We had just finished a good group hike when Fizzy turned to me
and said, "You know, there’s an unusual sort of cache nearby."
"Oh?" said I, "And what would that be?"
"Well, it’s an large research capsule from an advanced
experiment I was involved with at the lab, Project Caesar. It’s
around here somewhere."
I was intrigued. "Well, how would I go about finding it? A
Geiger counter perhaps?"
"It’s nothing like that," he assured me. "It's totally harmless.
You’d just have to figure out the answer to a silly riddle I came
up with."
I was quite concerned by the evil grin on his face, but it’s
hard to resist that sort of challenge. Still.... "This doesn’t
require an advanced degree in quantum mechanics or anything? An
in-depth understanding of how many zillionths of a degree Rhumb
line is warped by the degradation of space-time in a Klein
bottle?"
"No no no," he scowled. "It’s painfully easy. Here, write this
down."
I hesitated before succumbing to my own curiosity, and fished
out my Palm. "Ready when you are," I said, wincing slightly with
anticipation.
"Stop wincing slightly with anticipation! The riddle is in the
form of an elemental recipe, although you don’t need to understand
chemistry to solve it:"
Xenon, xenon, xenon, vanadium, iridium, iodine.
Xenon, iodine.
Dysprosium, cesium, lithium, iridium, iodine, iridium.
Cadmium, xenon, xenon, iodine.
Lutetium, iridium, xenon.
Dubnium, cobalt, xenon, iridium, xenon.
When I finished writing, I looked up and scowled at him.
"What?" he said with the smile of a sadist who really enjoys his
work. "Even ancient peoples could tally this out. Surely you can as
well."
"I should club you with my hiking stick right now," I scoffed,
figuring I would start by beating him on the kidneys, "And don’t
call me Shirley."
He somehow managed an even bigger grin, and with that he climbed
into his car, waved and drove off.
My only consolation was that I knew that this paragraph, the
15th of this puzzle, was just here as a red herring... OR WAS
IT?