Disclaimer: I don't own Human Target and intend no copyright infringement.
Chance had managed to cushion the jump from the pier quite well.
Skill comes with practice…
"Oh, sorry, am I intruding?", he unabashedly answered Baptiste's outraged question, then scrambled to his feet and dashed to the small boat's cockpit. It had a classic ignition, shouldn't pose too much of a problem… The thugs on the pier were still busy regrouping and looking for their target. There had been enough tourists around to veil where exactly Baptiste and Chance had gone over the railing. Aside from that they were also a little bit shocked that their sitting duck of a victim had managed to pull a disappearance act just like that.
Never underestimate the impact of surprise.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, matey?" Baptiste was finally on his feet again, too. For him the fall hadn't been that easy to break and Chance firmly holding onto his arm hadn't helped. It felt like he had strained something, a muscle in his shoulder region maybe, but he had definitely been through worse.
Chance vaguely noticed he had lost the earpiece during the fall. Damn it, that meant his team had no means to locate him. The more urgent challenge at the moment, however, was that the shouldn't-pose-too-much-of-a-problem ignition posed to be one after all. It just wouldn't react, no matter how hard he worked on the contacts.
"Since I was busy on the pier anyway I'd thought I'd take a minute and save your ass!" Chance replied, silently counting the seconds. The thugs would discover them any moment now. There seemed to be some kind of malfunction prohibiting the ignition from jumping into action – which was probably why this sport boat had docked here, between the big ferries, in the first place.
"Ever considered counseling for your white knight syndrome?" Baptiste staggered forwards, toward the cockpit. Apparently his ankle hadn't taken kindly to the steep fall either.
"You were caught in a classic surrounding movement! Haven't you learned anything from me? They were about to fold the wings!" Chance fround, hesitated… turned around and lunged forward, tackling Baptiste off the boat and into the water with a big splash just in time to get out of sight of the thugs.
"I know!" Baptiste yelled at Chance the moment they emerged again, shaking water out of his eyes. "I wanted them to catch me! But of course you had to go and ruin it all!"
"HELLO! HERE! BIG, UGLY, DANGEROUS THUGS! WE ARE HEEERE!", Chance shouted, raised his arms and started waving them while treading water.
Baptiste grabbed him by the shoulders, dragged him under water and pulled him into the shadow of a huge ship, where they would be better hidden from view.
"What in the world…?" Holding Chance's face with both hands he could do nothing but stare at him, totally flabbergasted.
"What? Do you want to get caught or not?", Chance replied, unfazed. Was that the hint of one of his boyish smiles on his face? Oh bloody hell, Chance, you really do enjoy stuff like that, don't you?
This was so much like old times, for a tiny moment Baptiste felt the urge to laugh out loud at his old mate's reckless craziness.
Then he remembered what was on the line.
"I don't want them to know that I want to get caught!"
Chance stared at Baptiste, blinked, grabbed him by the shoulders, hooked his legs behind his knees and they dove again, once more just in time to avoid being spotted by the bad guys.
"We are a bit complicated today, aren't we?", he spluttered at Baptiste as they surfaced.
"It wouldn't have been, hadn't you ridden in on your bloody white horse! But this is so typical of you! Always meddling and creating a mess!"
The word "mess" brought back dark memories of a bench in a subway station in Washington. Memories of an explanation for a horrible deed that Chance now … had forgiven? Difficult question that Chance tried not to contemplate too much…
"Had accepted" was probably a more accurate word choice.
Chance knew very well, with Baptiste acting as "uncle" for Ash, he just couldn't let the darker side of his feelings towards him take over. Not without risking Joubert letting Ash in on a couple so far relatively well-kept secrets. As Chance had discovered back when they had confronted Cervantes down by the Triple Frontier, not letting his anger take over worked best when he concentrated on the current situation and its respective challenges. Usually there were abundantly enough of those to help ignoring the past.
"What is going on?" Chance asked, suddenly serious.
"You don't want to know. Just stay out of this, mate."
For a long moment the two just looked at each other.
"Tell me or I start yelling again", Chance finally threatened.
An enormous variety of emotions crossed Baptiste's face in rapid succession. He looked conflicted. Ashamed. Unsure what to do.
All of that only fueled Chance's curiosity. What was going on here?
Deciding to follow his gut feeling, he suddenly dove, this time without Baptiste, and swam in swift strokes towards the pier again, just below the surface. To an onlooker, an armed thug for example, it looked as if a not-too-experienced diver was aiming to secretly get to one of the ladders that were supposed to help the boat owners getting onto the pier.
Baptiste realized what he was doing and dove, too, staying right underneath the water's line just like him. This didn't only look unintentional, it also gave their adversaries time to devise a suitable reaction plan.
And devise they did. Chance came up the ladder first, swiftly followed by Baptiste. They were welcomed with several weapons pointed at them. At least three thugs were aiming straight at their heads while the rest was busy shielding the whole scene from passers-by coincidentally looking into the wrong direction at the wrong time.
Chance had to admit, they were very good at that. None of the tourists gave the whole scene a second glance. "Happy now?", he muttered under his breath in Baptiste's direction.
"It's about a woman", Baptiste replied, just as quietly.