Took a while...

I ran headlong into wondering why everything starts happening with Devlin now, in Underground Guy, while he's on a trip to London instead of at home in NYC. Why is he suddenly jolted out of his normal pattern so he can careen into what turns out to be chaos? And the reason was already indicated in the outline; it just took a bit to remind myself of it.

Devlin's father is an abusive drunk with his mother, his brother, and him...so much so, Colin was permanently damaged by it. He's functional, but has difficulty remembering things and dealing with their clients. Their mother disappeared when Devlin was eight, and everyone thinks she walked out on the family. But even at that early an age, Dev wonders if his father killed her.

So he's at the tail end of a successful business trip for his company when he gets a call that a body's been found and linked to the missing persons report filed when his mother vanished. He's supposed to meet with officials to provide DNA to compare against...but before he can return home, he jumps out of his safety zone and goes after a guy he sees on the Piccadilly Line of the Underground, and winds up stuck in the UK for god knows how long.

This is kind of a Hail Mary jump for me, in order to keep the story going...but so far it works. Dev thinks he's on top of things, but his actions jolt him into realizing he's got major issues he's been ignoring and are being forced into the open by his illegal actions. It's almost like him jumping Reg is a form of avoidance...and self-punishment.

A bit Freudian, but...