Did you know that it was illegal to possess a shortwave radio in Nazi Germany? Shortwave radios are subversive, because you can hear messages that originate outside your country. My father gifted me with a portable shortwave radio on Christmas of 1997; nowadays I use the radio mainly to tune in to station WWV, so I can set my microwave clock to within a half-second of the "correct" time. But I've also used my shortwave radio to listen to broadcasts from New Zealand, Sweden, the Netherlands, Taiwan, the People's Republic of China, and Communist Cuba. But my point (and the reason that the Nazis banned shortwave radios) is that once I change the frequency of my radio, nobody knows what I listened-to before then. A hypothetical policeman has no idea (unless he had put a secret microphone in my room) whether I spend hours each night listening to Dr. Gene Scott and Brother Stair, or whether I'm a faithful listener to Radio Havana Cuba.

Suzanne Collins is a former television writer, and she got the idea for The Hunger Games while channel-surfing her TV, so it's no surprise that television is a major part of the Hunger Games universe. But in Mockingjay, Panem apparently has only one television channel, and hijacking this channel is a major technical challenge; whereas setting up a pirate shortwave-radio station is a much simpler task. So I argue that if the Rebellion wanted to break the Capitol's monopoly on information, the Rebels would make shortwave broadcasts as well as preparing television messages.

On December 7, 1941, the U.S. military was expecting the Japanese to attack them—in the Philippines. On the morning of December 7th, the Opana Radar Site, on the north side of Oahu, spotted dozens of inbound Japanese Zero airplanes, forty-five minutes before those airplanes reached Pearl Harbor. So why were those Zeroes not shot down? How did they reach Pearl Harbor unchallenged and arriving by surprise? Because a U.S. Army Air Corps lieutenant, Kermit Tyler, decided that the radar-spotted airplanes were an expected flight of B-17s from California, even though the inbound airplanes' direction was 90° wrong! Ultimately, the Japanese benefited from the American military's smug belief that "Those people wouldn't dare attack us here!"

Chapter 36
The Rebellion Begins

A week later, Twelve's four Victors each received a gift: 500 cc of delicious mushrooms that had been grown by Hammerhead Oleery of District Four. Prim's mushrooms came with a one-word note, "Thanks."

Two weeks later, Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee announced that he would be visiting every district, in search for a suitable site for the 79th Hunger Games. As a goodwill gift, every district mayor and Victor was given a radio with a Beetee Latier-designed "improved antenna," so that the radio could pick up Capitol FM stereo stations anywhere in Panem, and even out at sea. Because really, were not mayors and Victors crying into their pillows at night because they could not listen to Capitol radio stations except when they were in the Capitol?

On the back of each radio was a rectangular plastic plate, held in place by two slotted screws, that said "To be opened by authorized technicians only." If the screw-slots were vertical, the radio was a simple FM radio; these radios were given to mayors and Victors who were believed to be sympathetic to the Capitol. If the screw-slots were horizontal, the cover could be removed and the radio switched over to receive shortwave frequencies; these radios were given to Rebellion-sympathetic mayors. Rebellion-sympathetic Victors were given radios with the screw-slots diagonal; these radios could pick up Capitol FM, shortwave radio, and Peacekeeper-frequency military radio.

Meanwhile, radios that could both receive and broadcast on selected shortwave frequencies, in both unencrypted and encrypted modes, were black-parachuted to people who were high-up in the Rebellion. The "Three Mockingjays" received one such radio.

Using this new radio, Prim learned from one encrypted frequency that Hammerhead Oleery was Rebellion Supreme Commander now; Lyme Sahad of Two and Distaff Paylor of Eight commanded multiple-district regional brigades; and Alma Coin commanded District Thirteen's brigade-sized army. Sahad, Paylor, and Coin all had the same rank: brigadier general. Prim also learned that one District Thirteen hovercraft was reserved for the Three Mockingjays' use; this hovercraft would take the trio wherever they wished, whenever they wished.

Prim kept hearing "the Gong" mentioned, meaning the very beginning of the Rebellion. Prim picked up the microphone and asked when "the Gong" would be. Hammerhead Oleery himself answered: August 15th.

Prim reported all this news to Twelve's other Victors, by the Victors' Village concrete fountain. The four Victors discussed their options; then Peeta, with great solemnity, proposed to Katniss.

Meanwhile, the Capitol and the Peacekeepers believed everything was peachy-keen.

August 10th

Prim picked up her telephone and made four calls to the Capitol.

