Shining Dawn, Part 1: A Promise of Wealth

[Overcast]

San Francisco, June of 1884. The summer heat was bearing down the city putting stress on the already tense nerves of the residents. Racial differences, criminal activity, political corruption, and sickness had built the tension and while the city was not yet ready to snap it wasn't on a good path to avoiding it. Beyond this strife and dismay laid a man with problems of his own, not a one that coincided with that of the city for on any other day he was the kind that profited in such chaos.

His office a well sized thing on the corner that didn't often have customers, instead many workers rushed in and out of the place. When anyone did arrive for services it was often quite lavish, a sign of the level of interests it catered to. Within was a waiting room with many a chair, often filled with workers who never actually went past it but were catered to by one Miss Felicia, a kind old woman who took care of those matters of little importance to the man behind the door, the prodigious Mr. Watts. In the room beyond at the end of a large table covered in papers sat the man himself. He sometimes shuffled through the mess for a map to discuss land acquisitions for mining operations, sometimes as a personal study of the kind of manpower it would take and the cost to transport, or even the list of workers so that payment could be properly handed out, for though he did not care much of those he worked to death those who survived would be compensated. In that mash of papers was his entire career from the beginning until now, and only he knew the way through it. At the time he was sorting through a group of files on the top rapping the side of the table with his ornate pen in relative impatience. These were the profiles of those he sent for, some of the very few beyond the absurdly wealthy who would walk through that doorway. A cigar hung from his mouth but wasn't quite lit, he always getting halfway there before he had to fix his glasses, concentrate on the files, or the damn match burnt down to his fingers.

The situation was dire, every precaution wasted by an inevitable trouble that may just mar his career. To say he was obsessed was light, this pulled on every fiber of his being. For this was a matter of reputation and even the most insignificant mar could make business difficult, one of this size might just ruin him. It was why he had sent out for the men he had, the full posse being a proper organization of skills he would need to solve this problem in full.

He stopped a moment on that thought staring down at his watch,

"MISS FELICIA!"

She rushed in quickly and shut the door behind her, it paid to be quick when it came to Mr. Watts and really at the wage he paid her she was keen to move those old bones so she could have something to leave to her family,

"Yes Mr. Watts?"

"The men should be arriving soon, six, the descriptions are at the end of the table there, when they arrive you may send them in, if they happen to not all arrive at thirty then go ahead and send who is there in anyway for anyone else has likely rejected me or is not punctual enough to be worth a damn anyway."

She looked to the end of the chaotic mass of paper and indeed there was a typeset paper with a list of names and physical descriptions, completely invisible until you actually wanted it. She took it up with a gentle nod,

"Yes Mr. Watts."

Before evacuating the room. He found himself rubbing his brow, the scene was killing him, his mind worked to the edge of his bare sanity just making sure the delay in the shipment wasn't questioned. He needed these men, so they damn well better be as good as their reputations said...

"Damn me if they aren't."

He finally took the time to light his cigar; it might just be a long day.