Disclaimer: I do not own Human Target, or any of its characters.

In Season 3: Ilsa is busy with the paper-work of her foundation, Winston brings in clients, and Chance managed their personalized security business. Chance and Ilsa get along well (or have a tacit truce). They all kinda know that Guerrero has a kid, although only Chance knows a little more about the details. And Ames, well - young, single, and Ames.

Monkey Business at the Museum

Chapter 1.

Chance walked down the stairs into the office. Winston was busy on the computer in the conference room. He nodded a greeting to Chance.

"Ilsa wants to have a word with us this morning. She may have a client for us."

Chance pulled out a chair and sat down. "Really, Ilsa knows someone who may want our kind of service?"

Just then the elevator buzzer sounded and Ilsa walked into the office. She saw the men in the conference room and walked right up to them.

"Good morning Chance, Winston! I take it you read my message? I have an old friend who used to work at the museum in London. Peter recently moved to San Francisco, and is now in-charge of the Gilbert Museum on Walker Street. He has some concerns about the art-dealerships around here."

Before Ilsa could finish, Guerrero walked in with a cup of tea and sat down.

"Yeah, there are lots of shady dealings that go on around there, what's the fuss!"

The elevator buzzed. Ilsa smiled and got up.

"Ah, that must be Peter; he can tell us himself." She rushed out of the conference room to greet a young, well-groomed man. Peter gave Ilsa a big smile and a warm hug. He whispered something in her ear that made her laugh and blush. They stood together and conversed for a few minutes.

The three men watched from the conference room. Guerrero scowled at Ilsa's shrill laughter, Chance showed no reaction whatsoever, and Winston smiled approvingly.

"So is this museum dude here to chat with the boss, or does he have some business with us. I have stuff to finish in cold storage." Guerrero got up to leave, but just then Ilsa and Peter walked in, chatting in French. Guerrero muttered something under his breath and sat down.

An ebullient Ilsa introduced her friend, "Gentlemen, this is Peter, an old friend from London. Peter, this is the team."

The men grunted their greetings and everybody sat down to talk.

When the elevator buzzer rang again, Guerrero ground his teeth, "I guess we might as well wait for Ames to be seated; I don't have the time to go over the story again with the children!"

Ames walked in with an apologetic smile. "Sorry I am late." When she spotted Peter, she liked what she saw and pulled the chair closest to him for a seat. "Hi! I'm Ames, part of the team, so what brings you here?" she gushed.

"I took over the Gilbert museum a couple of months ago - this is a small, private museum with an interesting and varied collection of arts you know, great Roman statuaries, medieval treasures. I am currently working on re-evaluating and updating the museum collections and starting a new database system for them..." Peter looked up at Ames and realized he needed to simplify, and get to the point. "I feel like my coworkers are doing their best to be uncooperative, and obstruct my work," Peter put simply.

"Well, no one welcomes a new boss!" dismissed Ames, with a wave of her hand. Her three male co-workers smiled in unison.

"Well, it is more than passive resistance. There is something fishy going on there," Peter pressed

"What do you mean?" asked Chance, as he finally started to take Peter seriously.

"We are preparing to showcase a new set of exhibits from around the world, starting next week. As the pieces come in and I oversee their authentication, I feel like strange things are happening. Paperwork goes missing, my associates don't want me around when they do business with the local art-dealers here, or the ones out-of-town, and even the insurance agent for the antiquities seems to ignore my concerns." Peter paused for a second and added hesitantly, "Also, I seem to have had more accidents, all close-calls, in the last 2 months than I have in my entire life."

"So this resistance you are facing is quite serious!" commented Winston thoughtfully.

"I think so though I can't say for sure. We have a big preview for our patrons on Sunday. As I looked through the guest list I saw Ilsa's name and decided to invite her personally. When she told me what you do, I thought you might be able to help."

"Well, we can check around to see what's going on," said Winston. "Chance can go with Ilsa to the preview on Sunday, snoop around, and check the guests there as well."

"I can be Peter's date for that night, in case he has trouble," suggested Ames.

Chance pushed his chair behind, "Okay, we'll start looking into it."

Peter thanked everyone and got ready to leave. He gave Ilsa a kiss on the cheek, "À bientôt."

"See you soon," Guerrero translated for Ames, who looked like she really needed to know.

"At least your French is better than your Spanish!" she muttered back to him as she skipped up to Peter as he walked to the elevator, "I will see you on Sunday. Let me know if you have any concerns about your protection before that!"

Chance looked at Guerrero. "So you can make some phone calls?"

Guerrero got up to leave the room, "Done, dude."