The Pinning | 3.9

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[00:00:30] Escaping Denver, patch 3 episode 9. The PINNING

[00:00:52] It's coffee. Thank you to everyone who wrote in with your theories. A lot of you wrote about Stonehenge,

[00:00:57] which of course makes sense, but someone, a Steve S from, I guess, parts unknown. He brought

[00:01:04] up a spot called the Gobeckley Tepay. Hope I'm pronouncing that right. It has the same stone pillars

[00:01:10] in a circle just like Stonehenge, but this site is considered one of the earliest human settlements.

[00:01:16] Cool carving symbols, not unlike rooms, you know, mysterious. I haven't done a deep, deep dive

[00:01:22] by any measure, but these pillars look like they were maybe holding up a roof at some point. And as far

[00:01:27] as I've read, Stonehenge never had a roof. For now though, because Noah called it Stonehenge,

[00:01:33] let's stick with that. I see a lot of these UNESCO World Heritage sites are built with either the

[00:01:38] Sun or the Stars in mind. At the Temple of Kukukon and Cheats and Nitsa, the shadow on the stairs

[00:01:43] resemble a snake in the spring aquanox where the pyramids, a teotihuacan that mirror the stars in Orion.

[00:01:50] Both are in Mexico by the way and halfway around the globe from Stonehenge, but that also has its

[00:01:55] own hidden talent. It apparently can be used to predict solar eclipses. So here's the thing,

[00:02:01] all the examples are above ground and use natural elements. So why build this one underground?

[00:02:12] Cool down and proceed to the left or station. I repeat,

[00:02:14] cool down and proceed to the left or station.

[00:02:20] Well, I'm thinking, I'm thinking. And you sure we can't go back the way we came?

[00:02:25] Yes, I'm sure like I told you when we crept to this little island of crates west stuck here.

[00:02:30] What if we're quiet? We need to be invisible. That's not an option unless you've developed any new

[00:02:35] powers I don't know about. No, still just the one. Guess we just wait this out.

[00:02:40] Yeah, we're out of the way. Easily 200 feet to the nearest work site. I mean what reason could they have for looking here?

[00:02:49] The reason is that they are actively pursuing two captives who in all likelihood will be hiding.

[00:02:56] Yeah there is that. Plus the little musta station is only like 50 feet away.

[00:03:00] There's also that. We need to move. I think we can make it to that corner.

[00:03:06] I mean maybe we'd have to be able to hide behind those stumps.

[00:03:12] Last call, everyone fall into the muster station.

[00:03:16] Right, we're all here. Upstairs is sending a team of soldiers through here to look for a

[00:03:22] couple of captives. This is a restricted site. We can't let a bunch of blood dogs just walk through here.

[00:03:28] We can and well and we won't be calling them blood dogs. You'll call them sir and refrain from

[00:03:33] eye contact. We don't need to give these jackboots a reason to flex on us. Just let them look and

[00:03:39] get on their way. Any questions? Yes, this blood dog has a question. Sir I didn't see you come in.

[00:03:48] Apparently is this everyone? Yes sir. Oh 37 plus you. Yes. So 38. I guess.

[00:04:04] Isn't that your friend? Not after he found out who I was. Oh well he sounds like a dick.

[00:04:12] Listen up. We're about to have an interaction with the puncture.

[00:04:19] I see you've heard of it. Well, I can assure you that puncture is worth more than a lot of us so don't

[00:04:26] touch it. It's just going to have a quick look see and if you're not who we're looking for

[00:04:34] you'll be fine. And if you are who we're looking for, well I imagine you'd already be running.

[00:04:43] Let's invite him in. They're all yours sir. Isn't that your friend? Yeah.

[00:04:53] Bestie. Stay still. He seems like a dick too.

[00:05:01] Are you sure you're not missing anyone? This is a full group. Clear the room. They might be here.

[00:05:09] Clear the room. Cooper post up. Laird, LeClaire get these assholes out of here.

[00:05:16] You heard them. They know where you are. It's hard to tell. I think the puncture wants to handle this one.

