doth protest too much'. Chris opened up the cooler and took a vial of
clear, golden liquid out of an icepack, and placed it into a little holder
hooked up to what looked like a timer. "Uh, Chris?" 
        "Yeah?" 
        "Is that what I think it is?" 
        "Probably." The MMG giggled again, and this time Jamie giggled
with her. 
        "So *that's* how you're going to keep the Cousins from retaking
it.  Contact explosives and nitroglycerin. Very MacGyver," the
Natpacker/Merc said in approval. 
        "Thanks. I got it wholesale from a distributor up here.  Sometimes
being in the mining industry is a definite plus for a Merc," Chaos
commented. 
        "Why the timer? You're not going to blow up the transmitter..." 
        "No no no. The timer's actually hooked up to the wiring; I only
promised the station to erica and Bianca for a week.  When a week is up,"
Chris pointed to but didn't touch the setup, "the nitro will short out the
wiring to the Morrigna transmitter. If anyone messes with it beforehand,
the whole smeer goes BOOM." 
        "Smeer?" 
        "Didn't I say it right?" 
        "Schmeer," Jamie said, giving the word the full Brooklyn
treatment. 
        "Schmeer," Chris mimicked. She grinned. "Now to put the receiver
in place and do the preliminary switchover." The two Mercs went outside,
and Chris climbed the outside access ladder to the roof of the control
house. Jamie lifted the crystal receiver up to her---resolutely not
looking down while she was on the ladder---and Chris placed the receiver
as close to the CERK antenna as she could, then taped it down with duct
tape and more contact explosives. 
          Back inside, Chris and Jamie went to the Control Room and turned
up the volume on the main receiver. Lacroix's voice filled the room, rich
and pedantic and gorgeous. He was quoting Shakespeare again: 
        "...the summer's flower is to the summer sweet
        Though to itself it only live and die,
        But if that flower with base infection meet
        The basest weed outbraves his dignity; 
                For sweet things turn sourest by their deeds,
                Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds."

        "So shines a good deed in a naughty world," Chris growled under
her breath as she turned down the volume, earning a speculative look from
Jamie, then lifted the walkie-talkie to her mouth and spoke. "Captain
Hook, are you there?" 
        "We copy, Wendy," erica laughed. 
        "Uncle should be shutting up in a few seconds. Prepare for test." 
Chris checked the monitors, ignoring Jamie's look for as long as she
could, then turned and asked "What?" in annoyance. 
        "That's why you're really doing this, isn't it? 
        "I have no idea what you're talking about."
        "You just want to get under Lacroix's skin."
        "What a revolting image," Chris grimaced, her eyebrows doing the
Klingon/Vulcan imitation they always did when she was irritated. 
        "Admit it," Jamie was laughing now. "You want to do something
that'll make him furious. That's what this is about. You hated the way
Uncle threatened you last War, after he found out we grabbed CERK." 
        "Maybe I did and maybe I didn't..." 
        "No maybes." 
        "Okay, okay, yes. You're right. I wanted revenge for the 'Uncle
treatment' I got at the War Wrap Party.  Happy?" Chris glared at her
Mercenary protege, who nodded cheerfully. "Fabulous. Testing now," she
said into the walkie-talkie, as she flipped the switches that shorted out
the transmission cable. Nothing happened for a second, so she pounded on
the board, muttering, "C'mon, stupid thing..." As long as no one was
broadcasting on the receiver, Lacroix and CERK would still be on the air.
But the second erica and Bianca started their own broadcast, CERK would be
gone. It finally changed over after a particularly vicious thump. "Have
you got it?" she asked over the walkie-talkie. 
        "Yup. Morrigna Air is fully operational," erica responded
jubilantly. "Mission accomplished." 
        Chris smiled and Jamie crowed with glee. "Copy that, Captain
 Hook. We'll be at the rendezvous in twenty minutes." 
        "Acknowledged." 
        The two Mercs exited the Control tower, congratulating each other
on a job well done, and looking forward to the fun of a night's worth of
radio piracy before heading back to Merc Central.  The cycle didn't have a
radio on it, which was a serious oversight. The Sisters Morrigna weren't
supposed to start transmitting until Chris and Jamie were back at the van.
If they'd had a radio, Chris would have gotten on the walkie-talkie when
she heard what started going out across AM 490 the second after the two of
them left the transmitter. 
        "What do we play first?" 
        "Chris's request, 'Banditos'. It's by the Refreshments."
        "The one with Captain Jean-Luc Picard mentioned?"
        "Yeah, with the stupid people refrain."
        "Oooh, good. I like that one... and some KISS for Jamie..."

Twenty miles away, the city of Toronto and various Nightcrawler devotees
realized that something weird was going on...