TMOS-ver. KARTHIK

Karthik Reddy came to Cognizant with one simple plan: stay average.

Score somewhere in the middle. Speak only when necessary. Let people underestimate him.

For three weeks, it works.

Then Sajda Sehar starts noticing the things nobody else does-how quickly he understands problems he pretends not to understand, the mistakes that don't quite look accidental, and the strange way he always seems to know what people will do before they do it.

Karthik can handle that.

What he can't ignore is the envelope waiting inside his locked room.

You used to hide it better.

Someone knows who he was eighteen months ago.

Soon, altered employee records, duplicate identities and people who shouldn't know his name begin closing in around him. And while everyone else tries to figure out what is happening, Karthik quietly starts doing what he does best-

watching.

Testing.

Lying.

And making sure nobody realizes they're already playing by his rules.

But the closer Sajda gets to the truth, the harder one question becomes to avoid:

Was Karthik hiding from his past... or was his past waiting for him to stop hiding?