4.07 The Pyramidion

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The Storage Papers is a fiction horror podcast.

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Transcript

WRITTEN BY JEREMY ENFINGER

SOUND: A phone is ringing.

JEREMY: Hello?

DETECTIVE ANDERSON: Oh thank God you’re okay!  I was about to come looking for you. Ron has been calling you, too.  Turn on Channel Eight News!

JEREMY: Okay, I’m watching. It’s about a woman jumping from a highrise. 

DETECTIVE ANDERSON: Jeremy, I’m at the scene now.  The woman…it’s Dr. Patel.

JEREMY: What?!

DETECTIVE ANDERSON: Just wanted to let you know since Ron is looking for her and I can’t seem to get in touch with him.  Would you make sure he knows the next time you speak with him? 

JEREMY: Sure, yeah, I can do that.

DETECTIVE ANDERSON: Everything okay?

JEREMY (VOICE OVER): No. Everything was not okay. 

JEREMY: Yeah…I’m just surprised, is all.

I was surprised alright–surprised that I may be the very last person she communicated with before she died.  Although I highly doubt she committed suicide.  Something’s not right.  I should tell Anderson about the email.  The package.  I’m not sure why I didn’t.  I’m hoping the email address she used wasn’t traceable.  I guess I’m going to need to say something sooner or later.  Just not today.  If I say I waited a couple of days to claim the package, that will give me a chance to review its contents before they connect the email to me.  Then I can say it wasn’t worth mentioning until I confirmed there was an actual package.  I just hope I can look at everything and tell them about it before they realize she emailed me.

God, listen to me!  I’m withholding information from Anderson, but I just don’t know who to trust right now.  My thoughts are always racing.  I just need to calm down and start looking through the box to see what she sent me.

The box looked like it was about the size that reams of copy paper come in, but instead of a lid on the top, it had flaps.  It was extremely heavy.  I pulled out my keys and cut into the tape holding the box flaps open.  It was full of documents filed vertically, taking up the entire width of the box, and there was a small, hand-written note on the top of the stack lying flat.  It reads:

Jeremy,

I realize by now you have little to no reason to trust me, but I have been following your podcast and can’t help but to feel an element of remorse for some of the activities I’ve taken part in on behalf of Hydra, as well as my employer, SCIC.  Things have been so compartmentalized, and I’ve always had my suspicions about what we were doing, but I haven’t really had any confirmation until you started coming forward with some of the contents you’re reviewing that belonged to Ronald Hammond.  

I wish I had more time to explain here, but I fear I have drawn some unwanted attention to myself recently.  While I would be happy to find a way to have a long conversation with you, the risk is far too extreme at the moment, and I figure the contents of this box will supplement your collection and help you to trust me just a little.

Please know that I have been in contact with Malcolm Foye.  We have been working together to find his grandfather, Joseph, who knows where the object is…or at least where it will show up next, and when.

The handwriting gets sloppier here and it seems like she may have been rushed.

I wish I could write more…running out of time now.  The files are in order, so start at the beginning.  You and the others have been through so much!  Will talk soon!

A.P.

LERNAIA (followed by a six-digit number)

“Me and the others?”  “Lernaia?” What the hell does that mean?  I’m using my better judgment and choosing not to read the six-digit number in case my suspicion might be correct about its usage.  She also said, “Will talk soon!”  Even if she was in a hurry, it doesn’t sound like she realized her life was in jeopardy.

I know she’s dead now, but the fact that she admitted she was working with Malcolm–and was likely aware of Brianne being abducted and held against her will by him… that doesn’t exactly inspire a lot of trust.  I sent a text to Brianne to see if Lernaia and those six digits mean anything to her, without providing any context yet. And in the meantime, I’ve got some new documents to dig through.