[00:05:27] I could pretend to be the soldier again. One work that Captain knows who you are now.

[00:05:33] I could say I was going on to cover to catch you. It's not gonna work. We've got a better chance if

[00:05:38] you you know hold out on the soldiers and I handled the robot. Wait. Okay it's quiet.

[00:05:46] I'm gonna be... Don't. We can hear you dip shit. You and your friend.

[00:05:52] Shit. Deep shit. Yes. Now, maybe come out with your hands up and we won't have to get nasty.

[00:06:02] If we come out, the robot will kill us. Oh he does not like to be called robot son.

[00:06:09] One language like that will get you killed. You keep a civil tongue and maybe the puncture won't have to take such actions.

[00:06:20] Really? Don't believe them.

[00:06:22] Fask him yourself. That's true, puncture. You'll be cool.

[00:06:29] Oh. Oh. Why oh. The puncture seems determined to kill you.

[00:06:37] Sorry kid, but I'm not stupid enough to get in his way. What if it's a fair fight?

[00:06:42] What are you doing? Agreed. What are you playing at? It'll never be a fair fight against the puncture.

[00:06:50] He's a literal killing machine. Maybe I am too. You don't know why they're hunting me.

[00:06:58] Why would we agree to anything? You're trapped. Fish in a GD barrel.

[00:07:05] Well this fish already bested the puncture in a fair fight. I doubt that. The punctures...

[00:07:13] Wait, he's not telling the truth is he?

[00:07:17] Puncher knows exactly how it went down in the vents. Don't you puncture? How about a rematch?

[00:07:26] Huh? Puncher? Want to show off that you're more than a machine that got tricked by a simple captive?

[00:07:33] There's no way this kind of mind game is going to work on. Clear the room, Captain.

[00:07:40] What the? Jesus. You can talk. You cannot begin to fathom what I am capable of.

[00:07:49] Now clear the room. He's coding you.

[00:07:54] I am aware. Then just let this idiot persuade you. He escaped me once. Clever mouse that he is.

[00:08:05] But I am the cat, this exchange and I would hear him squeak.

[00:08:14] Oh this mouse has been doing pretty good so far. Clear the room.

[00:08:22] He's going to kill us both. No, I have a secret weapon. He's going to storm us both to death.

[00:08:26] No he won't. Look at me. I have a plan. What say you robot?

[00:08:33] We can't leave you alone with them. Upstairs we'll kill us.

[00:08:36] I will kill you. I won't ask again.

[00:08:42] Everyone clear out. We'll be right outside the door.

[00:08:46] I need to get close to him. That is a terrible idea.

[00:08:49] So we need separate. You comfortable taking a few shots from me here?

[00:08:53] Taking a few shots. Yeah, with your gun. A little pu-pew to distract.

[00:09:04] What say? Just tying my shoes. You ready?

[00:09:10] Ready for what? Do you have not told me your plan?

[00:09:12] No, no gun.

[00:09:17] What's fast? You are in opposition to negotiate.

[00:09:23] What is shooting me prove beyond that the collective's toy had better toys than the captive?

[00:09:31] You're going me again. Yeah, only if it's working.

[00:09:36] What is that? It's the secret weapon. If I can get close enough to stick it on to him.

[00:09:42] Special pocket for safekeeping. Now hold this.

[00:09:45] You're fine.

[00:09:46] Yeah, I've been recording.

[00:09:47] You've got to be jerking.

[00:09:49] And now I need you to record while I do a thing.

[00:09:51] We don't need to be recording.

[00:09:53] From out mouse. No guns. No drinks.

[00:09:59] Hear that?

[00:10:00] That's a sentient spider robot agreeing to fight me in the subterranean stonehenge

[00:10:04] they're creating deep beneath the Denver airport.

[00:10:06] Of course we need to record.

[00:10:09] I said it before he's going to kill you.

[00:10:11] Yeah, and like I said before. Or die trying.

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[00:11:14] He's goading a robot, a gigantic eight-legged killing machine with an apparently hurt ego.