Prim first called Effie. Prim told Effie that Katniss and Peeta would be married at Twelve's Justice Building on the fourteenth of August, with a toasting to follow; and would Effie please come? Effie was aghast at the idea of such a bare-bones wedding, but promised she would be there.

Prim called Cinna second, and Portia third. They too were invited to the wedding, but would be put to work ahead of time. Cinna and Portia were to make wedding-day clothes for Katniss, Peeta, and Prim; and, if time permitted, for Aloe Everdeen and for Haymitch. Cinna and Portia were each excited about attending the wedding, and even more excited about dressing the wedding party.

Prim's fourth telephone call was to Cressida, a young documentary filmmaker. Prim's first words to Cressida were "We've never met, but Hammerhead Oleery recommended you." Prim invited Cressida to film the wedding with a full crew, "if you don't tell 'Victors Tonight' what you're doing till it's too late."

Cressida squealed. "You're giving me an exclusive? Primrose, expect me, Messalla, Castor, and Pollux to be there with bells on!"

Prim's work of inviting people to the wedding was conflict-free. Peeta's experience was different.

Meanwhile, in Mellark's Bakery

Peeta had just extended a wedding invitation to his parents and his two older brothers.

"Four days?" Medea Mellark yelled. "You're marrying that Seam slut in four days?"

Peeta before his Reaping would have adopted a soothing tone and would have chosen placating words. But Victor-Peeta's reply was, "Shut it, Mother! Katniss is not a slut, she is my beloved, and she is a Victor now!"

Medea replied, "She's not a slut, huh? There is only one reason for getting married in only four days!" Medea slapped both her hands onto her stomach.

Peeta growled, "August fourteenth, 2 p.m., you're all invited."

Medea said imperiously, "We will not be attending your marriage-registration and toasting with that Seam slut. This family has a bakery to run!"

Cake Mellark and Cutter Mellark stared at their shoes.

But Yeast Mellark said, "I'll attend your wedding, Peeta, even if I'm the only Mellark there!" Yeast whirled around to stare down the rest of his family. "I'm tired of feeling like a coward where my little brother is concerned. Also, dear family, I've met Katniss—she's the best woman in Panem for Peeta."

A fool's paradise

Meanwhile, the Capitol and the Peacekeepers believed everything was peachy-keen.

August 14th (Rebellion Eve)
In District Twelve

Peeta and Katniss registered their marriage at the Justice Building (as Cressida filmed them), then held a private toasting in Prim's mansion's living room (as Cressida filmed them). Except for the camera crew and the swanky location for the toasting, this was an everyday Seam wedding.

The not-quite-everyday wedding became even less ordinary when someone asked the groom who had baked the toasting bread, he or his father—

Cake Mellark said, "I didn't bake this bread, so it must be Peeta's."

Peeta said, "Oh, you baked it, but a while ago. This is one of two loaves of multigrain twist-loaf I froze on the day after Katniss and I went on our first date."

To the puzzlement of all the guests, the bride scowled and smacked the groom's arm. "You were supposed to eat that bread!"

A dark-skinned man had attended the marriage-registration and the toasting, but had spoken to nobody except the Twelve Victors. Wedding guests, if they thought about the man at all, presumed he was from District Eleven and had been given special permission to attend the ceremony. Since nobody paid much attention to the dark-skinned man, nobody noticed when Cinna handed him a big envelope that was thick with papers.

Soon after Katniss and Peeta walked across the green to Peeta's mansion, to begin their honeymoon (which they had been practicing for months), most of the wedding guests went home. But staying the night in Victors' Village were Effie (staying in Haymitch's mansion), Cinna and Portia (staying in Katniss's mansion), Cressida and her film crew (staying in Prim's mansion), and the dark-skinned man (staying who-knows-where).

On the evening of August 14th, thirteen people were living or were visiting in District Twelve's Victors' Village. But on the morning of August 15th, Victors' Village had zero people in it, and no cat. By the time Peacekeeper Captain Baxter learned all this, he had more important things on his mind.

August 15th
In the Presidential Mansion, the Capitol

On August 15th, which was roughly six weeks after President Snow had crowned Katniss Everdeen, he listened to reports from panicked underlings.

Why were they panicked?

Minutes earlier
In District Six

Hovercraft Base Alpha in District Six spotted a single hovercraft decloak just outside the Capitol, headed toward HB Alpha. As a matter of routine, the air-traffic controllers pinged the IFF of the hovercraft; the electronics reported, "It's friendly." The air-traffic controllers at HB Alpha relaxed; they presumed that the lone hovercraft had come from Hovercraft Base Beta.