I think I might know what “object” they’re looking for…and I’m pretty sure Brianne has seen it.  I chose to follow Patel’s instructions and start at the beginning.  I pulled the first file out, which seemed really old and had a few documents contained within.  You’ll be pleased to hear there aren’t any redactions in any of the documents I’ve seen thus far.  The first document is from nineteen twenty-two and the paper is aged.  It appears to be a letter from local law enforcement regarding an object found in the L.A. Basin, though it doesn’t specify exactly where.  It reads:

War Department

Care of the United States Army

Sir,

On November twenty-second, nineteen twenty-two, I was assigned to investigate an object of unknown origin or composition, which was found near a newly discovered oil field in the Los Angeles Basin.  A representative from the drilling team named Walter Doyle claims that the object mysteriously appeared, which was not present the previous day.  Mister Doyle stated he left the field at approximately eighteen-thirty hours on Tuesday, the twenty-first and upon his return around oh five-thirty hours on the twenty-second, the object was around fifty meters from his work site.  Mister Doyle stated the object’s appearance resembled some kind of bomb or projectile and he feared for his safety and for that of his work crew.  I provided specific instructions to maintain at least a one hundred meter distance from the object until it could be thoroughly investigated.

I arrived some time after thirteen hundred hours on the twenty-second to inspect the object and was unable to identify it or determine whether it poses a risk to the vicinity.  I took the liberty of taking some measurements and have maintained a secure perimeter around the object, posting a twenty-four hour watch with our officers rotating duty every eight hours.  

The object is metallic in nature and stands around three meters in height.  It is silver and clearly reflective, with a triangular shape.  I would estimate its base to be around one-half meter and it comes to a very sharp point at the apex, giving it an elongated pyramid-shape. There are no visible signs of construction such as seams or rivets, and it appears to be a single, solid piece of metal.  I could not gather precise measurements for reasons I will explain momentarily and I was not able to complete a close-up inspection of the object as I could only get about ten feet away from it.  

I did not believe it to be an explosive device, so my plan was to dig around its base in order to determine how deep it may have descended into the dirt, if indeed it fell from the sky.  I noticed after about thirty minutes within its presence, I began to feel disoriented and nauseated.  I removed myself from the immediate area and the effects seemed to go away, but when I returned, they only intensified and I began vomiting and experiencing a general weakness in my body.  Another officer on the scene claimed to have the same sensations, though he maintained much further distance from the object, but had been present significantly longer.

One other detail of note that could be subjective, but worthy of mentioning is the perception of things going on around the object seemed to be different for myself and other officers.  It is difficult to explain, but one of my officers noted as I approached the object, it appeared from his vantage point that my movements would slow down and continued to slow down the closer I went to it.  What felt like minutes to me, he claimed, elapsed several hours while he maintained his post at his one hundred meter distance.  He claimed to have been calling out to me, but I did not hear him, nor did I respond.  He had only mentioned it when he asked who would be relieving him for his shift and I was under the impression he had several hours remaining.  When I took my pocket watch out to check the time, he noted my watch was nearly three hours slow compared to his own.  The watch was still functioning and did not need to be wound, and I am certain it was on time at the beginning of my day.  It’s something I can’t quite explain, and am excluding from my initial report.

Because I believe this object to be potentially harmful and of foreign origin, and nothing I have ever seen the likes of, I am formally requesting a military evaluation of the object with all of the resources at the Army’s disposal to determine next steps.  Additional concerns include the proximity to one of the oil fields.  If there is any chance that the object is ordinance of some kind, we wish to avoid any fire damage that may be caused by the ignition of oil in the area. 

With that, we will maintain a patrol around the object at a safe distance around the clock and will await further instructions from you.

Sincerely,

Earnest Thompson

Los Angeles Police Department

This thing sounds exactly like what Brianne had an encounter with in that basement last season.  Very interesting!  Wait a second… hold on just a moment.  

SOUND: Jeremy is typing on a keyboard.

Holy crap! Okay, so if you might recall, I asked for some help with our website seemingly glitching out at the end of last season.  Well, that led down a rabbit hole of puzzles to solve that a small group of our listeners worked on in The Storage Papers’ Discord server.  I’ll spare you the details, but with a little help from 4thTrumpet on Twitter, once all of the puzzles were solved, there were three files that we were given access to.  At least two of them, and likely the third, were Hydra documents.

