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Thanks to @Stiv for his original Sergeant Sequence puzzle , and for permission to borrow his characters!

Sergeant Sequence yawned as he entered Headquarters at 2am for the second time in just two weeks. The Chief Inspector started right in: "It's Patrick Terne again. Our team found him in Kenya, just like you said, but when they went to chain him he slipped through the cuffs and was gone. All the standard procedures were followed, I don't understand what happened..."

Sequence cut him off, "Chief, I just woke up. The abbreviated version please."

"OK, OK. After he scarpered, he posted a tip on our website that simply said 'Your capture was...imprecise!' Let me tell you, that looks really good on the..."

"Chief! Just the facts please."

"Ah, yes. It looks like he's island hopping this time. Here's the list on the whiteboard:"

Two steps to the whiteboard, and Sequence got his first look at Terne's itinerary:

  1. ISLE OF MAN
  2. SAIPAN
  3. PUERTO RICO
  4. RÉUNION
  5. GALAPAGOS
  6. ÎLE BOULAY
  7. ICELAND

After a minute or two, Sequence poked at his phone for a minute, then said, "Chief, has your team left Kenya yet?"

"Not yet, they bought plane tickets today."

"Change the reservation, and send them to Gotland."

"Gotland? Ah...he was in Iceland, and so he'll stay in Scandanavia. That's exactly what I thought!"

"That's right, Chief, exactly like you thought. It's a pleasure to see your deductive prowess in action."

So was it really that simple, or did Sergeant Sequence have a deeper reason for fingering Gotland as Terne's next destination? And why did Terne pick the itinerary he did?

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1 Answer 1

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The connection between the islands is:

Their country code domains

Here's how:

If you follow through each island (or the country that controls it) you get the following chain: IM -- MP -- PR -- RE -- EC -- CI -- IS -- SE, where the second letter is the same as the first letter of the following code.

I'm assuming it ends at Gotland because:

There are several islands with codes that begin with S, but Gotland (Sweden) is the closest?

Actually, as per Forgotten_User:

It ends at Gotland because that spells out "imprecise" which was the tip from the website.

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    $\begingroup$ rot13(gur gvc ba gur jrofvgr fnlf vzcerpvfr) $\endgroup$
    – Forgotten_User
    Commented Jul 1, 2020 at 19:00
  • $\begingroup$ rot13(Ubj qvq V abg abgvpr gung? V'yy nqq vg gb zl nafjre naq perqvg lbh.) $\endgroup$
    – kristinalustig ♦
    Commented Jul 1, 2020 at 19:04
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    $\begingroup$ You got it...great job! Hope you enjoyed! $\endgroup$
    – Jeremy Dover
    Commented Jul 1, 2020 at 19:29
  • $\begingroup$ rot13(V jnf npghnyyl guvaxvat bs VFB guerr-bar-fvk-fvk ohg sbetbg gung fbzr vfynaqf (v.r. gur svefg sbhe) unir gurve bja pbqrf.) $\endgroup$
    – Forgotten_User
    Commented Jul 1, 2020 at 19:30
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    $\begingroup$ I did enjoy! Thank you! I also learned SO MUCH about each of those islands and their histories, looking for a connection. $\endgroup$
    – kristinalustig ♦
    Commented Jul 1, 2020 at 19:35

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