When the hovercraft was close, it radioed the base: "Alpha, this is Papa Charlie One-One, I request guidance to land. Over."

A bored Peacekeeper picked up the microphone and replied, "I'm supposed to ask you for the authorization code before I can let you land, sorry. Uh, over."

"Authorization code is Quebec India Niner Tango, over."

"One-One, you just gave me yesterday's authorization code. Get your head out of your ass, pilot. Over."

"Wait one." The one hovercraft still was flying toward Hovercraft Base Alpha.

Several seconds later, One-One's pilot replied, "Correction, here is today's authorization code, Base Alpha: B-B-O-NG-G-G!"

The air-traffic controller had just enough time to realize that one decloaked hovercraft had suddenly become thirty-one decloaked hovercraft. Within a second, the radar dish was loudly out of commission; within minutes, the Peacekeeper Corps's white hovercraft that were parked on the ground (which were all of them) were bombed to smithereens. The air-traffic controllers were thinking themselves lucky to have been spa—

A half-hour later
In the Presidential Mansion

President Snow had talked to a survivor of the attack, who had insisted that thirty of the attacking hovercraft were gray, not white. Meanwhile, while the nine hovercraft of Hovercraft Base Beta (just west of the Capitol) were unharmed, the Peacekeepers had lost ninety-two percent of their hovercraft force, plus both of their District Six hovercraft factories, in only minutes.

District Thirteen has hovercraft in the air, and now we don't. Snow let himself frown.

Then Snow ordered the execution of the Head Peacekeeper for Hovercraft Base Alpha—except that the man already had suicided.

Within hours

Peacekeepers in every district were reporting to Snow that they were fighting district residents who had firearms and explosives in every district. Worse, some "district residents" with military-style haircuts seemed awfully familiar with those firearms and explosives.

With all these crises hitting Snow, he barely noticed when he was told that Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee and his assistant Fulvia Cardew both were missing.

Meanwhile, in District Twelve
Capitol Coal Medical Clinic

Urbania was sitting at her desk when she heard shooting through the outside door. Lots of shooting. From two different kinds of guns.

A riot? Urbania thought. Then she realized, The rioters have guns. How did this happen?

Seconds later, the telephone on Urbania's desk rang. Domiducus Jones, the Capitol Liaison, told Urbania, "Miners are rioting. Miners with gunshot wounds shall not be treated by us. Tell Dr. Picardo."

Dr. Picardo's response was "I am a physician. My oath demands I treat whoever comes here for emergency treatment."

"Not traitors!" Nurse Antonia said. "I refuse to treat traitors! And if you treat them, you're a traitor too."

Nurse Antonia looked at Urbania; Antonia's look demanded, Choose your side. Urbania did not reply with words, but she frowned at Antonia and moved a half-step closer to Dr. Picardo.

Dr. Picardo looked at Nurse Antonia and said, "So long as you feel this way, you are off duty, without pay. Now leave."

Nurse Antonia refused to leave, and also refused to treat "traitor monkeys." She did not leave until Dr. Picardo grabbed her by the arm and dragged her outside.

Once Antonia was gone, Dr. Picardo said to Urbania, "You remember the layout of Victors' Village from yesterday, right? Run to Primrose's mansion, fetch Aloe Everdeen, and the two of you run back here. Stat!"

It was Urbania who discovered that, except for a bleating goat, Victors' Village was completely deserted.

Urbania ran back to the medical clinic and gave Dr. Picardo the bad news. Then Urbania tried, as best she could, to do the emergency-room nurse's job that she was completely untrained for.

The next day

Snow learned that captured Peacekeepers in District Seven were axed to death, within minutes of capture, by Johanna Mason.

Johanna Mason ordered a Rebel soldier to carry a note into District Seven's Peacekeeper Barracks, under flag of truce: "You killed my entire family. It's payback time, losers. If you don't surrender, you die. Of course, you can kill me first—if you stupid potbellied tiny-dicked psychos are man enough. Tell Cory I'll enjoy chopping his arms and legs off—a centimeter at a time."

It occurred to Snow that if he had treated Johanna Mason more humanely during her Victory Tour, he would not have so many dead District Seven Peacekeepers now. Snow dismissed the thought.

A week later

Capitol propaganda had painted Johanna as an evil archvillainess, a mass murderess—for a week. Then holo viewers saw, and shortwave listeners heard, a very different message.

