CHAPTER 6

The Board of Directors

Thursday, November 12, 8:09 a.m. . . .

Jim Barton hobbled on crutches into his first board of directors meeting as CEO of Santa Monica Aerospace. Martin Van Busin, who’d missed the dinner the night before, turned a spotlight on Barton’s injury: “Bloody hell, Jim,” the dean of MIT’s engineering school exclaimed in his signature Americanized Australian accent, “what happened to you?”

Barton had heard this question a lot in the past few days and from the other board members twelve hours earlier. He’d consistently responded with a vague story about jogging and a patch of uneven ground. He now offered this account to Van Busin. The jolly, balding academic answered with a joke Barton had heard by now in many variations ...

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