So here's the relevant section of In Contact With Oracle:

As long as it is not the target of Mind Control, when an Agent is given an action you may choose to give one of its combat values +1 until the beginning of your next turn.

The player's guide says it won't work with a free action but why not other than because the player's guide said so? Nowhere on the card does it say non-free action. It just says action so if I don't want to push my figure I should be able to roll for leadership just so I can increase it's defense and clear. I think if they're not going to errata ICWO they should just get rid of that line in the next player's guide. They should avoid non-intuitive rules like that which no one would come to on their own by the text of the card. Just my two cents.

There's your answer. It IS as simple as that.

I'm actually in agreement with you that it should be errated to be consistent with the way the game operates (even suggested such a thing in the last Player's Guide thread), but there seems to be opposition from the rules posse to make that change. I have no idea why and it's probably a thread for a different forum.

You raise too many questions.

Got answers?