The man introduced himself simply.
"Contractor," he said. "Government side."
No card. No titles.
Just confidence.
Varun offered him the plastic chair near the window. It creaked under the man's weight.
"Chai?" Varun asked.
The man nodded. "Without sugar."
Varun poured from the steel flask he carried now out of habit. The students sat frozen, pretending to revise notes while listening to every word.
"I saw your videos," the contractor said, blowing gently over the cup. "LAN gaming. Old systems. Clean cable work."
He looked around.
"You train them?"
"I teach them," Varun replied. "Training implies outcome guarantees. I don't do that."
The contractor smiled slightly.
"There's a CCTV installation contract," he said. "Government building. Not small."
Varun didn't respond.
"Good money," the man added. "But labor cost is killing margins."
There it was.
Cheap labor.
The students felt it too. Amit's jaw tightened.
Varun set his cup down.
"They're not free labor," Varun said. "They're students."
"I know," the contractor replied calmly. "That's why I'm here. They already work. They just don't get paid properly."
Varun leaned back.
"In college," Varun said, "we can't move. No early exits. No field work. Paperwork strangles everything."
The contractor nodded.
"I can handle that," he said.
Varun looked at him directly.
"How?"
The man took out his phone.
"Connections," he said. "Permissions."
Varun shook his head.
"These boys don't need another man exploiting them."
The contractor didn't argue.
"I pay," he said. "Per day. Per head. You lead. You supervise. No night shifts. No unsafe work."
Varun stayed silent.
"And," the contractor continued, "I pay you separately. Consulting. Management. Whatever name you like."
He paused.
"You came back from Dubai," he added. "You know how this works."
Varun did.
He also knew how it broke people.
The contractor made a call.
Spoke softly.
"Education department," he said when he ended it. "Thirty minutes."
Almost on cue—
Footsteps ran down the corridor.
Mishra appeared, paan still in his mouth, shirt half-tucked like he had been dragged out of something important.
"Sir—sir," Mishra said, breathing hard. "Principal sahib is calling."
He pointed at the contractor.
"Tea," Mishra added. "In office."
The contractor stood up smoothly.
"Permission," he said to Varun, adjusting his shirt. "Consider it done."
He turned to the class.
"You boys," he said, smiling. "Learn fast."
Then he walked out with Mishra trailing behind him.
The room stayed silent.
Amit finally spoke.
"Sir… is this good?"
Varun didn't answer immediately.
The HUD flickered faintly.
[EXTERNAL POWER INTERVENTION DETECTED][THREAT LEVEL: REDEFINED][CONTROL SHIFT: UNCERTAIN]
Varun looked at his students.
"This," he said slowly, "is where things get complicated."
He stood up.
"We are not desperate," Varun said. "And we are not cheap."
He looked at the door.
"But the system just opened a gate."
Varun exhaled.
"And gates," he said quietly, "always lead somewhere."
The bell rang.
No one moved.
Outside, power was rearranging itself.
And Varun knew one thing clearly—
This time, the system wasn't pushing them down.
It was trying to use them.
And that was a different kind of danger altogether.