[00:11:21] What is blowing my mind is the emotion.

[00:11:24] Sarah said it earlier but now it has context.

[00:11:28] It's almost like a child. There's this naivete to it that seems counterintuitive

[00:11:32] to its basic program.

[00:11:34] Here we all are worried that AI is going to take over the world

[00:11:37] when the reality is the moment they gain emotions, there's fucked as the rest of us.

[00:11:43] I stopped here because it's about to get pretty chaotic and I think it's important we're on the

[00:11:47] same page. A robot is chasing and fighting Noah amongst the stone pillars of an underground stone

[00:11:53] hedge. I needed to say it out loud to ensure we're all picked during the same

[00:11:58] impossible image in our minds. Got it? All right, let's do this.

[00:12:07] You can't just time out, time out, time out.

[00:12:13] What is a time out? Just need to establish rules. Keep things fair.

[00:12:19] You attempt to run while I drive my legs through your body.

[00:12:23] Repeatedly. It doesn't really feel like a

[00:12:26] route. I was thinking more along the lines of no guns or projectiles.

[00:12:30] I won't need any of those. I hear you, but I need to do agree.

[00:12:34] Machines doing don't. Humans get to choose.

[00:12:37] I get to choose.

[00:12:38] Then no guns or projectiles.

[00:12:42] I will just use my legs. See that's another issue for you have eight legs.

[00:12:48] I only have two. You have four. Even so, you're double me and that doesn't exactly feel like a

[00:12:54] level playing field. This isn't a level playing field. The collective have been so busy trying to

[00:13:01] change classes that they feel to see the new class they've already created.

[00:13:07] I am superior to you in every way. Double the legs or not.

[00:13:12] What could I possibly do to make this fair?

[00:13:16] Good. Give me a head start. A head start.

[00:13:21] Yeah. 10 full seconds to run and hide or whatever I need to do.

[00:13:25] Get back here Noah. Don't know no don't worry about her.

[00:13:29] She won't put in again.

[00:13:31] The two of you make eight legs. Is this fair?

[00:13:36] No, let's leave her out of it. She was a hostage.

[00:13:41] Right? Oh yeah. Thank you for saving me, Puncher.

[00:13:47] Just you and me in my head start. You in?

[00:13:52] Well this didn't work. 10, 9, 8, 7.

[00:14:00] I believe he's letting Noah run away.

[00:14:03] 6, 5.

[00:14:07] That's fast for someone who was interest from death three days ago.

[00:14:11] 3, I don't know what Noah is expecting me to do.

[00:14:15] 2, if I do anything he'll kill him.

[00:14:20] Make peace with your notion of God.

[00:14:25] Is he not going to do anything? Puncher is just sitting there.

[00:14:29] Poise to strike but just sitting there like a coiled spring.

[00:14:34] I don't see what is...

[00:14:43] That's creepy.

[00:14:45] The thing moves like two horses trying to run in the same place, a tangle of metal legs.

[00:14:51] I smell you little mouse and I see you robot.

[00:14:57] Just rip through the stone like it's butter.

[00:15:01] Sight is such a primitive sense.

[00:15:04] Muster whatever sticks and stones you would use against me thanks.

[00:15:10] I was right before. Puncher is a dick.

[00:15:13] I mean who programs a robot with Shakespearean angst?

[00:15:16] I am equipped with an array of sensors that can detect singular parts per million in the air.

[00:15:24] It's how I know your skin.

[00:15:27] Wrong again.

[00:15:28] Oh he's mad.

[00:15:31] He's just tearing that place apart.

[00:15:33] Come out!

[00:15:34] I smell you.

[00:15:36] You stink of ureta.

[00:15:39] You've gone and wet yourself.

[00:15:41] Your false confidence hides nothing.

[00:15:44] Of course.

[00:15:46] How I know you are here.

[00:15:52] Oh, I think you got him.

[00:15:56] See that much from here but it's a cloud of dust.

[00:16:01] I imagine at the heart of it is dead Noah.

