If it were anyone else saying that, I'd have told them to look twice - but if it's you saying that... [ kaveh trails off, letting the unspoken implication hang between the two of them, because both of them know that alhaitham's gift with languages could have at least pinpointed the existence of code if it so, well, existed. and if it didn't, then whatever this is is something else entirely, and that begets more questions than it begets answers. ] But who would go out of the way to print gibberish? Well, more gibberish than usual, I'm not counting the recent papers that came out of the Vahumana publishing authority, because I didn't think some of them knew what a cogent argument was if it chased after them and bit them in the ankle. Do you think this is deliberate, or some kind of a weird warping effect?

[ and then kaveh's brain catches up with him. the look he gives alhaitham is a little helpless, perhaps dawning on something like existential horror as the real implications sink in: what on earth is alhaitham going to occupy his mind and hands with if most of the books found were blank and the other ones are like this? and, more relevantly to kaveh, what's going to keep alhaitham beyond getting bored enough to get into trouble beyond documented compare? kaveh thinks he feels a miniature aneurysm coming on, but it's a little early for that sort of thing.

kaveh grimaces, and finally retreats back into his space with a breath much in the way of a sigh. ] They had me fill out what seemed to be a survey on the underground vehicle. Did you have to do that?