Miles Van Ert

Miles works for Roxxon. Deep inside one of the corporation's refineries, Van Ert meets a silent man named Brannis to continue a project that has yet to be named aloud; a device that hums with something Van Ert finds professionally fascinating and morally beside the point. He does the talking for both of them. Brannis stays quiet, and Van Ert needles him about it.

The chatter stops when he hears a noise in the dark. He goes to look, which is his mistake. A blinding flash puts him on the floor while the intruder, Carter, chases Brannis into the night. The meeting ends the way most of Van Ert's plans will: on the wrong side of Carter's mission. He escapes the implosion that levels the facility, but he leaves knowing the operation is no longer a secret.

Miles Van Ert is a Roxxon scientist with a secret. When the SSR swarms the company floor hunting for whoever handled the Nitramene that flattened the Red Hook refinery, Van Ert holds his composure right up until Peggy Carter points out the obvious: A hot shower rinses Vita radiation off skin, but it clings to trousers, shoes, and a wristwatch. The moment she suggests checking the clothes of every man who clocked in that morning, Van Ert breaks for the stairwell. He does not get far. Carter runs him down before he reaches the lobby.

In the interrogation room, Jack Thompson works, at first, with patience but quickly abandons the it when he doesn't get the answers he wants. The offer is simple: Give up a bigger fish or ride the current straight to the electric chair. Van Ert holds out just long enough to regret it. Thompson beats the name 'Leet Brannis' loose. The thread that pulls the SSR up the chain toward Leviathan.