Hello, Mr. Major General (1)

Chapter 200 - I Care

“Don’t you think your concern for Sana exceeds the boundaries of what a professor should feel for his students?”

“It depends on how you define a professor’s concern for his students,” Kartik said evenly, ignoring the obvious trap. He uncrossed and recrossed his legs in a princely, dignified manner. “A good professor spares no effort to help their students get ahead in life. You may not have met a professor like me before this, General Shukla, but that doesn’t mean we don’t exist.”

“Fair enough.” Sidharth nodded. “I can see why you would want to go to great lengths for Sana. Smart, obedient students like her are hard to come by, after all.
Still…”

Sidharth abruptly changed the subject. “…Where did you hear that Sana lived with the Special Ops from the age of 12 to 18?” Only the Special Ops soldiers were privy to that information.

Kartik shot Sidharth a funny look. His bright, almond-shaped eyes flickered to the one-way mirror
disguised as a wall; he stared fixedly at it, as though it were just as transparent to him as it was to the occupants in the room beyond.

“…Where do I hear about it? From you, of course. General Shukla, you slipped up and exposed Sana’s secrets yourself. So why are you asking me about it?” The smile that had been lurking in the depths of Kartik’s eyes disappeared. He stared fixedly at Sidharth, his face stern. The
forbidding aura rolling off of him was comparable with Sidharth’s.

Sidharth was taken aback. He quickly collected himself, and shook his head impassively. “Please enlighten me, Professor Sen.”

“Enlighten you? I think it’s fairly self-explanatory, isn’t it? Sana applied to be my postgrad student, and the CV you faked for her was good enough to pass for the real thing. But the second you showed up and announced that you were her guardian, you basically admitted that her CV was entirely made-up.” There was a hint of a sneer on Kartik’s lips. “Any fool can see that.”

Sidharth considered this for a moment. He raised his hands and applauded Kartik. “You live up to your reputation, Professor Sen. Your observation skills are truly
impressive.”

“You flatter me.”

“I have no regrets, however, because it exposed you, too,
Professor Sen.” Sidharth folded his arms across his chest. He said calmly: “Sana’s CV was ‘real,’ in the sense that we made sure it was possible to corroborate every detail in it with witnesses and evidence. But you’ve just
admitted that you had been able to tell, at a glance, that it was a fake that was ‘good enough to pass for the real thing.’ That goes well beyond mere observation.”

Sidharth had been well aware of the consequences of revealing his true identity. He knew it would negatively affect Shehnaaz. His announcing himself as Shehnaaz’s guardian was enough to prove that Shehnaaz’s CV had been falsified. It meant that everything listed on Shehnaaz’s CV from before the age of 12 was most probably fake. But this was not immediately obvious to everyone. Only those who knew Shehnaaz well would have been able to deduce this. In fact, it would not be too much of a stretch to say that only someone who knew Shehnaaz’s real past,
someone who had known her before the age of 12, would have been able to pick up on this. Was Kartik someone from Shehnaaz’s past?

Sidharth watched Kartik’s face intently, making sure not to miss the slightest change in the lawyer’s expression.

But Kartik’s face betrayed nothing. He said frostily: “A good lawyer needs to be able to doubt
everything. I think you underestimate my skills as a lawyer.”

“I didn’t mean to offend.” Sidharth bowed his head slightly. “I admit that I know very little of your professional skills, but I can tell you must be an exceptional lawyer, going by your achievements so far.”