The Secret Society of The Great Pumpkin Read online

  Chapter 2 – The Investigation

  In the library for the next few days, Sergeant Allen searched databases, news articles, books, periodicals, and microfiche archives for any hint of The Great Pumpkin. He emerged from the library after finding nothing of the sort and thinking the whole matter was just possibly a hoax. He stopped and asked random cadets on campus, nothing.

  “Not one shred of evidence of this Secret Society of The Great Pumpkin,” he reported back to Master Sergeant Thompson, “except for what’s in your folder already.”

  “Not good enough,” Thompson said. “You need to find me something and find it quick. What would you do if these were Marines we were dealing with?”

  Allen, standing at attention again in front of the Master Sergeant’s desk said, “Permission to be at ease?”

  “Granted. At ease,” Thompson said. “In fact, sit down.”

  Allen took a seat and took a deep breath, “If this was Marines either at a base or on a ship, I would do a search or as the lawyers or JAGs say, inspect the barracks, kind of like a shakedown at a prison or a brig.”

  “Lawyers. I hate those fuckers. So, are there any legal considerations we need to make in all this?”

  “There’s always search and seizure. If we search the cadet dorms and we find something illegal like guns, dope, or a dead body, we could be in trouble if we’re not careful. So, we have to call it a random health and welfare inspection and not a search. That way if we find anything very alarming, we can be honest and say we didn’t really start this inspection specifically just to find that alarming thing. Then if we find something alarming, the cadets will still be subject to school discipline without us worrying about illegal search and seizure.”

  “I’ll have to check with the Adjutant for legal advice,” Thompson said.

  “That should be okay so long as you don’t tell her what we are planning to search for or why. If you could, just tell her we want to do a health and welfare inspection for training purposes.”

  “You think this will work?”

  Allen replied, “Will it work to point us in the right direction for The Great Pumpkin? Yes, I think it can work, but you never know until you try. It worked at the 39th Marine Helicopter Squadron when we suspected a few Marines of smuggling drugs from the Philippines. It would need to be unannounced, complete wall to wall, floor to ceiling, top to bottom, inside out, even in the ceilings and the air-conditioning vent spaces, and it should be on a Monday, and it needs to be MECEP platoon Marines doing the inspection only.”

  Thompson said, “Twenty-one Marines searching 25 cadet dormitories with more than 50 dorm rooms, each with three cadets per room?” That would take maybe an entire week. You do know there are more than 3,000 cadets here?”

  “We can use random selection. Maybe we select four or five dormitories to search in full. We could select random full floors in different dorms. We could search random rooms in the dorms. Just mix it up to keep the cadets guessing and call it a health and welfare inspection. We do it by the book and we do it old school Marine Corps style.”

  “What are you expecting to find?” Thompson asked.

  “I don’t know Master Sergeant. Maybe we find something, a loose string, a Gollum, a clue like Scooby Doo, a stray photograph, or a suspicious item like a tool. Maybe we find nothing, but we gotta give it a shot, right?”

  “Okay,” Thompson said. “I’ll run this by the flagpole and see what the Adjutant and the General say. Go ahead and brief the MECEP Platoon. So they know to be ready on Monday.”

  “Master Sergeant Thompson, with all due respect, we shouldn’t give our Marines advance notice.”

  “You think some of the Marines in our platoon are part of this?”

  “I don’t think so, but I’ve only been in the platoon for three weeks. Still, they say ‘loose lips sink ships’ and the MECEP Platoon has tried every year to stop The Great Pumpkin and failed. I suggest we try some different tactics. We should make our dormitory selections this weekend and muster our platoon Monday morning like always for Monday morning physical training, 0500 in the morning. Instead of physical training, we go over to the dorms and conduct our health and welfare inspections. We’re going to need all officers and all senior enlisted on site to provide oversite to the Marines. We can call it a training operation focusing on leadership, management, and welfare.”

  “I like your plan. If we find something we can then focus…”

  “No…no focusing Master Sergeant. Just health and welfare. If the Marines find something, we just document it and then strategize later on what to do about it.

  One by one, we have the cadets come up and unlock their rooms and their lockers and cabinets. The cadets leave the room and the Marines search. The Marines will write down what they find out of the ordinary and unless it’s something highly suspicious like a piece of criminal evidence, then we should close up the room and not let the cadets know what we found until the right time.

  I have a feeling we will find something. When we do, we’ll know who to watch, but they won’t know we are watching them.”

  “Four weeks until Halloween night, Allen. We have four weeks to crack into a secret society that’s been operating on this campus since who knows when.”

  “To be honest Master Sergeant, we should lower our expectations. While I didn’t find anything in the university library about the Secret Society of The Great Pumpkin, I did find some things related to other secret societies here at A&M and at other universities. They don’t like it when people try to crack their systems.”

  “We’re not people. We’re Marines. The fucking General said to crack the system and I intend to fucking crack the system.”

  “I’ve only been here three weeks Master Sergeant and I’m already starting not to like college students and cadets.”

  “That makes two of us college student Allen,” the Master Sergeant replied. “I’m sorry if this is getting in the way of any fun shit you wanted to do. But how about this… How about you don’t get to do any fun shit until I order you to do some fun shit? You got that?”

  Allen stood up and snapped back to attention and shouted, “Yes Master Sergeant!”

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