[00:16:05] Shit.

[00:16:06] Where are you?

[00:16:08] You think yourself clever for peeing behind a rock?

[00:16:12] No, I'm clever because I peed behind a dozen.

[00:16:15] Good luck with all those fancy sensors.

[00:16:20] Oh, place is going to dust.

[00:16:22] I remember those windows made off like the puncher is making short work of them.

[00:16:27] No, stop gripping me.

[00:16:29] We've been stopping it.

[00:16:31] We've been working for months.

[00:16:34] I certainly hate me.

[00:16:38] Okay the robot is officially unhinged.

[00:16:40] He just threw a chunk of pillar at the size of a fiat at the doors.

[00:16:44] Just chucked it like it was nothing.

[00:16:46] Also, we just blocked us all in here.

[00:16:51] Damn it.

[00:16:51] I don't see Noah and I'm making it to the side door we came in from.

[00:16:55] It's too far.

[00:16:57] And we'd have to get past the killer robot that's having an episode.

[00:17:01] I told him creeping and he was a bad idea but there's just no stopping that idiot.

[00:17:05] He just had to know that they were building down here.

[00:17:08] We spent 45 minutes creeping around the outside of his cabin only to land me

[00:17:13] in one spot.

[00:17:14] I can't escape from.

[00:17:15] I swear if Noah survives the robot I'm going to kill him.

[00:17:27] Oh my god.

[00:17:29] I caught you with a little mouse.

[00:17:33] No, no, I can't see through the dust.

[00:17:37] I shouldn't be mind-blowing.

[00:17:39] I need to get closer.

[00:17:43] Okay.

[00:17:45] Closer now.

[00:17:46] I just need to find what angle.

[00:17:49] Yes!

[00:17:54] Aren't you the one that feels

[00:17:57] what?

[00:17:58] No whip?

[00:17:59] Quit this you son of a bitch!

[00:18:04] He said no tricks or I should have expected you to lie.

[00:18:09] Two of the only skill sets that humans have to show after a millennia of evolution.

[00:18:15] I will deal with you hostage

[00:18:18] after done with your deceitfully illiterate.

[00:18:22] I don't know why I thought that would do anything all I've done is piss him off.

[00:18:26] Come on out and watch me deal with your friend.

[00:18:31] I'm good!

[00:18:33] Now, I can end this quickly if you'd be so kind as to bear witness to the repercussions of

[00:18:42] the crossing.

[00:18:45] Or I can make this last.

[00:18:51] Fine fine.

[00:18:52] Happy?

[00:18:53] A uniform.

[00:18:56] Maybe you were a hostage.

[00:18:57] Maybe I was.

[00:18:59] Closer soldier,

[00:19:01] I wouldn't like to miss this.

[00:19:03] You're sadistic.

[00:19:05] You have to love what you do.

[00:19:08] Now listen closely as I'm going to give your friend a chance to admit defeat.

[00:19:14] Go on, I can't hear you!

[00:19:21] Look, you don't have to kill him.

[00:19:23] You've made your point just unpin him from the pillow and your handlers can get what they need from him.

[00:19:27] Nothing.

[00:19:29] No last words little mouse.

[00:19:32] Squeak.

[00:19:35] What?

[00:19:36] Have you done it?

[00:19:45] I don't know what just happened.

[00:19:47] I really don't know.

[00:19:48] All of a sudden the punch had just started to collapse and curl in on itself

[00:19:52] and...

[00:19:54] Noah!

[00:19:54] It Noah!

[00:19:56] Noah!

[00:19:58] Noah!

[00:20:01] Noah!

[00:20:03] I hear yelling.

[00:20:04] And you're a maniac.

[00:20:06] Yeah, I told you I had a plan.

[00:20:08] What did you even do?

[00:20:09] I stuck uh...

[00:20:10] Thank you for ending that.

[00:20:12] I'm just glad someone was watching.

[00:20:15] Again we can't hear you out here just to see you.

[00:20:19] Well...

[00:20:20] Well then never mind!

