Maybe I am the only one saying W.T.F. about the boat scene between Justine/HWWBs and Harry..
Then again, maybe not.

On page 359 of Battle Ground, Harry calls out to whatever is possessing Justine.  It answers;

"It will do you no good once I've caved in your skull. Nemesis I am called."

Okay, get that, ever since Titania named of the Enemy to Harry, "Nemesis," we think we understand how it works.. But do we?  For more than a couple of years now we've had the impression that one is infested or infected, passed on like any other infection, we even call it "Nemfected."  There are lots of reasons for thinking this;

1] We think Aurora was Nemfected, perhaps by way of Elaine.
2] We know Lea was Nemfected, by way of the Knife she got from Cowl at Bianca's party.
3] Not sure how Cat Sith got Nemfected, but either by way of Lea and or the Knife
4] We know that Maeve was Nemfected, Mab confirmed it was the Knife..
5] Justine, Nemfected not sure how, several theories about when it may have happened.

Okay so far so good... Then you turn the page to 360 and Harry says he doesn't care what it is called, he demands it tell "him it's name."

She shuddered in bizarre ecstasy and panted, in a frantic whisper, " I am He Who Walks Beside."  Hell's bells.  A Walker.

Harry then goes on to be a bit freaked, "an Outsider with the power of a Walker."

We know that Harry defeated HWWB back when he was sixteen.  An Outsider possessed Vittorio back in White Knight.  We know about another Walker, He Who Walks Before in Cold Days, we know about corner hounds.. Question, do the Outsiders I just mentioned strike you as something you can pick up from a knife or a toilet seat like any other infection?  Or are Outsiders the end product if the Nemesis infection goes on long enough and untreated in the victim?

To confuse things maybe a bit further or maybe it makes more sense, not sure.. But Harry tossing in there that he now understands who it is that he has been calling the Black Council or Circle all these years.  The enemy he knew was out there but he couldn't put his finger on...It's been Nemesis all along.

Okay, but I am still a bit confused... Is Nemesis the name of the Enemy as Titania said, with the Outsiders and Walkers, corner hounds etc., it's soldiers?  Or did I miss something?

Okay he has a castle now, how is he going to fix it up?

1] Sounds like a skylight is in order.
 2] He's got his old lab back, but is he going to expand it now?
 3] Library;  He can devote a whole room to ceiling to floor book cases.  Wonder if
he is going to try and get some of those magic books that were forbidden to him.
  4] An automated self serve pizza maker, that makes fresh not frozen pizza.. The
whole city of Chicago owe the Major General and Company big time.  Things could
have been a lot worse for everyone without them.
5] And nice bedroom,playroom, study suite for Maggie.. With a nice corner shelf for Bonea

What else?

   Didn't talk to Ivy?  Yes, I understand she is totally into her Archive role now, but she is still Ivy.  I
believe that Ivy still sees Harry as a friend.  What I thought was weird, he didn't even give her
a head nod in acknowledgement or vice versa..

So Mab tells Harry, no, orders Harry to kill Molly if she falls.  Why?  Because though she shows promise as a Winter Lady she is no way ready to be Winter Queen.  Like Harry really is going to follow that order.  Anyway, if Mab is dead, and Molly is dead, who becomes Queen? I presume it is Lea, but then who gets the Lady mantle?

   Some thoughts started to run through my head on my careful reread of Peace Talks. 
   Page 3
   1]  On the run with Harry, Thomas is nervous and anxious, but it is about more than just Justine
        and the embryo Hunger.  Harry notices it, "You don't look fine."
   That made him jerk his head towards me and glare.  The expression changed him.  Suddenly he looked less like a human being and more like something carved out of marble.  I felt my shoulders tense up in the presense of a creature I knew was genuinely dangerous.

Now I wouldn't say exactly that Harry was frightened, but then again even after Shaggy was done, the meeting at the zoo back in Turn Coat do I remember Harry having this kind of reaction to his brother.  Then things seem to get back to normal, Harry says Thomas has to deal with what is to come.. Thomas replies on page 4

He nodded.  "Probably. I have a solution in mind,"he said.

  Harry then asks if
his Dad's family are going to be an issue? Thomas replies when aren't they an issue?
My point is what triggered that response from Thomas?  I think the dye had already been cast, Thomas was going to attempt the assassination.  The motive being someone had convinced him that if he did this, Justine would survive the pregnancy. 

Jump ahead to the scene with Lara and Mab in the Munstermobile..  The timing is interesting, Lara decides to cash in on three favors owed to her by the Winter Court.  Mab has already granted one, but what it was, was never said.  The other two Harry is supposed to grant on Mab's behalf.. This happens after the run that morning and Thomas attacking the svartalf embassy.

Jump ahead to Justine's place.  Harry tells her and is taken aback by the first words out of her mouth.  page 77

"Does Lara know?"

