After years of frustratingly slow progress, Project Ascensus — I named it after the Latin word for ascension, or growth — has advanced more in the past week than it has since 2105.

Perhaps the most apparent difference is this: less than a month ago, I couldn't get approval to experiment on rats. Now, I'm getting the opportunity to begin working with human subjects.

Not just any humans, either.

Kalixieta Elizabeth Raven.

This morning, I, along with Mr. Ashcombe and a team of operatives working for my corporate sponsors, flew to Tokyo, where Kalix lives. Apparently they've been planning this for a while, working out all sorts of details I've been told not to concern myself with, but the point is... Well, what is the point, actually? I suppose the point is, it's happening. Now. After years of research, planning, hard work, refusal... My project is actually going to come to fruition.

Well, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. This is only the first trial, after all. As for the logistics, I've only just been informed of how this will go down — Ashcombe explained it on the way here.

So, the plan.

First of all, the capture has to be executed efficiently — it's imperative that we get out of Japan with Kalix as quickly as possible. Quite obviously, local laws do not allow, well, for lack of a better word... kidnapping. If the Tokyo police catch us, they are fully within their rights to arrest me and the entire team. Once we get back to headquarters, though, we're "home free", so to speak. The lab is legally both international waters, so no country can claim jurisdiction, and outside the UNBI's authority, because they have a policy against interfering in corporate matters.

Right, the plan.

First of all, no, I didn't come up with it, that was the corporation's doing. They told me to focus on the science, that the "preparations", as they called it, would be taken care of by their operatives. If it had been any other test subject, I probably would've left it at that, but... Well, I'll spare the whole "Kalixieta is the key to this whole project" thing, the point has very much been made. Anyway, I convinced Mr. Ashcombe to allow me to accompany the team sent to collect Kalix.

Oh, shoot, slipped my mind again. The plan.

The team will intercept her on her way home from school, at around 16:25. They have to ensure she's alone — they mustn't raise suspicion, so they can't just pick her up on a busy street — so they'll capture her only once she's entered a specified zone. First, they'll redirect her route home on A-Maps with some computer trick I have no real desire to understand, sending her toward an entrance to a podcar station. Once she's there, the tracks will be redirected, sending her through a little known side track to an empty, lower section of Kodemmacho station. It was originally built when the Tokyo city plan included the construction of another podcar line — it would serve as a transfer station — but that plan was abandoned and with it, the station.

Anyway, once the podcar docks, the team will capture her when she exits.

"Are you ready?" Mr. Ashcombe takes a seat next to me on the bench from where I've been watching everyone bustling around, preparing.

"Oh, ah— yes. I mean, I'm not really doing much."

"OK. Well, I've never been much of a 'people' expert, but something seems... off about you. Is something the matter?"

I'm not entirely sure how to answer that, so I respond with an attempted reassurance.

"No, no, don't worry."

He nods, and looks around, watching everyone as I had been. It's odd — I feel like I'm alone right now. There is a human being sitting right beside me, yet his presence seems so... incomplete. It must just be that I don't know him well. Maybe it's simply that I only know him as a corporate liaison, and not a person. But, that's not all. Something about him, he just seems like he's not entirely real. Like a shell.

Yes, well, I have a tendency to overthink about these sorts of small, meaningless details when I'm preoccupied. Which I am, very much so. Preoccupied.

Without really knowing why, I speak up all of a sudden, voicing the persistent concern that has refused to leave my mind for the past several days.

"I— I'm not a bad person, by the way."

Ashcombe turns to face me again. "I assure you, Dr. Blayne, I'm not making any moral judgments."

"Well—" What does that mean? Of course he is, he must be. People make judgments every day, about just about everything. "It's not that I don't feel bad about this, of course I do, it's just—"

"Doctor, you don't need to worry. It isn't my job or my place to be questioning your morals or feelings surrounding the target."

That isn't the same as understanding why I'm not a bad person, but he clearly is not interested in the explanation, so I won't push it.

Still, I'd be lying if I said it doesn't bother me. I know if people — well, other than those I work with — knew about this, they'd have plenty to say about how horrible this is, how I must be evil, or a sociopath, or some other accusation about my character. I just wish I could convey how important this is. Of course I feel guilty about some of my methods, of course I feel bad for Kalix, of course I wish this didn't have to happen to her — I truly would be a terrible person if I didn't. I mean, seriously, kidnapping a teenage girl on her way home from school? All I need is a windowless white van and a Reddit account and I'm a stereotypical 55-yr-old "creep" from the 21st century.

What's important here, what I know, is that despite my reservations, this is the right thing to do for humanity. My project is bigger than her. It will affect the future of the entire human race. With a scale like that, what does it really matter if one girl disappears? It isn't that I don't see the moral implications of this — I'm simply analysing it logically, weighing the pros and cons.

"Alright, according to the location of her phone, she's left school. Let's move into position."

The lead operative directs me toward a hovercar and I, along with a few others, climb in. He inputs the destination — Lower Kodemmacho Podcar Station — and the car starts to move.

There's a second tablet, identical to the leader's, sitting on the car's built-in table. One of the other operatives signs in for me and opens two windows, one live playing the street cameras near Kalix's school, and another showing the location of her phone on a map of Tokyo. The flashing dot slowly moves across the screen, and the cameras confirm that she is walking toward the maglev station, her usual transport home.

"OK, transmitting updated route..." The leader types something onto his tablet, looking up after a few seconds. "Success. False subway delays have been inputted into A-Maps' local data. Instead of Ningyōchō MagLev Station, the target will be directed to the podcar station across the street."

Sure enough, the map on my borrowed screen shows her crossing at the intersection toward the podcar entrance. Traffic cameras confirm. ​​Unfortunately, in order for the corporation's computer scientists to access the station's systems, they had to crash the entire system. In consequence, all cameras on the platform and in the individual podcars are inoperable — once she enters, we can't see her. Good thing the GPS on her phone will still be transmitting her location.

Once the blinking dot shows Kalix in a moving podcar, the lead operative turns back to his tablet. He taps a few buttons, then nods, mostly to himself, I think.

"Tracks have been switched. Target is now heading toward LKS," he says, his voice a military-like monotone. LKS, that's Lower Kodemmacho.

The next few minutes feel like an eternity. She is so close. I wish there was something I could do, anything, to make it go faster, get her here quicker... instead, I can only stare at the dot moving across the tablet screen, closer and closer. My foot taps anxiously against the concrete floor.

"100 meters," the leader says, giving a signal toward the docking platform. "She's about to enter the station."

The others move toward where he points. I can hear the sound of a podcar approaching. This is it. She's almost here.

Pushing every hesitation, concern and reservation aside with deep breath, I follow the operatives toward the gate that separates the platform from the rails just as the car speeds into the station, decelerating into docking position. The leader nods to two other men while drawing a stun-weapon from its holster. He points it squarely at the car door while the other two press the emergency open button on the side of the car.

Through the crowd of corporate operatives, I can hardly tell what's going on. Everyone approaches, or moves around, following their exact orders and taking their positions, while I watch from afar as the future of Project Ascensus is taken into the hands of others, people I've been told to trust, but can't help or work with. I can barely even see the podcar itself, let alone its occupant.

In fact, the first sign that something has gone wrong is the shout of the leader.

"What the hell? That's impossible!"

Pushing my way through the swarm, I manage to reach the gate, and stare, bewildered, at what lies before me.

A normal, white podcar, docked at the gate, with the doors open...

And no one inside.

The car is empty except for one unattended smartphone, lying on the unoccupied seat.