He had hit a nerve. Good. "Are you saying people don't balk?"

"I'm not saying it never happens," she said, "but most people do the right thing."

"Does the donor get to meet the person he or she is saving?"

"No. It's totally anonymous. Confidentiality is very important here. Everything is held in the utmost secrecy."

They were getting to it now, and Myron could sense that her defenses were starting to slide back up like a car window. He decided to pull back again, let her resettle on comfy ground. "What's the patient going through during all this?" he asked.

"At what point?"

"While the marrow is being harvested. How do you prep the patient?" Prep. Myron had said "prep." Like a real doctor. Who said watching St. Elsewhere was a waste of time?

"It depends on what you're treating," Dr. Singh said. "But for most diseases, the recipient goes through about a week's worth of chemotherapy."

Chemotherapy. One of those words that hush a room like a nun's scowl. "They get chemo before the transplant?"

"Yes."

"I would think that would weaken them," Myron said.

"To some degree, yes."

"Why would you do it, then?"

"You have to. You're giving the recipient new bone marrow. Before you do that, you have to kill the old marrow. With leukemia, for example, the amount of chemo is high because you have to kill off all the living marrow. In the case of Fanconi anemia, you can be less aggressive because the marrow is already very weak."

"So you kill off all the bone marrow?"

"Yes."

"Isn't that dangerous?"

Dr. Singh gave him the steady eyes again. "This is a dangerous procedure, Mr. Bolitar. You are in effect replacing a person's bone marrow."

"And then?"

"And then the patient is infused with new marrow through an IV. He or she is kept isolated in a sterile environment for the first two weeks."

"Quarantined?"

"In effect. Do you remember the old TV movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble?"

"Who doesn't?"

Dr. Singh smiled.

"Is that what the patient lives in?" Myron asked.

"A bubble chamber of sorts, yes."

"I had no idea," Myron said. "And this works?"

"Rejection is always a possibility, of course. But our success rate is quite high. In the case of Jeremy Downing, he can live a normal, active life with the transplant."

"And without it?"

"We can keep treating him with male hormones and growth factors, but his premature death is inevitable."

Silence. Except for that steady mechanical beep coming from down the hall.

Myron cleared his throat. "When you said that everything involving the donor is confidential--"

"I meant totally."

Enough wading. "How does that sit with you, Dr. Singh?"

"What do you mean?"

"The national registry located a donor who matched Jeremy, didn't they?"

"I believe so, yes."

"So what happened?"

She tapped her chin with her index finger. "May I speak candidly?"

"Please."

"I believe in the need for secrecy and confidentiality. Most people don't understand how easy, painless, and important it is to put their name in the registry. All they have to do is give a little blood. Just a little tube of the stuff, less than you would for any blood donation. Do that simple act--and you can save a life. Do you understand the significance of that?"