Book excerpt: IT IS THE FUTURE. THERE IS NO WAR, NO SOCIAL UNREST, NO PAINFUL MEMORIES... AND NO FREEDOM. At seventeen, Lain has already aced the Institute’s elite training programme for Mindwalkers, therapists who use direct neural links to erase traumatic memories. A prodigy and the daughter of a renowned scientist – whose death left her alone in the world – Lain is driven by the need to save others. When troubled classmate Steven asks her to wipe a horrific childhood experience, Lain’s superiors warn her to stay away. Steven’s scars are too deep, they say, the risk too great. Yet as she defies their warnings and explores Steven’s memories, it becomes clear that something is very, very wrong. Is the Institute really an organisation of healing, or one of manipulation and state control? And is there more to her father’s death than meets the eye?