After you assemble the formula, leave the room, and open the elevator door, there's Zoe to take them from you. And boom, there's the two of you stuck in the trash compactor behind the train station. Yeah, not good.
Hint 2
You have about three and a half minutes to solve this puzzle before -- well, it's not pretty. Read to the end of this hint for step by step directions on how to do this.
Hint 3
This is one of those puzzles where you have to move the yellow bars to allow the red bar to move all the way to the right. You remember these from other Nancy Drew games, don't you?
Hint 4
The bars move only along their little paths. Moving some bars allows other bars to move, which will in turn allow other bars to move.
Hint 5
One way to work these kinds of puzzles is to move pieces around until you can move the red bar forward a space or two, then move the original pieces back where they were so you can move other pieces and move the red piece forward again.
Hint 6
You'll sometimes need to move the pieces back and forth a couple times before you can clear the next bit of the path. Take advantage of any forward momentum you get!
Hint 7
The Amateur puzzle isn't too tough, but the Master is pretty stinky. Here's the solution; note that in this picture, all the pieces are to be moved as far in the indicated direction as possible and the red piece always goes right.
Hint 8
Hint 9
Hint 10
Once you're out of the trash compactor, Zoe will give you more instructions and help. As a fellow target of Revenant, she's clearly become someone you can trust ... well, at least as far as the rest of this game goes, but I still wouldn't give her my credit card.