A rather embarrassing episode. Nichols tried to sneak out of the house at two in the morning and was stopped in the back alley by a policeman who wasn't part of the operation. Nichols was carrying a piece of paper with some scribbled notes on it (a copy is attached). When asked he started to say something about it being his notes on his calculus of infinities. Now Constable Savage may not know a lot of maths, but he recognises rubbish when he sees it and he barked "just answer the question". At this Nichols gave a most peculiar smile and said nothing but "exactly". Savage arrested Nichols on "suspicion of going equipped to confuse" and took him to the police station.
Stump-up
When in the back of the police car, Nichols pulled a piece of paper from inside his shirt, tore it up and started to eat the pieces. By the time we stopped him only about a third of the paper remained in the form of two pieces. A facsimile of this is attached (click on the images to enlarge).
Chichester
We seized his computer. He had scrubbed most of the files on the hard disk, but we managed to salvage one called "perians.doc", which contained the following:
Answers to "Henry The Black" crossword (to answer Julian's question, that's called "twofold rotational symmetry" in the trade):
Across
6 Regiments
8 Whirr
9 Undersold
10 Stats
12 Avalanche
16 Unintentional
17 Obsoleted
21 Feral
22 Diaghilev
23 Never
24 Stevedore
Down
1 Aeons
2 Nines
3 Sense
4 Whitening
5 Erstwhile
7 Televangelist
11 Plain
13 Bumblebee
14 Nikolayev
15 Other
18 Agave
19 Kinds
20 Yearn
Nichols has remained resolutely silent ever since.
So that looks like it – we're not going to get any more information out of him, so can only hope that we have enough to work out the combination word to the safe.
Just Answer the Question
The best start: take the lost yale key from the nearby stream and put it in the lock. Add square numbers to puzzle grid on diagonals. Kindly remove the three symmetrical digits. Exponentiate seven and four. Extract nouns, adjectives and verbs. Verbs are greater than adverbs. Easily solve the trivia puzzle as knowing who directed Slither turns out to link everything together. Russian place names help. You over estimate everything. Find the missing seven letter word and use to search Google. Over time and space we can read cosmic mysteries. Underneath the doormat you'll find letters giving answers. Remember that the compliers sometimes lie. The biggest number outside the matrix is the largest in the loop. Help me with this strange conundrum. What is another name for an angry ixodida? One extra hint: solve the puzzle giving three primes which commute. Remember, calculus gives the date of the most important cup final. Discard the Pythagorean triplet.
Continue with the challenge
Printing
Answers