A research room was even better. Gabriel had thanked JC for the help, had the books open, and was trying to find patterns between the different symbols before they'd even been there five minutes. He was fairly certain that each circle was its own word, and the symbols inside of it represented sounds or letters. Of course, this was somewhat wishful thinking- each circle with each set of symbols could have its own meaning entirely, and one just had to memorize it. But who would do that with clockwork, really? It was all about parts fitting into one whole mechanism that worked together with precision.

He pointed most of this out to Mohinder, speaking most of his thoughts on the matter immediately. He was so engrossed in it that he didn't hear Jack's approach, and continued to babble on with his boyfriend in a manner he never would with anyone else. "So I'm looking for a number system, because it will help us move on from there and I'd bet that numbers are going to be heavily used in most of these books. It might be the notches here, these parts that jut outside the circles? ...that has to be part of it, at least. Eugh, I'm not sure. I need to find more examples."