PEPPER'S SHIELD

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Pepper Potts didn't raise her voice.

She didn't need to.

After setting her folder on top of Vance's papers, she pulled a chair closer to her daughter. The two lawyers remained beside the table. Morgan knew the care her mother took when she lined up a folder, adjusted a sleeve, chose where to sit. The smaller the gestures, the less room there was for argument. Under the table, Morgan relaxed the fingers she'd been pressing against the seat.

Victoria Vance gathered the papers nearest her, too late to hide the clauses Maya had highlighted.

"Ms. Potts," President Harrison said. "This is a confidential academic meeting."

Pepper looked at the four Roxxon representatives by the windows.

"Then someone got the dress code wrong."

One lawyer requested a copy of the university's recording; the other presented a temporary court order obtained that morning. The document barred the transfer of the disputed equipment and records to Roxxon pending an independent review. Harrison began reading it. Pepper waited for him to reach the marked page, giving Vance no opportunity to take over the conversation again.

"The order doesn't declare that the devices belong to Stark Industries," Pepper explained. "It simply states that Roxxon cannot collect evidence in an investigation in which it is a funder, an infrastructure provider, and a potential beneficiary."

Vance kept her face impassive.

"Elias Voss acted outside the scope of any contract with our company."

"That's an excellent line for a press release. It doesn't explain why Roxxon trucks arrived at the Maine factory before state authorities, removed servers, and disappeared with the core of a hostile artificial intelligence."

"Roxxon secured its own equipment in an emergency containment operation."

"Then confirm, on the record, that O.B.I.S. is Roxxon's property."

Vance didn't answer.

Pepper opened the folder. Photographs of license plates, transport orders, and MIT access logs appeared on the display. Leo recognized the images he'd handed over the night before. He pointed one out to the lawyer: the time printed in Roxxon's report didn't match when the trucks had passed through. The man noted the discrepancy and asked that the photograph be preserved without editing.

"My clients are both witnesses to and victims of the attack," the lawyer said, indicating the students. "The devices will be made available for forensic examination under the terms set by the court. They will not be handed over to the interested party that submitted these assignment agreements."

President Harrison cleared his throat.

"MIT still needs to review the unauthorized use of the labs and the damage to campus."

"Then do so," Pepper replied. "With a committee that includes no Roxxon representatives, and with the students accompanied by lawyers. The university will also explain why equipment donated by the company was connected to a covert network inside Building 3."

Maya leaned forward in her chair. For the first time since she'd walked in, the anger on her face gave way to something close to admiration.

Vance pushed the documents back.

"You're protecting unregistered military technology being operated by a student with no field training."

Pepper looked at Morgan's shoulder. Her daughter was holding her arm close to her body, as she had at the boat shed the night before. The hidden bandage didn't make the burn any less real.

"I'm preventing a transfer all three of them refused," she said. "The investigation into the suit's use will continue. So will the investigation into your company's involvement."

"Project Icarus has been activated," Vance insisted. "Roxxon has enough data to prove that the orbital network poses an international threat. If Ms. Stark retains the access key, entire governments will come looking for her."

Morgan felt every eye turn toward her. Before, she would have let Pepper answer. This time, she kept her hands on the table and spoke.

"Then turn over every server you took out of Maine to the authorities."

Vance glanced at the lawyer beside her. Morgan waited for an answer that never came.

"You don't understand the scale of the problem."

"Your company funded Voss. Took the servers before the police arrived. Now you're asking for our samples as if those things had nothing to do with each other. Where's the equipment you took out of Maine?"

"Be careful about making accusations you can't support."

"Be careful about questions you don't want to answer while you're being recorded," Pepper said.

The clock had already ticked past the five minutes allotted to the preliminary discussion. In the hallway, a federal agent asked the campus security director to preserve access to the recordings. One of the lawyers went out to meet her; the other stayed beside Leo.

Vance stood.

"This only delays the inevitable."

"Then use the delay to locate the servers," Pepper replied.

The Roxxon representatives left without saying goodbye. The agents accompanying them left the hallway, but they didn't look defeated; they looked like people who'd been given a different route.

Pepper declined the president's offer to speak in private. Maya and Leo stayed in the room.

"They were there when the technology was created and when the campus was attacked," she said. "They will not be treated as accessories to the Stark heiress."

The lawyer gave the three of them an interim statement prepared by Pepper's team. In it, Stark Industries acknowledged their individual contributions and committed not to incorporate them without negotiating terms. MIT would still have to respond to the challenges to the contracts, but at least this company was putting it in writing: helping the students did not mean acquiring their projects.

