As of Friday, evgreen@ found this failure only on release builders.
Today (Monday, 8/6) it is on paladins as well. 


Sample failure: 
https://cros-goldeneye.corp.google.com/chromeos/healthmonitoring/buildDetails?buildbucketId=8938922183289300384


08/06 12:27:09.565 ERROR|        server_job:0811| Exception escaped control file, job aborting:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/autotest/server/server_job.py", line 803, in run
    self._execute_code(server_control_file, namespace)
  File "/usr/local/autotest/server/server_job.py", line 1326, in _execute_code
    execfile(code_file, namespace, namespace)
  File "/usr/local/autotest/results/224594541-chromeos-test/hostless/control.srv", line 92, in <module>
    dynamic_suite.reimage_and_run(**args_dict)
  File "/usr/local/autotest/server/cros/dynamic_suite/dynamic_suite.py", line 513, in reimage_and_run
    _perform_reimage_and_run(suite_spec, afe, tko, suite_job_id=my_job_id)
  File "/usr/local/autotest/server/cros/dynamic_suite/dynamic_suite.py", line 557, in _perform_reimage_and_run
    child_dependencies=spec.child_dependencies,
  File "/usr/local/autotest/server/cros/dynamic_suite/suite.py", line 1384, in create_from_predicates
    name, builds, board, cf_getter, run_prod_code, **dargs)
  File "/usr/local/autotest/server/cros/dynamic_suite/suite.py", line 1508, in __init__
    test_args=test_args,
  File "/usr/local/autotest/server/cros/dynamic_suite/suite.py", line 774, in find_and_parse_tests
    tests = retriever.retrieve_for_suite(suite_name)
  File "/usr/local/autotest/server/cros/dynamic_suite/suite.py", line 546, in retrieve_for_suite
    self._test_args)
  File "/usr/local/autotest/server/cros/dynamic_suite/suite_common.py", line 330, in retrieve_for_suite
    test_args=test_args)
  File "/usr/local/autotest/server/cros/dynamic_suite/suite_common.py", line 278, in parse_cf_text_many
    for path, text in control_file_texts:
  File "/usr/local/autotest/server/cros/dynamic_suite/suite_common.py", line 208, in _get_cf_texts_for_suite_batched
    suite_info = cf_getter.get_suite_info(suite_name=suite_name)
  File "/usr/local/autotest/server/cros/dynamic_suite/control_file_getter.py", line 342, in get_suite_info
    file_contents = self._list_suite_controls(suite_name=suite_name)
  File "/usr/local/autotest/server/cros/dynamic_suite/control_file_getter.py", line 328, in _list_suite_controls
    return cache_client.list_suite_controls(self._build, suite_name)
  File "/usr/local/autotest/client/common_lib/cros/gs_cache_client.py", line 180, in list_suite_controls
    return self._list_suite_controls(build, suite_name)
  File "/usr/local/autotest/client/common_lib/cros/gs_cache_client.py", line 198, in _list_suite_controls
    test_suites, map_file_name)
  File "/usr/local/autotest/client/common_lib/cros/gs_cache_client.py", line 136, in extract
    rsp_content = self._call('extract', bucket, archive, {'file': files})
  File "/usr/local/autotest/client/common_lib/cros/retry.py", line 246, in func_retry
    raise error.TimeoutException(exception_message)
TimeoutException: retry exception (function="_call()"), timeout = 180s

My first thought is that it was trying to run a test on some DUT and couldn't succeed in connecting to the DUT. This is because the stainless logs page only has entries for "hostless".