The three teenaged Twelve Victors appeared on holo, standing side by side. But now they each were wearing armor—

Primrose's armor was all-yellow, Peeta's all was sunset-orange, and Katniss's armor all was forest-green. Katniss's armor was modified for an archer's needs; Peeta's armor was modified for his larger size and male body. Each Victor had a design on the left breast of his or her armor—Primrose had a red mockingjay inside a red circle; Katniss had the letters "FSTP" painted in red; and Peeta's armor showed the black Capitol Seal, with a dripping red X painted over the Seal.

Katniss stood holding a bow in her right hand; and arrows could be seen beyond her left shoulder. Peeta and Primrose each had a knife strapped to a forearm.

Peeta and Katniss each wore a gold band on the third finger of their left hands.

Peeta said, "Folks, let's talk about Johanna Mason, who has killed captured Peacekeepers. We admit this. But what the Capitol has not told you is why. Back during Johanna's Victory Tour, President Snow told Johanna to do something she absolutely refused to do. I know what he told her, but I won't spill it—it is Johanna's story to tell. Just know, folks, that if Snow had told me to do this thing, I would have refused too."

Primrose said, "Same here. In a heartbeat."

Katniss said, "I would have told Snow to shove a hot poker up his butt."

Peeta resumed: "Within two weeks of Johanna refusing Snow, Johanna's parents, her sister, her brother, his wife, and their child, as well as Johanna's boyfriend—all died in 'accidents.' What made these people so fatally unlucky? They each were close to a Victor who had said no to President Snow."

Peeta sighed. "The three of us—Prim, Katniss, and me—pledge to not kill any captives. We three want to think we are in every way better than the Capitol."

Prim said, "Lucky for us, this isn't hard to do. My cat Buttercup is in every way better than the Capitol."

Katniss said, "Except Buttercup spits up disgusting hairballs."

Peeta said, "But we don't condemn Johanna for killing captured Peacekeepers." Peeta looked at Prim and Katniss, who shook their heads. "We don't condemn Johanna because we understand why she does it. We three leave it to those whose own hands drip with blood to hypocritically bad-mouth Johanna."

The next day

During the week before the Three Mockingjays' message, people in both the Capitol and the districts had asked themselves, "Has Johanna slipped over the edge? Is she full-blown crazy now? Is she evil?"

But after the Three Mockingjays' broadcast, the question changed to, "What did Snow tell Johanna to do that she refused to do?" Both Capitols and district people agreed that Snow's order must be for something certainly sexual, and probably disgusting.

Then a rumor went around that Johanna had cried when she had heard the Three Mockingjays on shortwave. Many people refused to believe the rumor, because everyone knew: Johanna Mason never cried.

The Three Mockingjays: the legend begins

This was the first of many propaganda messages given by the Three Mockingjays, and delivered by hijacked holo and by shortwave. Over time, the Three Mockingjays developed specializations.

Peeta talked honestly and in plain language—when the Rebellion did bad things (which was seldom), he admitted them; so people believed him when he said that the Capitol did bad things. Peeta always explained, with plain words and honesty, why district people felt they needed to overthrow the Capitol. Peeta talked to the viewer/listener as if Peeta were there in the house, talking over beers. District people completely believed Peeta (despite repeated smears by the Capitol), and many Capitols believed Peeta; while only Capitol diehards believed Capitol propaganda.

Primrose was the heart of the Three Mockingjays—she comforted small children, the injured, and the scared. When the Three Mockingjays visited field hospitals (this happened twice), Primrose asked every patient she met, "Do you need treatment? Is there anything I can do for you?" Both times that Primrose walked into a field hospital, she walked out with bloodstains on her yellow armor.

All three Mockingjays had been given assault rifles, but at first Peeta and Primrose fired them with the same skill that other Reaped-district fighters did: with lousy aim and with bullets wasted. Katniss, on the other hand, handled her assault rifle as if she had been in combat since age eleven. Katniss was an uncanny shot.

Katniss switched back and forth between her bow/quiver and her assault rifle, as she felt the need. Huh? Why would the deadliest archer in Panem even pick up a firearm?

Katniss explained that her assault rifle reloaded itself in less than a second, and bullets were easier to replace than arrows; but her assault rifle also made a muzzle flash, which was "a problem." Still, the muzzle-flash "problem" was not a big bother—Katniss could break cover, fire three single shots (which always meant three kills), and duck behind cover before the bad guys could shoot back.

Meanwhile, Katniss using her bow and quiver was a deadly ghost—especially at night, when Katniss borrowed her sister's darkness-vision glasses. A bow, the Peacekeepers learned the hard way, did not make a muzzle flash or a bang.

When Katniss was calm, she let Peeta do the talking; but the Mockingjays' most memorable lines all came from Katniss when she was furious. ("People of the Capitol, are you proud of yourselves for cheering the deaths of eighteen hundred children?")

