---
The eting continued for another hour, covering topics ranging from the administrative preparations for independence to the security situation in Punjab.
Vikram sat quietly, absorbing everything, mapping the political dynamics of the room.
He identified allies, potential obstacles, and — most critically — the fault lines between the Patel faction and the Nehru faction within Congress.
When the eting finally broke up, V.P. non approached him.
The constitutional advisor was a compact, intense man with a receding hairline and the permanently worried expression of soone who spent his days trying to solve impossible problems.
"Rathore," non said, extending his hand. "That was quite a performance."
"It wasn't a performance, sir."
"Everything in politics is a performance. The question is whether the substance matches the showmanship." non studied him. "How old are you?"
"Twenty-four."
"Twenty-four." non shook his head. "At twenty-four, I was a clerk in a governnt office, trying to figure out which end of a pen to write with. You just walked into a room full of n who've been fighting for independence for thirty years and told them sothing they didn't know. That's either very impressive or very foolish."
"Can't it be both?"
non almost smiled. "Co to my office tomorrow morning. North Block. We have a lot of work to do and very little ti."
He handed Vikram a card with his office address. "Bring everything you have on Bengal — demographics, economics, political affiliations, all of it."
*I have eighty years of future knowledge,* Vikram thought. *I'll bring everything you can handle and more.*
"I'll be there at eight," he said.
---
Mishra drove him back to the hospital in silence. The Delhi evening was settling in — the sky turning amber and purple, the air cooling, the sounds of the city shifting from dayti comrce to nightti dosticity.
The sll of cooking fires drifted through the car's open windows, mixed with dust and diesel and jasmine.
You did well," Mishra said finally, as they pulled up to the hospital entrance. "Better than well, actually. I've never seen Patel take a young man seriously that quickly."
"He took the information seriously," Vikram corrected. "Not . Not yet."
"Hmm. Sa thing, in politics. The ssenger becos the ssage." Mishra killed the engine and turned to face him. "Vikram, I need to ask you sothing."
"Ask."
"The information about Jinnah. How do you really know? And don't give the line about a source in his dical circle. I've known you for five years, boy. You don't have contacts in Jinnah's orbit. You don't have contacts anywhere beyond the Delhi Congress office."
Vikram t Mishra's gaze steadily. This was a critical mont. If Mishra pushed too hard, if he began to suspect the truth — or any version of the truth — it could unravel everything.
"Rajendra bhai," Vikram said slowly, "I know things that I shouldn't know. I can't explain how. I know that sounds evasive, and I know it requires you to trust in a way that I haven't earned. But I promise you — everything I said tonight was true. Jinnah is dying. And if we act on that information, we can save India from the disaster that's coming."
Mishra stared at him for a long ti. The old Congress man's face was a battlefield of conflicting emotions — loyalty, suspicion, hope, fear.
"The blow to your head," Mishra murmured. "You're different since you woke up. Not just more confident. Different. As if you're... older. As if you've lived longer than twenty-four years."
You have no idea how right you are, Vikram thought.
"So experiences age you overnight," Vikram said. "Nearly dying was one of them."
Mishra nodded slowly, accepting the explanation without fully believing it. "Very well. I won't press you — for now. But Vikram, if you're playing gas with these people — with Patel, with non — the consequences won't be political. They'll be personal. These n do not forgive betrayal."
"I'm not playing gas, Rajendra bhai. I'm trying to save our country."
The older man studied him for a final long mont, then sighed and patted him on the shoulder. "Get so rest. You have a big day tomorrow."
Vikram watched him drive away, the Austin sputtering and coughing into the Delhi twilight.
Then he turned and walked back into the hospital, his mind already racing ahead to tomorrow's eting with non.
He had cleared the first hurdle. Patel had listened. non was engaged.
The verification of Jinnah's health would confirm Vikram's credibility and open doors that would otherwise remain closed to a twenty-four-year-old nobody.
But this was only the beginning. The Bengal proposal was just one piece of a much larger puzzle. Kashmir needed to be secured.
The princely states needed to be integrated — faster and more completely than in the original tiline. The military needed to be restructured.
The economy needed a completely different developnt model than the socialist stagnation that Nehru would impose.
And underlying all of it was a deeper challenge: Vikram needed to build power.
Not political power in the conventional sense — he wasn't interested in elections or party positions, at least not yet.
He needed influence. The ability to shape decisions at the highest level, to redirect the course of history through the n who held the levers of the state.
Patel is the key, he thought as he lay in his hospital bed. Everything flows through Patel.
If I can beco indispensable to him — his intelligence source, his strategic advisor, his eyes and ears — then I can influence every major decision from Partition to Kashmir to the economy.
But Patel dies in 1950. I need to prevent that too. Better healthcare, better doctors, less stress.
I need to keep him alive for at least another decade. With Patel alive and in power, India would be a completely different country.
The ceiling fan rotated slowly above him. The ward was quiet except for the distant sounds of the hospital — footsteps, murmured conversations, the occasional clink of dical instrunts.
Vikram closed his eyes and began planning his next moves. The Bengal proposal for non.
A dossier on Kashmir for Patel.
A secret morandum on India's defense vulnerabilities.
And buried beneath all of it, like the foundation of a building, the beginnings of what he privately called "The Grand Design" — a comprehensive, fifty-year blueprint for transforming India into the world's foremost superpower.
He had five months before independence. Five months to redirect the river of history.
The clock was ticking.
And Vikram Rathore was just getting started.
[END OF CHAPTER 6]
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