NEXT MORNING.
Another spoon of peach preserves on his toast as he scrutinized the diorama of Atlanta. The grey early light stole through the sheer curtains of his foyer. Furniture was still arriving by rail. Thaddeus had pulled a seat from the sitting room, the only one with wax covered feet, as he would do several times a week. His Southern staff probably thought him strange, but, as would always be the case, in his calling, was to accept their perception and they would leave him be in time. No one appreciates the strange or the different. They would much rather have the expected.
For the restless Timminick son, the first order of business in any city was to commission a piece for his mansion: a diorama of the city that can be read by candlelight. These were rarely small. The Atlanta diorama was six by six foot. Thaddeus could brag of others, like the work commissioned for Tsaritsyn, which was overly done at fourteen feet square.
That was only the case because of Saratov, the man was induced to build the biggest map because of the interest of one of the Tsars. He would do nothing to specification. It was not an inducement to allow the city to receive it as a gift. It still sits in the city museum today. A man by the name of Arkhil, whom he knew in India, was the one that taught him such small, but powerful, tools to use. The map was key. Thaddeus was the one to see a different approach:
hide it in plain sight. To this end, his persona (which he affectionately named, the Phantasm), fashioned himself a minor cartographer, hanging more than two dozens maps of antiquities on the walls, and more than four handsome globes.
The instructions of the diorama would include the relative enlargement of the quarters of the city that one could consider 'opulent'. The homes nearer the museums; the homes nearer the theatre districts. Those what folks can separate themselves with a systematic series of parks, gates and streets. Delineated by electric lamps or gas lamps, or worse of all: none at all. Thaddeus had no desire to be there. It did not fit the business. "Please enlarge these areas by a fair factor of four, if you can. I would very much like to see the places of the upright be outlined larger than the rest of the city. Include every wall, prodigious trees and window - for they all, together, form the beauteous part of the city. Is it not the heart?" The crafter would wholeheartedly agree and make fine work of it.
He slightly angled the chair to look down Peachtree [Street], then twisted to scrutinize Ivy. Thaddeus first hit the Healy building on Forsyth five nights ago, but took nothing. It was a run to start getting a sense of the city. There was factoring that needed to be considered. But it really came down to the response of the police and the demeanor of the city. Healy was also an advantageous place to view the relativeness of location he would be visiting over the next couple of years. [Much of this work was heavily reliant on scouting and foresight, if the popularized beliefs that it was all the base traits of pick-pocket.]
American cities were unique in that the places of amusement were staying up later and later still. It would not be uncommon that the
noveau riche were playing about in their casinos and at parties until three in the morning. Such factors would not work when visiting those places, but it did hold that now their residences were clear for pilfering. The unfortunate thing was they would take their best baubles and cash with them.
Thank Fortune that they've yet to discover the safety of a bank vault.
His mind is wandering again. He asked for coffee and moved the chair back as he awaited it.
Build up Arkhil would say to him.
Make love to the city. A true lover takes his time with a woman, he makes her thrum: call out for more. Do this incorrectly and the city will betray you, as surely as you are betraying it.
He looked across the body of Atlanta and found a series of homes purported to be the
noveau riche. It was in a cluster of homes near Spring.
Thaddeus put the map out of his mind and walked to his study. He carefully eyed the mail and found that he had already received the requisite invitations for a personage of his status arriving to the city. He would use his secretary to start in reply. He would make every gathering he could. The first days were crucial to his cause. He pulled a clippings book that he had his staff formulate months ago. There were names he would have his secretary initiate meetings with: Jennings, Lavoie, Billings.
He dressed and called for his carriage. He would go to the office today. Thaddeus Timminick had a reputation has a mechanical dealer with a catalog of patented goods in both tools and metallurgy. His real calling, however, will always remain a secret.
