By the end of the long meeting, Harry was tired, uncomfortable and at the end of his patience with Juliet's rant at the assembled Section Heads. Admonitions, warnings and threats tended to lose their impact when administered so generously. His back hurt, he wanted to get his tie off, and that damned indigestion was back. He was going to have to reconsider the imprudent substitution of too much coffee and an administrative bollocking for an evening meal.
The assembled group stood up and gathered their paperwork as they prepared to depart. Harry would have been the first out the door except that Juliet's sharp voice skewered him, "Mr. Pearce, you will remain, please."
"Oh Bloody hell, what now, Juliet?" Harry heaved a sigh and returned to his seat while the others fled in what Harry considered to be a most unsupportive fashion. Once the room had emptied, Juliet pulled out yet another file from her glossy black leather shoulder bag and slapped it down on the meeting table.
"I have received the report from last week's physical exams for Section D." It appears that you failed the physical readiness segment of the exam, Harry, and your physical status results were borderline unacceptable, too. Your blood pressure is too high, your cholesterol levels are not good, and your weight has been creeping up on you. Your treadmill stress test results were in a range requiring remediation, I'm sorry to say."
"Well what do you expect, Juliet, when you keep me chained to the chair listening to you read the riot act on a regular basis and keep me so frequently occupied shoveling bureaucratic bullshit that I have no time left even for a decent evening meal, much less a vigorous postprandial walk?" he grumbled.
Her lips flickered, almost but not quite imperceptibly, with the suppressed pleasure of anticipation. "You will receive physical readiness training 5 evenings per week. A trainer has been assigned and you are to cooperate fully until your physical condition has been restored to within the acceptable range. You will be contacted by an administrative assistant with the particulars within the next few days."
"Bloody Fabulous! I've been looking for something to fill all those hours that I spend so frivolously each day. What will you choose to have slide, Juliet? Shall we be placing the state of my girth over the concerns of national security, now?"
"Harry, you have to admit that, even though you are not normally in the field, it is imperative that you and every operative, field or analyst, be in adequate physical condition to withstand the rigors of the job, whatever that might entail. You could, in fact, compromise national security were you to succumb to an ill-timed heart attack or stroke! So I won't hear any arguments. This is your priority. Just rearrange your schedule and get your portly ass, charming as it is, to your physical training and shape up!"
"Fine!" Harry snapped, already calculating what would have to be ignored to free up a couple of extra hours in each day. He could practically feel his blood pressure rise, and could definitely feel his heartburn escalating as he reached for the door handle to leave the room.
"Oh, and Harry?" Juliet purred in dulcet tones. "One other member of your staff will be joining you in physical remediation. You will be sharing your trainer and program with Ruth Evershed."