The Three Mockingjays were never holo-filmed "fighting" fake battles in a studio, nor were they ever filmed "fighting" staged battles away from the battlefield. Almost all of the Three Mockingjays' first propaganda messages were of them fighting in Reaped-District X, alongside Rebels from Reaped-District X. Soon the propaganda messages changed into the Three Mockingjays fighting alongside Rebels from District X and District Y, as they all fought to liberate District Y. Eventually the Three Mockingjays were filmed being shot-at in every Reaped district in Panem. If there were Rebels who thought I will fight Peacekeepers only in my own district, the Three Mockingjays' propaganda messages shamed such Rebels into silence.

Meeting Plutarch and Fulvia

The Three Mockingjays met only once with Plutarch Heavensbee, the supposed expert on "propos" (propaganda messages), and with his assistant, Fulvia Cardew. The meeting did not go well—

Heavensbee proclaimed, "According to experts at Capitol University, propaganda messages are more effective if they use certain words with strong emotional appeal. You should learn these words, and use them."

Fulvia said, "Here is a message that will be very effective, because the message uses seven emotional-appeal words: 'People of Panem, we fight, we dare, we end our hunger for justice!' "

The Three Mockingjays exchanged looks. Katniss rolled her eyes.

Peeta said to Heavensbee and Fulvia, "No. We won't say this."

Katniss explained, "Because it's stupid."

Primrose said to the Capitols, "Y'all need to think up something real people would say."

The two Capitols' offended expressions reminded Peeta, Katniss, and Primrose of Alma Coin's sourpuss expression in Haymitch's basement.

The Three Mockingjays: advisors

As the Three Mockingjays traveled from district to district in their Thirteen-loaned hovercraft, showing up wherever they felt they were most needed, they quickly gained an entourage. Besides the Three Mockingjays themselves, and the three Thirteens of the flight crew, also riding in the gray hovercraft were—

• Cressida and three other young Capitol defectors, who made up the film crew; and

• Cinna the stylist, Portia the stylist, Effie the District Twelve escort, and Haymitch.

The Thirteens of the flight crew were snooty at first, but this lasted only a month. Peeta's theory was that the flight-crew Thirteens had watched (or had listened to) the Three Mockingjays' messages.

In the days before Peeta's and Katniss's wedding, Cinna had freely admitted to being a secret Rebel, going back to his own teenaged years. Portia had nodded in agreement.

Now on the hovercraft, Effie clearly was torn—she obviously cared for her "lovely Victors"; but it was clear to everyone that, had Effie never become an escort, she would have gone through her entire life as an unquestioning, loyal Capitol.

Still, the question could be asked: What were Effie, Cinna, and Portia doing on the hovercraft in the first place?

Officially, there was no reason for two stylists and a Hunger Games escort to ride along with the Three Mockingjays; only Haymitch could claim that he served a purpose. But the actual role of the three Capitol adults was to give their own advice and comfort to the teenagers; Cinna was amazing at calming down Katniss when she was ranting.

(Not to mention, watching Haymitch and Effie flirting, and Cinna and Portia flirting, provided hours of entertainment for Peeta, Prim, and Katniss.)

Six months after the start of the Rebellion

The puny remnant of the Capitol's hovercraft force, all based at Hovercraft Base Beta, made a gutsy surprise flight to District Thirteen, where they tried to bomb the daylights out of the "rabbit warren."

District Thirteen survived. Most of Beta's hovercraft squadron did not, after gray Thirteen hovercraft decloaked behind the HB Beta invaders.

To add insult to injury, the Capitol had left itself temporarily defenseless from the air, and the Rebellion showed Snow that this was unwise. A lone gray hovercraft, uncloaked, dropped a silver-parachuted confetti "bomb" over the front entrance gates to the Presidential Mansion.

Point made.

Seven months after the start of the Rebellion

Panem was almost all in Rebel control; only the Capitol and District Two still were under Loyalist control.

The Rebellion's Who's Who all were in District Two: the Three Mockingjays, Major General Hammerhead Oleery, Oleery's three brigadier generals (Lyme Sahad, Distaff Paylor, and Alma Coin), along with the three generals' armies.

The Rebels faced a huge challenge: digging the Loyalists out of the Mount AEterna Defensive Complex without the Loyalists launching nuclear missiles at the other districts.

Actually, the Rebels faced a second challenge, one they did not know about yet—

Alma Coin had been biding her time, waiting for the right opportunity to seize glory. This opportunity would come soon, she was sure.