Flashback
It was 1952.
Rao, the director of India's fledgling intelligence agency, had just orchestrated the dismantling of a shadowy network called the Shadow a group that had infiltrated India's institutions and attempted to destabilize its fragile democracy.
Though the operation had succeeded, it had revealed to Rao a daunting truth: India's intelligence apparatus, despite its resourcefulness, was unprepared for the complexity of the global chessboard.
Rao sat in his Delhi office, a single desk lamp illuminating the stack of intelligence reports in front of him.
Each report, each coded message, painted a picture of a deeper, darker world one where influence wasn't contained by borders, where allegiances shifted like sand, and where the rules were written by those bold enough to ignore them.
The Shadow's defeat was just the beginning.
