terriko

Despite *also* being a (very well-written, award-winning) propaganda novel for a irritating ideology, A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge has something like this. A virus called Focus in combination with an MRI-like machine allows the (socialist) villains to take people with talents such as programming and, more importantly for the plot, xenolinguistics to be turned into worker drones. Dunno if you've read it already, but while it is a standalone plot, technically it comes after A Fire Across the Deep, also an excellent and slightly less preachy novel.

Asad