the source returns exactly what he's offered

Bain's reply signals that the cover is transparent to him, and that he'll meet bad faith with bad faith. He misnames her "Steepley," reduces her magazine to "And So On," and answers on the letterhead of "Saprogenic Greetings," a firm advertising "Jokes and Surprises and Wacky Disguises" whose motto — "WHEN YOU CARE ENOUGH TO LET A PROFESSIONAL SAY IT FOR YOU" — is the professional-conversationalist theme rendered as a novelty-gags slogan. His actual questions, when they come, arrive redacted to nothing: "Q, Q, Q (Q, Q[Q], Q, Q, Q), Q, Q (Q), Q, Q." — the intelligence payload of the exchange blacked out on the page, a source and an officer trading placeholders, each declining to hand the other anything real. (n.269 escalates the misnamings systematically.)