We know that infection is not simple. Otherwise, why did the White Court vector (whatever it was) not go after Lara? They got to Justine and theoretically should have been a step closer to getting Lara. As far as we know, Lara is free from infection. It is not as simple as person to person because then Justine should have been able to infect Lara while serving as her personal assistant. I assume that at some point we will learn the whole story. My guess is that Harry/Lara will capture Justine and in the process of trying to cure her interrogate her to learn more and fill in some of the gaps in their knowledge.
...
I'll suggest that Nemesis hasn't taken Lara because it doesn't
want Lara.
It
wants Justine.
It wants the lover of the Starborn's brother -- Harry is (was) protective of Justine. He saw her as fragile, helpless,
and vitally-important to his only blood-relative. That made Harry ripe for manipulation by Justine.
But
Lara? Please. An apex-predator, direct threat/foe to Dresden, known manipulator. Harry is maximally on-guard. Lara has almost no value in this context.
...
We know the infection happened about the time that Justine started working for Lara. Therefore, sometime after Blood Rites...
No: we only have
the word of Nemesis that that's when it happened!
And... um... Nemesis probably isn't the most reliable informant; just sayin'
... We know from the Marcone story that Justine was sent as Mab's envoy to other accorded nations...
I think you mean
Lara's envoy! But yeah, about that: Justine's revelation as Nemfected actually resolved an issue that had been nagging at me from that story...
Justine was too reliable, too focused, too competent -- in fact, hypercompetent -- in the scene with Marcone. The Justine that Harry saw was only ever "focused" when she was with Thomas (and then focused mostly
upon Thomas). The Harry-visible Justine seemed
incapable of the trip to Corb, or Marcone, let alone performing the negotiations she did.
We've never had the slightest hint that Justine might have the kind of training she'd need to perform at that level. But if it was
Nemesis acting? Yeah, that tracks. 100%