Chapter 16: Lantern Health

Nobody said anything.

The radiator ticked under the window.

The girl with the nose ring put her face in her hands.

"June," Nolan said, to the carpet. "We're six months from a clinic trial."

"I know," Garner said.

"We just fixed the glare. We finally have something that works in a real room."

"I know, Nolan."

"So we let it die in a drawer?"

Garner put the folded letter in his cardigan pocket, next to three pens.

"No," he said. "I've been up all night, and I don't think we do."

He went to the whiteboard and picked up a marker.

Under the drawing of the lantern, he wrote the name.

"Lantern Health."

"The university lets a professor take a project out and make it a company," he said. "If the people who built it come with it."

"A company with no money," Nolan said.

"A company with a product. Money follows a product. Sometimes."

He drew a circle and cut it into slices.

A big one for himself, and the university's share.

Four thin ones.

"I keep most of it, because I'm old and it's my name on the risk," he said.

"The four of you who make it work get three percent each. Nolan. Lindsay. And you two."

He pointed at the girl with the nose ring and the quiet guy who ran the servers.

"No salary," he said. "Your stipends until June. After that, whatever we can raise."

"Anyone who wants to go find a real job, I'll write you a beautiful letter."

Nobody moved.

I looked at my thin slice on the whiteboard.

Three percent of a company with no money.

His project gets bought by a tech giant in two years. Core members get equity.

"I'm in," I said.

Nolan looked at me across the room.

Then he looked at the board.

"Obviously I'm in," he said. "I've been in for five years."

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