Harry admits it was a smart question, but taken aback because it was very rational, notemotional like one would expect when one hears bad news about a loved one.
Now we start to get into the more heavy stuff..  Harry says that Lara keeps pretty good security
around the place, if there was something weird going on magically, Thomas inherited enough from
their mother to spot any pattern.  To be safe he scans everything including the doorman with his wizard's sight, nothing, the doorman is a plain old ordinary vanilla mortal and so is Justine..  Then Eb shows up and begins his lecture on the evils of vampires.. They get into what the White Council has against him also a little bit, sounds like they are blaming Harry for the rise of the Fomor because he did in the Red Court.  Eb admits he was glad that Harry had done that.. Anyway, then the cornerhounds show up..  Now it gets interesting;

They are Outsiders or sent by them, only mortals can call them up... Hmmm... There are only two mortals in the area, Justine and the doorman, unless it was done very remotely.  Eb educates
Harry a little about being a starborn, then says that normal earthly fire is a good way to do them in.
Which Harry should have figured out on his own, that is how he dispatched HWWB in the first place when he blew up the gas station when he was sixteen..

Which brings us to part 2, Harry's history with Outsiders and Vampires, or more specifically White Court Vampires.. 

For many years Harry figured it was Justin who sent HWWB after him when he ran off.  However in his flashback in Ghost Story, that isn't so clear.  More like HWWB had been sent to test young Harry.
Now it wouldn't be a shock to find out that the Outsiders knew what Harry was from the moment he was born.  What happened when Harry was born?  Oh Lord Raith sent an entrophy curse out to supposedly kill his mother.  It did, but could it be that baby Harry was supposed to be taken out as well?  Then Justin was duped or bribed by some promise of power that he latched on to a couple of young talented children to raise as enforcers, to make them his thralls, it didn't work out. 

Let's jump to Blood Rites;

Harry finds out from Eb that it was Lord Raith that killed his mother.  He also finds out that though Eb attempted more than once to kill Lord Raith, there was something about him that protects him from magic, though Margaret with her death curse managed to knock out his Hunger so he cannot feed. He continues to exist, but he cannot feed so weakened.  Yet he manages to get three mortal woman, Madge, Trixie, and Lucille to conger up Outsiders, his aim is to get both Thomas and Harry killed so he can break the binding that Margaret put on him. Let's back up a minute, Eb said that magic cannot touch Lord Raith.. Harry on the other hand when he touches him, feels the empty coldness, but knows he'd felt it before.. Could it be that Eb couldn't figure it out because he isn't star born, but because he is, Harry knew instinctively that Lord Raith was possessed by an Outsider that is protecting him?  In White Night, Harry runs into this again, yet another White Court Vampire, Vittorio Malvora,  possession by an Outsider and our old pal Cowl just happens to be a part of it.

Anyway, Eb could be right about all vampires, but perhaps not in the way he thinks.  White Court Vampires have had connections with Outsiders over the years.  There is a series odd coincidences, 
Justine gets pregnant just when there is about to be peace talks between the Fomor and the Alliance.  Thomas has made some kind of "arrangements" but we are not told.. Suddenly Lara goes to Mab to call in three favors owed.. Thomas attacks Etri which puts the talks in danger.. Harry feels that Thomas was used as a dupe by someone.  Goes to Justine who first asks if Lara knows before she asks if Thomas is alive or dead.. Then last but not least, with just two mere mortals in the area a whole pack of Outsider cornerhounds are sicced on Harry and Eb..

Then at the Peace Talks we learn that the Fomor and a Titan are about to attack Chicago.. Yet another diversion?  Because at the same time the Outsiders are launching an all out attack on the Gates..  So if the Red Court was the cat's paw of the Fomor, on the other paw we have the White Court Vamps more directly controlled by the Outsiders..  I don't know if any of this makes sense, just trying to add 2 and 2 together and see if makes 4 or 6..

   In the third chapter of Battleground, Harry says that an Outsider recognized and said what Mac was.
On page222 [hardback] of Cold Days Sharkface says to Mac

"You have no place in this, watcher.Do you think this gesture has meaning? It is every bit as empty as you. You chose your road long ago.  Have the grace to lie down and die beside it.

 

Then I looked up the term and found this in Wikipedia;

Watcher (Aramaic עִיר ʿiyr, plural עִירִין ʿiyrin, [ʕiːr(iːn)]; Theodotian trans: ir; from the root of Heb. ʿer, "awake, watchful".[1] Greek: ἐγρήγοροι, transl.: egrḗgoroi; "Watchers", "those who are awake"; "guard", "watcher"[2]) is a term used in connection with biblical angels. Watcher occurs in both plural and singular forms in the Book of Daniel (4th–2nd century BC), where reference is made to their holiness. The apocryphal Books of Enoch (2nd–1st centuries BC) refer to both good and bad Watchers, with a primary focus on the rebellious ones.[3][4]

This fits Mac more specifically, this watcher;

Shamsiel, once a guardian of Eden as stated in the Zohar, served as one of the two chief aides to the archangel Uriel (the other aide being Hasdiel) when Uriel bore his standard into battle, and is the head of 365 legions of angels and also crowns prayers, accompanying them to the 5th heaven. In Jubilees, he is referred to as one of the Watchers. He is a fallen angel who teaches the signs of the sun.

