What an innovation. Log on at home or work or the library, and watch controlled, sterile violence. The reality of surgery is all there. The knife, the incision, the blood. It couldn’t be more real unless smoke from the cauterized tissue was blown in through the computer’s speakers, unless the abdominal organs were projected on a 3-D tactile instrument so the viewer could feel the slippery layer of blood. Maybe next year. But cutting on the human body does not produce as predictable a result as most reality shows do. Through a technological glitch, the customary fifteen-second delay did not occur and SurgCast broadcast the death of a patient to thousands of viewers. The video made it to a popular Internet site before being yanked due to its graphic nature. Eli was convinced the answer to the murders lay hidden within the events of that fatal operation, even though the names of the operative personnel did not match the names of the victims. Liza supposedly had left town and wasn’t available for questions.
