When you have a photographic memory, forgetting ain't easy. And with the world being the septic tank that it is-forcing you to remember every stinking detail with vivid clarity-sometimes, all you want to do is forget.
But what if you could change things with that memory of yours? What if you had a shot at turning future happenings into worthwhile recollections? Would you take it? Even if it meant bringing the world to its knees? Would you dare?
Eddie Free is a Johnny-a courier, a data smuggler -and he's on the biggest run of his life, one that could put him over the top, one that could get him out of the game . . . just so long as he doesn't screw it up. But screw it up he does. Well, he can't take all the blame. Brooklyn is a dangerous place and things happen. It's not his fault he has to waste a couple of thugs trying to mug him in a bout of random street crime. And it's not his fault that bounty hunters keep dying around him. But a good Johnny does whatever it takes to protect his cargo, and Eddie's package is safe for the time being, locked in a mental vault of his mind by an extraordinary photographic memory that can be prompted to forget and remember on command.
Convinced he's being setup, Eddie abandons his delivery and calls an old friend for aid. An ex-Johnny, Lila's all used up because a Johnny's mind can take the punishment of data archival and retrieval only so long. So Lila does other things now, like moonlight as muscle for shady characters in a black market network of global industry run by multinational corporations known as Houses. Plugged-in to the city and its players, Lila knows people-the sort of people who can help Eddie download the data in his head. AndEddie's desperate to offload his freight, because if he doesn't, it'll kill him.
Navigating his way through Brooklyn with a ragtag bunch of techies looking to get their hands on his data, Eddie learns that just about everyone is intent on having his cargo . . . including a man, a revolutionary, named Nok. Nok wants Eddie's data not because of its explicit value but because keeping it from the Houses hurts the Houses. And Nok is absolutely dogmatic in his quest to hurt the Houses. A murdered family can do that . . . make a man resolute about his vengeance.
In a war brewing between Houses seeking to protect their interests and insurgents looking to topple them, Eddie fights to keep on living a life that's all of a sudden taken on new meaning. And once he discovers what's in his head, the world will never be quite the same.