Steampunk National Security Character Type Help Needed

[scc]

So the situation is in a very weird steampunk timeline with Russia successfully launched the worlds first (manned) orbital rocket Britain is in a bit of a scramble to catch up and Lord Whathisname has been put in charge of the project to correct this. Now such a project of Great Importance will need security, which is where the PC's will come, but what sort does Lord Whathisname hire for the job.

Military personal are mostly out of the picture, as this is a battlefield of whits and words, not weapons, but the rocket-pack (really rocket powered gliders/ultra-lights) commandos the setting will feature are too cool not to include and would work well as both simple muscle and for various snooping around. A staff officer might also work, although I'm not sure what they bring to the table.

A detective and/or some sort of criminal are next on the possible list, but is it a good idea to build a party with such a split in it? And would a criminal be employed by the government in such a role?

Would a Demimondaine or similar women be employed for such a job?

A Gentleperson of Leisure or similar high-class personage is more a matter of figuring out what there is for them to do.

A engineer for the wide variety of technical skills.

Sorry I'm rambling a bit, I think that's because I'm trying to break a cycle based upon can be a party member, which affects what skills the party has, which in turn affects what challenges they can face, which circles around back to skills, some how. That said I've identified 2 (there was a third but I can't remember it) different plots I can run the party through: A spy or saboteur they've got to detect and a labor dispute. This second suggests that maybe the party isn't just security, but rather are the people that are running the whole affair under Lord Whathisname.