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Reine simply looked at Essex, as if to say: Well, how important was talking to the doctor? He wasn't saying a single thing, which clearly meant he didn't want to talk to the doctor all that much, which also probably meant he had been playing them all for fools, or the like.

"Go ahead, Mr Essex," Reine prompted. "He's on the line. Once you've verified whatever it is you need to, we'd like to collect what Clarice sent us for, thank you."

There was a long pause, and then the doctor's voice finally rolled smoothly over the line, "Don't you feel it's about time you put your little spat with my assistant behind you, Charles?"

Essex's mouth tightened and he gritted out, "She firebombed my car."

"And those sorts of accidents do happen," the doctor's voice was entirely reasonable. "Didn't she send you a nice apology?"

"It was a letter bomb."

"Yes, yes...fiery passions and all that, but what seems to be the problem here, Charles?" H's voice had grown hard by this point, and Essex shifted uncomfortably at the sound of it.

"You normally send your lackey to me. Now said lackey is sending her lackeys. A couple of kids at that. I've been pretty tolerant, but this level of disrespect your organization has for me and mine can only be tolerated for so long."

Another long pause, "And?"

"And so the price of continuing our arrangement has gone up. Don't bother wiring more money, I can get money any time. But since you keep sending me lackeys, then you may as well let me borrow them, right?"

"To be sure," the doctor's voice was urbane, but his patience for the situation was at a perilous low. "Consider them yours."

Dialtone.

The man shoved the briefcase in their direction, "You heard the b*****d. I'll send you a message should I have need of you." Despite getting the deal he wanted, Essex didn't seem entirely happy with the situation.

A couple of kids. Reine shrugged away the insult, there was nothing she could argue with there; until they moved higher up in the rankings, that was what everyone would see them as- kids. Still, there was a faint smirk on her face when she heard about the bombs, a side to Clarice she'd never known before, and a side that was earning her respect. Girls that stood up for themselves were cool.

Not that Reine was entertaining thoughts of sending anyone bombs, no really.

The smirk twitched a little, however, when the doctor spoke again- consider them yours. She had to struggle to keep her mouth a straight line instead of a frown, but Robert's puppy-dog eyes were the straw that broke the camel's back, and the younger life trainee was practically scowling when stepped past him, purposely stomping on his foot as she did so. It wasn't as if she could slap Essex in the face, so she needed some other outlet- and Robert was the only alternative.

Wordlessly she picked up the briefcase and glared at Essex, intent on not acknowledging him as her 'boss'; after all, it was still only the Doctor, Clarice, and of course Caelius she had to answer to, ultimately- people like Essex were inconsequential. There was only the slightest hint of a nod before Reine turned back to Robert, shoved the briefcase in his arms, grabbed the pendant in her pocket, and pressed it.

"Wait what are you-"

Poof.

Reine had given him the briefcase and disappeared.

Given him.

The briefcase.

And disappeared.

Robert was staring right back at two dozen alarmed men with guns, and his expression was just as alarmed. So he did the only thing he could think of.

"HOLY s**t THERE SHE IS, GET HER!" He pointed at a spot far, far away, and then activated his pendant as quickly as he could.

Taking a long, deep breath, Essex raised a hand, "Easy. It's fine. Think of it as a magician's trick." If Reine and Robert were very lucky, Clarice would never find out that they had teleported in front of civilians after the threat was gone.

As it was, they found themselves transported to an infirmary examination room. At the desk the lab assistant, dressed in a fluffy robe and slippers, was currently asleep, head in arms, her phone and box of Hello Kitty bandages sitting beside her head.

The room's clock read 4:13 am.

"It's not, and also put me down." Reine struggled, giving Robert the puppy-dog eyes until he relented. She was, even though she didn't actually say it out, glad that he'd gotten back without any bullet holes in him.

Well, they had the briefcase, and also they were both back in one piece, there was just the small matter of Essex and H's 'trade' but maybe, just maybe they could get out of that.

Reine fished her phone out of her pocket, and dialed Clarice.

Robert nearly jumped out of his skin when the phone rang nearby, and he caught the movement of Clarice picking up the phone at the desk and answering it. It took him all of three steps to move forward, lean in, gently take the phone away from Clarice, and close it.

He smiled thinly.

"Yeah." He muttered. "We're fine."