Chapter 13: First Field Deployment, Pier 17

The clearance memo for Field Deployment Authorization came through at 6:47 AM on Viktor's fourteenth day, printed on SHIELD letterhead with Tony's secondary authorization signature in the bottom margin and a handwritten addition from Carol that read, simply, *you'll need boots*. The boots materialized an hour later via a SHIELD quartermaster who left them outside his laboratory door without knocking, which Viktor found either considerate or telling. He could not decide which.

They were the correct size. He noted this without comment in his research log and put them on.

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