"I wish that it were simply a New Londoner jest, but unfortunately I am being dead serious, Mel," Lachlan said, shaking his head stoically.
He paused only long enough to pour himself another glass of the Gallic red wine.
"Tommy, to answer your first question, Finn is...doing Finn things. For all I know he's still out wandering the Freeports. If I am being completely honest with you, it was never his bright idea to start the Irregulars. I may or may not have dragged him into it." Lauchlan's eyes widened as he said this, and he looked directly up at Tommy: "Also that information does NOT leave this conversation!"
Lachlan took a sip of his wine, set the glass down on the longue table, and folded his hands together.
"I'll answer your last question momentarily, but first I suppose I owe you all a bit of an explanation. As most of you are aware, I've made no secret about the fact that I never intended to remain as the Irregulars' primary coordinator. I have contracts and various responsibilities all over New London that can occupy my time without me ever having to exit the atmosphere. But now my hand has been forced, and I have to move up the timeline of when I step down...drastically.
"Our main warehouse in the Hackney district caught fire about two weeks ago. I didn't want to trouble you all with the information at the time. We were just out of the holiday season, and everyone already had a lot on their plates. That was perhaps shortsighted on my part, because the fire was worse than I initially suspected. Our Irregulars and volunteers planetside were able to evacuate and salvage about 60% of our inventory, but that is still a 40% loss. Even worse than that, it was apparently a chemical fire that not even the New London rain could put out. So now I have the bobbies and boys in blue breathing down my neck investigating for possible causes and contraband.
"So I can no longer afford to divide my time. Maintaining the Cape, contracts, day to day communication with the shipping captains and training affiliates... all of those responsibilities will have to fall to someone else. I will still maintain my position as head of the Irregulars, but the responsibilities will have to be shared now more than ever. I will need someone to take over as coordinator, and potentially someone to take over as head of operations..." Lachlan finally paused for effect.
"I need one of you to be able to pick up the reins."
![[Image: O85Djka.png]](https://i.imgur.com/O85Djka.png)