MacArthur Island
South Pacific
13:33 Local Time
"What a scoundrel," Theodore Roosevelt snarled. "The audacity, the sheer hair-brained folly of it all."
The 26th president paced the floors of the small cell he found himself in while the 16th president sat on the cell's cot with his legs crossed. The enclosure's six by eight feet space made it a tight space for the two men, especially when one man was of Lincoln's height and one of Roosevelt's girth. While Roosevelt paced and grumbled, Lincoln breathed slowly and closed his eyes. His many years on the planet had opened his mind up to new experiences and ideas. The idea of meditation was one of those ideas he fully embraced when he learned of it. The truth was he had been doing something similar to meditation all his life without knowing what it was. His ability to slow down and think a crisis over rationally helped him through the Civil War and the adventurous years that followed.
Men like Theodore and MacArthur thrived when they had the initiative, they needed to be engaged in activity lest they stop and have to face doubts and second guesses within their own mind. For Abraham Lincoln, those voices needed to be faced. It was only until a problem was observed from its many sides could a plan of action be surmised. It was better to be a little slow and make the right choice, then to rush into disaster.
"Mr. Lincoln?!" Roosevelt said loudly. "Are you paying attention? Only we can stop MacArthur's Mongol hordes from rampaging across the globe and ushering in a new age of barbarism controlled by that buffoon and all you can do is nap?! My God, man, the time has come to save the world. You are a Republican, Mr. Lincoln. Act like it!"
Lincoln opened his eyes a smidge and smiled at Roosevelt through half-closed lids.
"When I was a circuit lawyer in Illinois some years ago, I defended a man who had been accused of stealing his neighbor's chickens. The neighbor got up on the stand and railed about how we saw the accused hanging around his home the night of the theft, about how the accused was eating many chickens over the next few days..."
He searched through the pockets of his suit and vest coat as he spoke, ignoring the annoyed look on Roosevelt's face.
"But I asked him, 'Mr. So-and-so,' I can't rightly recall his name, 'Mr. So-and-so, did you see the defendant steal those chickens?' And he said 'No, but I know my neighbor and he is a scoundrel of the lowest quality--' and I cut him off and said 'Assumption has no place in a court of law, Mr. So-and-so. You have no proof.' Well...," Lincoln flashed a smirk. "I trotted out a bunch of character witnesses. This man was a God fearing man, a community pillar, a man who was seen by many as a leading light in the time... and I lost the trial anyway, the jury didn't give a hoot about assumption or character. This pillar of the community was forever known as a chicken thief. Point of the story is this, you think you know someone, but you don't. You never really do, I suppose. MacArthur thinks he knows us, but he doesn't. Even though he's made a career out of analyzing an opponent's mind, he still does not know us fully--"
With a rip on his suit vest, Lincoln pulled a small item sewn into the cloth. He held up a lockpick into the dim lighting of the jail cell.
"And he has no idea of our little tricks."
--
The compound guard strolled down the corridor at an easy and slow pace. He felt a yawn come on and went to stifle it when a large hand wrapped itself around his mouth while another powerful hand grabbing his shoulder. The unseen attacker tossed him hard against the side of the wall and knocked the man unconscious before he could even scream. Lincoln searched the man and came up with a radio, a combat knife, and an automatic weapon he tossed to Roosevelt.
"What is the plan, sir," Roosevelt asked as he examined the weapon. Lincoln rolled his sleeves up past his elbows and slipped the guard's radio into his back pocket. The knife he palmed and felt the weight of the weapon.
"I will try to find the communications center of this facility and radio Franklin back at Rushmore."
"I believe I shall make a beeline for that lovely room where the Khan is being held."
"Always eager to lock horns with a Mongol warlord?" Lincoln asked with a smirk.
Roosevelt's face broke out into his large grin as he said, "Far and away the best prize life has to offer is the chance to beat an enemy in dire need of a good beating."
"Bully," Lincoln said as he disappeared down the corridor away from Roosevelt.
"Bully, indeed," Theodore said as he went in the opposite direction.
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