The first was a field report signed by Doctor Patel, talking about RH (I’m assuming that’s Ron Hammond) finding some kind of locator after someone’s death, which somehow confirmed his loyalty.  There’s mention of the locator being the only instrument capable of finding the object, but the name of the object was redacted in that document.

The second document that was discovered, also a single page, looks like an abstract for a research paper where testing of an object was being conducted titled, “Physical Effects of Temporal Distortion by Proximity.”  It mentioned placing an object, with the name of the object redacted, different distances away from unsuspecting children and taking measurements of magnetism and visible light, as well as brain wave patterns of the kids. Fucking sickos! 

The first two documents had the seven-fingered hand logo on it, but the last document was a map with Coronado Island right in the middle of it.  Two red “X’s” were on the map.  One of them was at the Naval Station on the island.  The other, when plotted in Google Earth, was a residential address.  I’m betting that’s the house that Brianne was in back in Season Three, in the episode, A House on the Corner.  The object she saw–that pyramid–sounds exactly like what’s being described here.  Her experiences with it were vivid, and I recall her saying it just appeared out of nowhere in that basement.  If you’re interested, I’ll post copies of those documents in the show notes on our website.

There’s more from Doctor Patel.  The very next document looks like a field report relating to the pyramid structure from December ninth, nineteen twenty-two.  It reads:

Initial Field Report from Los Angeles County

Army Corps of Engineers

Doctor Henry Barnham Reporting:

Due to the nature of conditions reported prior to the Army Corps of Engineers’ arrival, extreme caution was exercised in assessments taken.  I arrived with my team just two days ago on December 7th and first began physical observation, including photography to confirm the approximate size and shape of this Pyramidion reported by the LAPD was accurate. 

Several observational testing methods were employed to gather data.  We had initially noted several unique characteristics immediately when our instruments were powered on:

There were fluctuations in electromagnetic energy near the object that appeared erratic, and no pattern could be established during our brief observation.  Bursts of radio frequency, electromagnetic radiation, and x-radiation in low amounts were observed.  When our sensors were stationary, the signal was not consistent  in all of the observed electromagnetic spectrums, however, when our sensors were moved closer to the Pyramidion, some changes were seen.

In regards to magnetism, the closer we moved to the object, the higher the magnetic field being detected.  Several readings were taken at varying distances from the Pyramidion, which seemed to correlate with the Inverse Square Law of physics.  In essence, every time we halved our sensor distance to the Pyramidion, the magnetic field grew four times as strong.  Our sensors began to malfunction once we reached a ten meter distance, and could therefore no longer record data.  With the data we had gathered at further distances, we could estimate that the magnetic field seeming to originate from the Pyramidion would be at least one hundred times that of the earth’s gravitational pull, if not more.  Inconsistent with known laws of physics, however, was that the magnetism being detected by our sensors was not observed with ferrous metals being placed within the strongest regions of the field less than ten meters from the source. 

An experimental version of the Geiger Counter was used to detect x-radiation at various distances from the Pyramidion.  Most data collected indicated adherence to the Inverse Square Law as well, considering the Pyramidion as the potential source of radiation.  In contrast, there were noted spikes of energy ranging from sub-second intervals to five or six second intervals, which did not appear to be in a recognizable pattern.  Each spike was accompanied by a decrease in radiation intensity that was not found to be proportional with the preceding spikes.  

We also measured radio waves near the object, which maintained a consistent frequency throughout all of testing.  We were able to measure signal strength at ten meters from the Pyramidion, at one hundred meters, and at one thousand meters in a northerly direction.  As radio waves should also obey the Inverse Square Law of physics and be reduced at further distances, we saw no change in frequency strength at the distances measured.  A decision was made to gather readings of the same distance to the South, the East and the West with identical results.  The only proposed hypothesis, which we were unable to test further, was that the source of the radio waves was larger than the object itself.  Unfortunately, with the data collected and no distinguishable differences in signal strength, we were not able to determine whether the radio waves were originating from the Pyramidion, or if it may have been some kind of geological phenomenon specific to the region.  Data collected later indicated the presence of the Pyramidion may have influenced the radio waves, however it could not be confirmed as the origin, though no data was collected suggesting an alternate origin.

