Strange events.

I returned to the main building and began looking for the conference rooms. My search took me to a large hall directly across from the registration desk. The location of the room made me even more suspicious of the directions I had been given earlier.

I had difficulty concentrating on the lectures, but I managed to sit through the talks. I had lost all interest in chemistry and as I sat there, I kept thinking how useless my attendance at the conference was because "they" were going to destroy my career anyway. At the break I joined everyone else for coffee and pastries, but I found that no one wanted to talk to me. I spotted Hun Wong in the crowd and started to walk towards him to strike up a conversation. He saw me coming and quickly turned and walked away, I pursued him briefly but it became apparent that he did not want to talk to me. I stood there alone in a crowd.

Just before lunch I ran into two RAM chemists from San Fransico whom I knew. I immediately struck up a conversation with them and found out that they were attending Klaus Closeau's lithography course.

"That's right." I responed. "I forgot that Klaus always teaches that course at this conference. I didn't see any signs for it. Where is it being held?"

"It is in the other building where the rooms are." One of the chemists answered.

"That's funny. I didn't see any meeting rooms over there. Where is it?" I asked.

"You get off the elevator on the second floor and make a right. It is right there," was the reply.

I didn't think any more of it and went to the cafeteria to have lunch. At lunch I was beginning to participate in the conversation and was discussing some chemistry with on the the San Fransico chemists when I noticed his manager sitting next to him, give him a sharp rap on his leg. The chemist quickly terminated the conversation and I sat there with no one to talk to. I interpreted the chemist's sudden change in behavior to mean that I was not to be included in the conversation.

That evening after the last presentation, I headed back to my room. On the way up in the elevator, I thought I'd stop and check out the lecture room where I had been told Klaus was lecturing. I got off at the second floor and made a right and ran into a wall! There were no rooms of any kind to the right of the elevator. I looked around the rest of the hall and the halls on the next two floors, but I could not find any lecture rooms. The whole incident seemed typical of the events that were going on at the conference.