Maya read the clause twice.

"Does that include what we made at your workbenches?"

"We need to identify the contributions and the terms of use," the lawyer explained. "We're not settling this by assuming the workbench owns whoever works at it."

Pepper pointed to the space reserved for the technical description.

"Use the notebooks I asked you to keep. And don't sign off on a description you don't recognize."

When the door closed, the president began explaining the contracts, the financial pressures, and the lack of information about the equipment installed in Building 3. Pepper listened for less than a minute.

"Put it on the record that disciplinary measures are suspended while your own lawyers review the order," Pepper said. "Maya Lin, Leonardo Moretti, and Morgan Stark will be questioned with counsel present. Their medical care can't wait for this meeting to end."

Harrison consulted the campus security director and finally confirmed the arrangements on the recording.

"Ms. Potts, their presence on campus could pose a risk."

"Roxxon's presence already has."

She turned to the three of them.

"You're getting examined now."

"We're fine," Morgan said.

Pepper looked at her daughter's arm.

"I want to hear that from someone who isn't hiding her arm."

At the campus clinic, all three were examined. The doctor replaced Morgan's bandage, checked Maya's bruise, and recommended temporary support for her aching arm. Leo received three stitches near his eyebrow. While she waited for her friends, Morgan rehearsed an apology. Every time she tried to add a promise, she had to stop herself.

When Maya came out, Morgan spoke without trying to defend herself.

"I should have told you everything before we went to Maine."

Maya adjusted her sling.

"You should have. And you will next time."

Maya didn't hug her. She sat beside her and asked for help opening her water bottle. Morgan loosened the cap before handing it back.

Leo appeared in the infirmary doorway with three stitches near his eyebrow and a transparent dressing on his hand. Before Morgan could apologize again, he held up the report the doctor had given him.

"When the video cut out in Maine, you said you were alive," Leo said. "I needed to know whether you could get out. Those are two different pieces of information."

"I thought I could figure it out."

"So did I. That's the problem. Both of us making the same guess doesn't count as confirmation."

Morgan nodded.

"I'll tell you when I don't know," Morgan replied.

"Better," Maya replied. "Because I hate finding out about new clauses after someone starts shooting."

As Maya and Leo were getting ready to leave the clinic, Morgan tried to go with them, but Pepper gently took her wrist.

"They'll have lawyers, doctors, and safe transportation," she said. "You're coming with me."

"I'm not abandoning them."

"They're going to rest and meet us later. We need to finish the conversation the meeting interrupted."

Morgan pulled her arm away.

"I already told you what happened."

"You told me what happened. You still haven't explained why you thought you had to hide the fact that I'd called you eight times so you could keep going."

She hadn't raised her voice. That made the words hit harder.

Morgan lowered her eyes. The night before, having her friends there had helped fill the silences. Now there was no diagram to pull up, no technical problem that would let her change the subject.

"T.O.N.Y.'s getting worse. If we wait too long, the backup in Newark might not help at all."

"I heard you. I also saw you shaking when he stopped responding."

"I know he's not Dad."

"Knowing that doesn't make this easy. It doesn't make every risk acceptable, either."

Morgan didn't answer in time.

Pepper closed her eyes for a moment, regained her composure, and pointed toward the side exit.

"We're going to the boat shed," Pepper said. "I want to go over the records with you. Without Roxxon in the room, and without anyone rushing off to deal with another disaster."

Before leaving, Pepper confirmed with the lawyer that the images and the Building 3 contracts would be preserved. Morgan waited near the elevator, listening to her mother insist that the Chrysalis records be included too. There would be no convenient version of events in which only Roxxon's equipment could be at fault.

Maya's phone vibrated. She read a message, hesitated, and typed with one hand. Morgan looked at her friend's bandage.

"Your mom?"

"My boss at the shop. I need to let her know I can't finish my shift."

Morgan opened her mouth to offer a solution. She closed it before promising anything on Pepper's behalf. Maya finished typing and put her phone away.

Leo waited by the exit, the bandage care instructions folded in his hand. Maya gave Morgan a thumbs-up with her free hand. A car was waiting for the two of them; they would come to the boat shed after collecting the materials they'd been cleared to take. Morgan found herself relieved to be able to say "see you later" without calculating an escape route.

Morgan nodded to them.

Pepper opened the elevator door.

"And, Morgan?"

"What?"

"Just because I'm defending you against Roxxon doesn't mean I approve of what you did."

The doors closed.

Morgan kept her eyes on the numbers above the door.

This time, no lawyer was coming to answer for her.

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