Brainteaser #9 – Sergei and the Note

Brainteaser #9 - Sergei and the Note

In the depths of Siberia, an influential chemical weapons specialist has been murdered in his laboratory. Sergei, the chemist, was found without any signs of a struggle and there’s no immediately obvious way to solve the crime.

Prior to this, Sergei had been alerted of rogue agents out to get him and capture his weapon plans and the police strongly suspect it is one of the following rogue agents that they’ve been collecting intel on:

  • Alexander
  • Chekov
  • Nicolas
  • Sasha
  • Ivan

The only lead the police have is a piece of paper tucked into Sergei’s top pocket with the following chemical elements scribbled onto it:

  • Carbon
  • Sulfur
  • Oxygen
  • Nickel
  • Lanthanum

How do the police work out which rogue agent committed the crime?

The chemical elements of Sergei’s scribblings are:

  • C
  • S
  • O
  • Ni
  • La

When rearranged, they spell Nicolas, the perpetrator of the crime. It is likely Sergei scribbled this down in code so the perpetrator would not destroy the evidence after they’d committed the crime.

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