 How did Hank die?
They held onto each other as if seeking mutual support, the thirty-three-year old woman and ten-year-old boy. The body scars were faint, the scars running in long lines, one dissecting his chest, the other slicing diagonally across his upper abdomen to disappear under his trousers. Which was not what he'd considered at all important on leaving Walter Reed Hospital early this morning; which was something he found distasteful, something he felt beneath them both. Once he could communicate this, the strangeness would disappear and the First One would again become good old Hank.
 Hank's experimental continent-to-continent flight vessel exploded.
 Hank's spacecraft exploded when it hit Earth's atmosphere on the way home from Mars.  Hank's experimental continent-to-continent flight vessel exploded.  Hank died when he crashed his car on the way to the mission launch.  Hank's spacecraft exploded when it hit Earth's atmosphere on the way home from the moon.