BMT

During the two-hour visit, Mr Ong was briefed by commanders on the BMT curriculum and observed recruits undergoing physical training and using tablets to learn how to strip and assemble their weapons.

We knew: People die during the first hundred days of a BMT. Although we would fly to Seattle together, a month later I might bring Jane home in a box—after the new marrow failed to engraft; after an unstoppable infection with no immune system; after liver failure when the new marrow attacked its stranger-body.