The team decided to make camp overnight with plans to conduct further testing in the morning.  We discussed the potential safety concerns and what precautions we would take the following morning before retiring for the night at approximately twenty-three hundred hours.  Upon waking the next morning at oh five hundred hours, I was notified by one of my team members that the Pyramidion was no longer there.  

I conducted an investigation by interrogating each member of the team individually and in isolation, and all accounts are similar in that the Pyramidion was present before going to sleep, and no one saw it prior to oh five hundred this morning.  We estimated the potential weight to be at least a half-ton based on its dimensions seen above ground, and depending on the metallic composition.  This would require heavy machinery to move and no horse or automobile tracks, or evidence of cranes or lifts were visible in the dirt surrounding the area.  None of the team experienced any noise or sleep disturbances throughout the night, and we cannot explain how it may have left the area.

We spent the morning taking additional readings to compare to data collected the previous day.  

There was no evidence of radiation, which would indicate the Pyramidion is not radioactive and suggest it was the source of the x-radiation.

The aforementioned radio waves were no longer present as well.  This does not lend any evidence that the Pyramidion was the source of the radio waves, however it doesn’t exclude it.  There is a possibility that it somehow amplified a radio signal from an external source, but without further testing in its presence, no further data collection is possible.

In regards to the high levels of magnetism observed yesterday, there remains substantial traces of magnetism in the Pyramidion’s absence.  I have instructed our team to collect core samples of the earth at varying depths for testing, but regardless of those results, I cannot explain how the ground would be able to retain this level of electromagnetism after removal of the source, if indeed that’s what caused it to begin with.  

We have no hypothesis regarding how the radiation was being generated as the Pyramidion does not appear to have moving parts or a power source of any kind.  It makes no noise, however, the physical effects described in the LAPD report were observed in some of my team who were close to it, even with protective gear.  We cannot make any conclusions based on the collected data except that it did not possess the qualities of anything occurring in nature, and the symmetry and observed properties imply it was intentionally constructed with a greater knowledge of physics than our top scientists in the United States.  Of course, those scientists will be contacted for peer review of data and consultation for next steps and if we encounter the Pyramidion again, to develop a protocol based on a potential limited timeframe for observation.

There was another note from Doctor Henry Barnham attached to this one dated three days later.  Unlike the previous one, this one is in handwriting–not typed–and it has some very peculiar implications.

To whom it may concern,

In the last three days since my interaction with the Pyramidion, I have experienced remarkable things.  Along with only one other member of my twelve-man team, we seem to have developed some symptoms not shared by the whole team.  At first, I considered them to be hallucinations, but I later found out that I was observing real events.

The same night the Pyramidion disappeared, I had dreamt of it.  I was standing in front of it, watching my reflection, which was as clear, if not clearer, than any mirror I’ve ever seen.  My hands were making motions and my mouth was moving in the reflection, but I was standing still.  The image then changed from my reflection to seeing lost loved ones, and they interacted with me.  My sister, who passed away when I was in the War, appeared.  Her hand reached toward me in the reflection, and then through the reflection to grasp my wrist.  Her other hand extended through the mirror and when she opened it, a ring was in her palm.  It was our mother’s wedding ring.  I hadn’t seen the ring since my mother passed, and I remember arguing with my sister about who would get the ring since I was courting at the time and she was not.  My sister kept it until she died, and when I returned from the War, I couldn’t find it.  I took the ring from her hand and she retreated back into the Pyramidion. The next morning, I was making my bed when I heard something drop onto the floor.  It was the ring!

The next night, I dreamt I was suspended from the ceiling in my office at the Army Corps of Engineers.  I watched in silence as my superior entered my office, knelt down on one knee, and searched through the file cabinet behind my desk that was low to the floor.  He retrieved a set of data collected from the site where the Pyramidion was located, and then hurried to close the drawer and stand up to leave the room.  When he stood and swung round toward the door, he lost his balance and his ribs caught the corner of my desk, putting a small tear in the linen of his shirt and knocking over a picture of my wife.