Connected to Uriel, Mac is a fallen angel named Shamsiel.  Yes, he'd recognize the Placard when he saw it.  Yes, looking upon him with his wizard's sight would indeed blind or worse Harry.  Yes, Mac would know when Harry stopped using it.

Further is says about watchers;

The watchers are bound "in the valleys of the Earth" until Judgment Day (Jude verse 6 says, "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.").

This fits Mac, he is bound to Earth but for the most part stays out of almost everything, but he might be hoping for redemption now, he committed himself with his blood on the Placard to sacrifice himself if necessary for those in his charge.

   Back in Dead Beat I believe it was, Harry told Morgan that he believed that the Red Court were
acting as cat's paws for someone else.  Possible answers were the Black Council, Outsiders, etc.

Then after Changes, the Fomor seemed to come out of nowhere and the conventional wisdom was
because the Red Court kept them in check, removing the Red Court, removed the cork in the bottle so to speak.

I finished Bombshells last night, and there was a curious line about the bomb that was planted at the party by the Fomor.  Lord Froggy says to Listen

Listen bowed his head.  "How efficacious do you anticipate your gift to be?"
"The one I made for the Red Court in the Congo was deadly enough," Lord Froggy said, a smug tone in his voice.
My heart pounded even harder.  During the war with the White Council, the Red Court had used some kind of nerve gas on a hospital tending wounded wizards.

You don't make nerve gas bombs for someone who is an enemy, or even someone keeping you in check.  You make them for a partner, an ally, for someone you want to do the dirty work for you.

So Harry was right is appears, the Red Court was a cat's paw, for the Fomor, not the Black Court or Outsiders. What is more, the Red Court were being used as one huge diversion, while the Fomor quietly, stealthily built up their forces under the lake and elsewhere.  Not unlike the events when Harry's duel with Count Oretega set off the war before the Reds were fully ready to fight, as Shiro said. Perhaps the events in Changes, Harry killing off the Red Court forced the Fomor to come out into the open before they were really ready?  It looks dire for Battleground, but there is a glimmer of hope there as well, the Fomor could be moving before they are really ready to move.

The other part of this is the reason Lord Froggy had a bomb planted at the party that was supposed to celebrate the Fomor/Svartalf alliance or non aggression pact,was to get revenge on Marcone. Lord Froggy is very specific, he wants confirmation that the Baron was there. Then says he will pay for what he did to his brother.  Which brings us to the next point, Molly breaks it up and Lord Froggy nearly kills her before Etri shows up and saves her.  Lord Froggy is dealt with, however Listen and his Turtle necked cohorts are allowed to go.  Molly objects, but Etri says they have no quarrel with the Turtlenecks because they got Lord Froggy.. He was the one who violated their guest law, "you go after the hand that uses the hammer, not the hammer."  We also find out that though supposedly Thomas was acting as an agent or spy for the White Court, the Svartalves considered him pretty harmless punishing him with lots of sex apparently, then he was free to go.

Which brings us to the events in Peace Talks.  The original bomb was planted by Lord Froggy to get revenge against Marcone.  The plan was thwarted by Molly and Atri, though Lord Froggy was dealt with, Listen and company were let go to fight another day.  Or seek revenge, in Peace Talks it was a bomb that went off and nearly killed Etri.  The Fomor were attempting to get revenge against Etri for what he did to Lord Froggy. Poor Thomas just happened to be there at the time partying, but since he had been an agent in the past, he gets the blame for it. Which also worked to their advantage not just as a diversion, but because of the events in Bombshells plausible deniability, easy to just point the finger at Thomas.

 

   I am still mostly on board with the idea that it was Mab who manipulated Thomas for her own four dimensional chess reasons in the greater game.  Then another thought came to me, if not Mab,who?  One logical candidate for that is Nic.  He lost a lot of prestige and power at the end of Skin Game.  Damn straight, he wants it back, and he wants revenge.  He hosts Andruiel who knows almost everything that is going on, so Nic would know about the dilemma that Thomas and Justine face with her pregnancy.  He also has the Grail, with that he could possibly if not heal outright, at least keep the Hunger from eating Justine.  While Thomas might know better than to accept a coin, he might agree to blow up the peace talks by an assassination attempt in exchange for keeping Justine safe.   Nic gets his revenge against Mab and Harry.  He may even think in a perverse way, if he uses the Grail to heal Chicago in the aftermath, he will gain lots of influence and power.  He becomes a hero that even Michael would have a hard time faulting, thus putting him in the catbird seat once again.