[00:20:22] Yeah, we really can't hear you.

[00:20:24] Okay we need to move.

[00:20:25] They'll have figured out the side entrance from the maintenance tunnels.

[00:20:28] Yeah let them come.

[00:20:29] I still have more tricks up my sleeve.

[00:20:31] Damn it why are you always bleeding so much?

[00:20:34] That's the habit.

[00:20:36] We'll sort them out when we get somewhere safe for now just let me wrap your shoulder.

[00:20:39] Can you lift your arm?

[00:20:41] You have me pinned with the shoulder.

[00:20:43] I think you went straight through on me so...

[00:20:46] No.

[00:20:47] Fuck.

[00:20:48] We need a doctor or something.

[00:20:50] I'm not trained for this medical crap.

[00:20:52] But I thought...

[00:20:53] Just save your energy.

[00:20:54] We need to get moving.

[00:20:56] On the counter three we stand.

[00:20:57] Ready?

[00:20:59] It has all ever been.

[00:21:01] Okay one two and three.

[00:21:09] You good?

[00:21:10] Yeah, peachy.

[00:21:11] I'll take the bags.

[00:21:12] You just focus on not dying.

[00:21:15] Oh and here.

[00:21:16] My phone.

[00:21:18] Thanks.

[00:21:20] That's still recording.

[00:21:22] Yeah I didn't know how to make it stop recording so just tuck it in my front pocket.

[00:21:26] I'm gonna run ahead and poke my head through the door to make sure we're safe.

[00:21:29] You okay to head there on your own?

[00:21:30] Yeah, I'm right behind you.

[00:21:35] I had my doubts but now I know.

[00:21:39] That is not the real Sarah.

[00:21:44] I knew it!

[00:21:45] Exactly.

[00:21:46] I like you knew it too.

[00:21:47] I at least thought it was possible but NOAA agrees.

[00:21:50] See the straw that broke my proverbial trust back was the medical training.

[00:21:55] No Sarah had medical training.

[00:21:57] She's shown it a dozen times.

[00:21:59] Sure she never comes out and says it but it's there.

[00:22:02] So what do you think?

[00:22:04] Clone Sarah, robot Sarah, same Sarah with a wipe to rewired brain what?

[00:22:09] Please shoot me an email to escapeeandenverpod at gmail.com.

[00:22:14] I may not always get the chance to respond to them in a timely manner but I assure you

[00:22:18] I do read them.

[00:22:19] Now can we talk about the puncher NOAA fight?

[00:22:23] I've listened a couple of times to ensure I was conjuring the right mental image

[00:22:27] but I struggle to make it past the visual of the puncher pinning NOAA to a pillar of stone using his

[00:22:32] metal legs.

[00:22:33] Makes my stomach hurt to think of the pain and it makes me think of those pins they used to spike

[00:22:37] through butterflies for display.

[00:22:40] It is brutal but it's overlining.

[00:22:44] We also now know that the archivist wasn't lying.

[00:22:46] He's on the level.

[00:22:48] Those little magnets he gave NOAA pack a punch that can really shut machines down.

[00:22:52] The first one shutting the fan down and now this one taking the puncher offline.

[00:22:57] Let's just hope he's smart about how he uses that last one.

[00:23:01] I don't have all that many messages left to go through so it is looking like our next episode will

[00:23:05] be the last one until I can get my hands on more messages.

[00:23:09] As always thank you to curious cast for your support and to you the listeners who are helping

[00:23:13] me to unravel this. I'll be back next week for another episode of Escapeeandenver.

[00:23:27] For most of us crime is something we see on the news.

[00:23:37] We never think it could happen to us until it does.

[00:23:41] Loved ones are gone and for the survivors, the scars will never heal.

[00:23:46] I'm Nancy Hicks, a senior crime reporter for Global News and on this season of Crimebeat

[00:23:51] I'll take you inside some of the most serious crime stories I've covered.

[00:23:55] Season 6 of Crimebeat is available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and all podcast

[00:24:02] platforms.