Rock Climbers Abducted | Hostage Situation | 2

Against The Odds

Wondery

Cassie De Pecol, History, Society & Culture, Dolby, Mike Corey, Dolby Atmos, Atmos

4.7 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After being kidnapped by rebel militants in a remote region of Kyrgyzstan, four American rock climbers are forced at gunpoint toward the Uzbekistan border. But their captors are being trailed by the Kygyz army. Soon, the unwitting climbers find themselves in the middle of a firefight of epic proportions and they have to hide to stay alive. As night falls, the climbers are forced on the move again and they begin to realize if they want to survive they must escape on their own.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to against the odds at free on Amazon music. Download the app today.
0:17.8	John Dickie raises his arms in surrender as a man with a machine gun shouts at him to line up next to his rock climbing partners.
0:26.4	Just a few hours ago, John and his crew, Jason Singer Smith, Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden were camped out peacefully, sleeping high up on a rock face in the premier ally mountain range in Kyrgyzstan.
0:41.7	John doesn't know yet why the man is pointing a gun in his face, but he's still hoping that there's been some kind of misunderstanding.
0:50.0	He just came on this trip to photograph his friends, the semi-pro climbers.
0:54.3	But this morning, they were woken up by gunshots and a rogue three-man militia demanded that they descend the wall.
1:02.7	John even volunteered to go down first and try and clear it all up.
1:06.8	But the men forced everyone to climb down.
1:10.8	Now he's standing in the middle of his trashed campsite at the wrong end of an automatic weapon.
1:17.8	John replays his conversation with the men in his head.
1:20.8	Is there something he could have said differently when he first descended the cliff face?
1:25.7	Some magic combination of words that would have caused all of this to go away?
1:31.6	One of the men said his name was Abdul. He introduced the other shorter men as Obid and Sue.
1:38.1	Abdul seems to be the one in charge. He's barking orders to the other men as they search through John's bags.
1:44.4	The only thing John thinks he and his friends might have going for them is that the men forced them to take their passports as they packed up the campsite.
1:54.2	If they were just going to kill them, would they really need their identification?
1:58.8	Plus, the men have taken another man captive too.
2:02.9	He introduced himself as Turat Osmanov.
2:05.9	It's clear to John that he's a soldier of some sort in the Kyrgyz army.
2:10.0	Maybe they're all just going to be held for ransom and will eventually be returned to safety.
2:18.0	John watches as Abdul starts to motion for the Americans to hide their duffel bags and pack up tents in the surrounding bush.
2:26.0	John can't help but wonder, who are they hiding this from?
	...

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