Crossword Genius

Quiet one moving east carrying a signal (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

salient

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'signal' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'quiet one moving east carrying a' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'one' could be 'i' (Roman numeral) and 'i' is located in the answer.
'east' could be 'e' (synonyms) and 'e' is present in the answer.
'a' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for salient that I've seen before include "Projecting outwards; significant" , "defence work" , "Foremost" , "Noteworthy" , "Leaping (heraldry)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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