Outside the clinic, Lilly and Imogen find Sam Aran looking frustratedly down at his own device. “Can you help me with this bomb? My hands are a little… flames.”
“Be careful with that,” Lilly admonishes him, zerg larva in her arms.
Imogen suggests removing the suit to increase his manual dexterity, but Sam is reluctant to do so, claiming that the suit protects him but also protects the world from him. She informs him that help is on the way, in the form of raiders.
“Raiders, eh? Didn’t they used to fight the Confederacy? I guess now they fight the Dominion, though, so it’s all good. Fire under the bridge.”
Imogen explains to Sam the plan to attract the Dominion and then steps aside to place another couple calls. The first one is to Joey Ray. He answers the phone with all the dinner specials, and Imogen cuts him off to inquire about the Hydralisk Hunt. She asks if he knows anyone who might be interested in bagging a few zergs ahead of the hunt to get in some practice and offers a barrel of vespene as the prize for the person who takes out the most. Joey promises to pass the information along, but he is not sure how many hunters will be interested, since many of the participants are rich aristocrats who do not need the money. Imogen is happy to take whatever help she can, even if it is just two or three hunters. Finally, Imogen calls the professionals.
“This is War Pigs Mercenary Company. We hope you’re helpless.”
Imogen tells the speaker that Jimmy said the company might be available for some help this afternoon. The War Pigs do have a small squad that is currently on Mar Sara. Most of them are busy, having been called in for an extra defense detail, but four are available. Imogen negotiates the rate for defending the clinic from a zerg infestation, accepting the limitation that the mercenaries will not endanger their own lives and that they reserve the right to fall back if necessary.
Imogen checks with Maria before finalizing the deal. The doctor is only able to afford four hundred of the five hundred credit price. Her patients do not pay anything to stay there; the Dominion funds them, and it is only a small amount per capita. Plus with the high gas bill… But the clinic is her life’s work after the war—her service to the community—so she is rather desperate. She knows the War Pigs by reputation, and she suggests offering them partial ownership in the clinic, possibly rebranding it as “Our Lady of Perpetual War Pigs” or “The War Pigs Agony Clinic.” The outfit sounded quite professional to Imogen, and she doubts they would go for anything like that, so she herself kicks in the extra hundred. Imogen feels the War Pigs’ involvement is necessary because the mercenaries have a demolitions expert in their group.
Lilly and Imogen stick around the clinic until Rocko, Socko, Jacko, and Robot of the War Pigs arrive. In the meantime, they get their own zerg-inflicted injuries treated at the clinic, in exchange for Imogen’s generous donation to Our Lady of Perpetual Agony. Maria slips her arm in the sleeve of her Confederate medic suit to activate it. The auto-suture clicks on, shooting a rapid-fire needle across the room to stitch up the injuries right through the tears in their clothing. This startles Imogen, and the painful stitches end up slightly uneven.
The FRAWD agents stay at the clinic long enough for Lilly to deliver her field report to Sam Aran and the War Pigs. The mercenaries roll up in an enormous truck and have even more impressive suits than the marines in town with all sorts of armaments and even a miniature nuclear reactor on the backs. Lilly compliments the equipment, and the lead War Pig, Rocko, says that they take a lot of pride in it. “We’re a very professional company.” They hear gunfire and turn to see one of the mercenaries taking potshots at a ruined building. “Hey, Jacko!” Rocko yells. “Jacko! Dammit! Stop that!”
Imogen performs introductions and reviews the terms of engagement with the mercenaries. Drawing a map on the ground, Lilly tells them about the creep tumor and describes the tunnels. She also lets them know that the zerglings she encountered were reluctant to leave the caves. Rocko makes a note of the potentially non-feral zerg.
Imogen emphasizes that the War Pigs’ primary responsibility is defending the clinic and they are not to engage any raiders or Dominion forces. She asks if the rest of their group is working with Jimmy, and Rocko laughs, saying that today they are trying to catch Jimmy. “I do appreciate that he recommended us, though. We’ll give him a discount next time he hires us.” Imogen is puzzled how they could work both for and against this Jimmy, and Rocko explains that the War Pigs work for whoever has credits until the time for the contract is up. Then they go home or move on to the next job.
“So who hired you to look for Jimmy today?”
“We keep all client details strictly confidential,” Rocko insists. Then he laughs. “Also, we ain’t looking for him. I’m pretty sure that we know where he is. He’s making himself pretty obvious today. But seriously, you don’t know who’s looking for Jim Raynor?” At the look of recognition on Imogen’s face, Rocko continues, “I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about who may or may not have hired us to capture or kill Jim Raynor. That man’s like a white whale, though. You can never quite get your hands on him.” He turns back to the rest of his company and starts issuing orders.
As they are walking away, Imogen tells Lilly, “There’s a 500,000 credit reward out for James Raynor.”
“Who’s James Raynor?”
“He’s the fellow whose phone number you gave me.”
“Rory? Oh! The other guy. I wonder what he did… besides drink.”
“Based on the wanted poster, what hasn’t he done?”
“He said he was a marshall or something,” Lilly comments.
“Seems like he took some action against the Dominion after that. Acts of terrorism, murder, theft…”
“Do you mean you want to go after him?” Lilly asks.
“No… no, that’s not what I’m saying. He just might not be a safe person to be around, depending on what you’re doing.”
“I mean, he seemed all right at Joe’s,” Lilly observes. And having done what they could to get players in place to protect the clinic, they leave.