Chapter 6
Everything at the Intellectual Property Office went off without a hitch. All 32 patents got their status updated, the exclusive licenses were officially terminated, and the changes kicked in right away.
From today on, if StellarTech so much as touches any of my patents, they're breaking the law.
At noon, I dropped off the paperwork for my new company at the government service center.
Company name: SkyGuard Data Solutions Inc.
Legal representative: Alex Carter.
Registered capital: four hundred thousand dollars.
At 3 PM, I met someone at a coffee shop on the west side of the city.
Henry Shaw.
He was my guy at StellarTech for three years—the smartest backend engineer I've ever had, hands down. Two months ago, Michael forced him out, and now he's working freelance gigs from home.
He was already there, sitting in the corner with an old laptop open, the screen packed with code.
When he saw me, Henry pushed his glasses up.
"Hey, Alex," he greeted me.
"Take a seat," I said, pulling out a chair. "So, you heard about the mess over there?"
"Heard last night. The tech team's group chat totally exploded," Henry said, dropping his voice. "The whole system's a mess this morning. The security module's half-dead. Michael's scrambling to get people to fix it, but no one can make heads or tails of your core logic."
"Not surprised," I said.
"So, Alex, what's your next move?" Henry asked.
"I'm launching my own company—SkyGuard Data Solutions. We're going all-in on enterprise security solutions," I said.
Henry's eyes lit up.
"Need anyone?" he asked.
"Absolutely. I need a backend engineer who can run things solo," I said.
"I'm in," Henry said.
"I can only pay you 3,000 dollars a month for the first three months," I said.
"Deal," Henry said, not even blinking. "I couldn't stand working with someone like Michael for even a day. Alex, even if you didn't pay me, I'd still stick with you."
"Don't talk about working for free. This isn't some favor between friends. Once the company starts making money, you'll get your share of the equity—fair and square," I said.
"Deal," Henry said.
Henry stuck out his hand, and I grabbed it.
That made two of us. Plus Susan.
Three people, one company, thirty-two patents.
That was enough.