Chapter Three
Even though she'd been expecting it, Jaime was none-too-pleased when the call came, summoning her to Oscar's office. "Where am I going this time?" she asked sullenly, slumping into a chair with her arms folded across her chest.
"Callahan resigned this morning," he said without preamble.
"Good," Jaime retorted, then instantly realized her mistake. To Oscar's knowledge, she shouldn't yet be aware of the new policy.
"Then I take it you've already talked to Steve?"
Jaime quickly backpedaled. "Well, he was pretty upset when he called me, so of course I talked to him. And I think Peggy did the right thing," she added defiantly.
"Nevertheless," Oscar countered, "I need you to go to Callahan's apartment – catch her before she leaves – and talk to her."
"I'll help her pack," Jaime grumbled.
"Jaime! This is an official assignment. I need you to put personal feelings aside and convince her to come back to the office, so I can reason with her. Better yet, get her to change her mind and stay."
Jaime was unmoved. "I will not use my friendship with Peggy to manipulate her. I won't do it!"
"You have your orders," Oscar said brusquely, busying himself with the files on his desk so Jaime wouldn't see the sadness in his eyes. "Report to me when you're done," he told her, without looking up.
Jaime glared, gave him a sarcastic salute – and slammed the door on her way out.
- - -
Oscar wasn't feeling much like observing formalities. He walked right past Jack Hansen's two secretaries and straight into his office, without bothering to knock. "I want you to cancel that 'order to enforce', Jack," he demanded. "Better yet – rescind the damned relationship policy altogether."
"Now, why would I do that? It's been in place almost since our agencies were formed."
"I've already lost Callahan...and I'm probably about to lose two of my best agents."
Hansen smirked. "You know as well as I do that agents can't simply up and leave, Oscar. Especially not the two I think you're talking about. That's not the way it works."
"Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers were a couple long before either of them even heard of the OSI!" Oscar snapped, ignoring the threat implied in Hansen's last statement...for now. "They've finally managed somehow to get back most of what they lost – and I can't even be happy for them, wish them well? That's beyond ridiculous!"
"It's for their own good. Suppose someone wanted to get to Austin. What better way than to kidnap his lady love and threaten her?"
"That could just as easily happen now," Oscar argued. "We can try to keep them from getting married until we're both blue in the face, but we can't stop them from loving each other!"
Hansen ignored his colleague's emotions. (Feelings were never Jack's strong suit anyhow.) "They should never have been allowed to get that close," he said coldly. "You should've nipped it in the bud a long time ago."
Oscar sighed. "What do I have to do to stop this? Would you like to see this policy dragged into open court and declared unconstitutional?"
"You're bluffing, Goldman."
"Am I?"
Hansen got up and stood toe-to-toe with Oscar. What he lacked in height, he made up for in sheer force of personality as tried to stare down his rival. Oscar was having none of it. To him, Hansen had always been more of an annoyance – a mosquito buzzing around his head – than a real threat.
"If I can't stop you myself," Oscar promised, "I'll talk to the people who can – and I'll keep talking until someone shows the sense that God gave a turnip....which is about ten times the sense you'll ever have!"
- - - - -
