Haunted by a decision that cost a woman her life, a former journalist inherits a facility that trades in stolen human potential. When he discovers his own capacity to act was stolen as a child, he must decide whether to reclaim the life he lost or sacrifice it for the greater good.

SYNOPSIS:

Marcus Reid was once an investigative journalist. After publishing a story about Emma, a vulnerable woman hiding from a violent man, he failed to recognise that the details in the article could lead the man straight to her. Emma was murdered. Marcus abandoned journalism and has spent the years since haunted by the belief that his judgement cost her life.

When Marcus inherits a storage facility from Frank Morrison, a man he barely remembers, he finds a hidden operation beneath the building. TELOS extracts human potential from children and installs it in others. Intelligence, creativity, perception and instinct are taken from those born into disadvantage and transferred to children whose families can buy a better future.

Rebecca Ford, who runs the facility, believes potential is already wasted through poverty and circumstance. To her, TELOS doesn't destroy human potential. It ensures someone gets to use it.

Marcus discovers Frank chose him for a reason. At five years old, Marcus was one of the first children subjected to the process. What was taken from him wasn't the ability to recognise danger. It was the capacity to act on what he noticed.

The revelation forces Marcus to reconsider the decision that has defined his life. Perhaps he failed Emma because something essential was removed from him before he was old enough to understand. But it doesn't absolve him. Even with that missing capacity, he might still have made the same choice.

Frank leaves him the facility and three possible paths. Restore what was stolen from him, leaving every other victim unchanged. Return everything the facility holds to its rightful owners, sacrificing his own restoration for good while the wider industry continues. Or halt the immediate procedures, stay inside the system, and try to dismantle a network far larger than this one facility.

One choice serves Marcus. One gives immediate justice to the victims. The third might serve the greater good, but only by asking those already harmed to wait.

Marcus sits before the terminal as the deadline expires.

He presses a key.

The audience doesn't see which option he chooses

TELOS