Killfile

John Smith can read minds. He hears the songs looping in strangers' heads, along with their private fears and the memories they cannot shake. For him the ability feels closer to a curse than a gift.

The CIA trained him until he ranked among its most powerful operatives. He walked out on the Agency and now takes private consulting jobs, working to restrain the darker uses of his power and avoid trouble.

Then billionaire software founder Everett Sloan hires him. The job is to look into Eli Preston, a former employee and tech whiz kid, and search his thoughts for valuable intellectual property Sloan says he stole. Smith never gets the chance to probe Preston's mind.

His identity is exposed, and he runs for his life with Kelsey, a young associate of Preston's. Their pursuers are shadowy, well resourced and unexplained in their motives. Smith and Kelsey go off the grid, and Smith concludes that survival depends on using his gift to the limit, which could cost him his sanity.