The following day, which was yesterday, I returned from lunch to pass him in the hallway outside of my office.  His face was beet-red and he had a file folder under his arm.  As he passed, I stopped him to greet him, and as he turned, I could see the tear in his shirt.  I chose not to pursue any questioning at that time, deciding to look for further confirmation of what I suspected: that my dream was a premonition of this day.  I quickly returned to my office and noticed the picture of my wife face-down on my desk.  It was not like that when I went to lunch.  When I searched my file cabinet, the file with the data was gone.  Thankfully, I had the wherewithal to ask my secretary to make copies of it all early that morning on a silly hunch.  I had no idea it would play out this way.

My experiences continue throughout today, but seem to be dissipating as time goes on.  The dreams are not as vivid and I am having a difficult time remembering details, so I can’t be as certain as the previous two nights that unexplained events are occurring.  For the purpose of research, I would suggest following up with my fellow team members to compare experiences.  For the purpose of security and in the interest of the Army Corps of Engineers, I suggest looking into my direct superior, Doctor James Lowell.

Doctor Henry Barnham

Twelfth December, nineteen twenty-two.

I did some quick searching online for references of a pyramid shape that appears and disappears throughout history.  While I couldn’t specifically find any pyramids, there were a lot of mentions in folklore referring to pyramids and obelisks appearing over centuries.  Sometimes they were noted to have appeared preceding significant historical events, often catastrophic in nature.  Occasionally, they would disappear right before those events unfolded.

I don’t know if they’re related or not, and they’re not pyramids, but do you recall those strange monoliths that were appearing over the last few years?  They were triangle in shape, but they weren’t pointed at the top; just flat.  Some of them had similar features such as no evidence of construction, but some had rivets and were passed off as art pieces.  The first time I heard about these was regarding one discovered in the desert in a canyon in Utah, but I also recall one appearing in Southern California as well, and even as far as Romania in recent years.  I might need to dig into this more, but I have to wonder if they’re related somehow.

SOUND: A phone is ringing.

JEREMY: Hello?

BRIANNE: Hey, it’s me.

JEREMY: I’m going to go ahead and hit the record button… is that enough fair warning?

BRIANNE: Sure, I guess… it’s still annoying though.

JEREMY: Sorry.

BRIANNE: What made you text me “L-Lernaia [bleep]”?

JEREMY: I got it from Patel.  She’s dead by the way… long story and I’ll explain later.

BRIANNE: What?!  I feel like I just saw her… or heard her at least.  I swear that woman was there, where Malcolm was holding me.  I don’t mean to speak ill about the dead, but don’t trust her!  She’s evil.

JEREMY: So, any thoughts on Lernaia?

SOUND: Brianne is typing.

BRIANNE: Um… You got this from Dr. Patel?

JEREMY: Yeah, why?

BRIANNE: I literally just played a hunch right now.  Jeremy, Lernaia [bleep] is the password to the medical files!  I have full access!

JEREMY: Holy shit!  What do you see?

SOUND: Brianne is clicking her mouse.

BRIANNE: There’s so many files!  And there’s a database too.  Hold on.

SOUND: Brianne clicks her mouse again.

BRIANNE: Jeremy, I found files on me and Ben.  We’re labeled as Shepherds.

JEREMY: What?!

SOUND: Brianne is typing.

BRIANNE: Malcolm is in here too…he’s been labeled as a Maker.  What’s a “Maker”?

JEREMY: Okay, I’m dumbfounded. Do you recognize any other names?

SOUND: Brianne is typing again.

BRIANNE:  Jeremy, you’re listed here as a Maker, too.

SOUND: A mouse is double-clicked.

BRIANNE: Your whole life is here, Jeremy.  Your childhood, your birth certificate…your parents’ names!

BRIANNE: Jeremy, are you there?

JEREMY: Yeah, I’m just… I guess I’m in a state of disbelief and I don’t really know what to say.

SOUND: A text message alert goes off.

JEREMY: Hang on a sec.

JEREMY: I just got a text from a private number.  It says, “El Campo – Saturday, nine PM.”