So long as you;re not making assumptions about my gender, I am good.

More or less, though I have only a vague handle on the latter.

One of the first things we are told about the Merlin is that he always has three plans for any situation; a main plan, a backup plan, and an ace-in-the-hole.

Changes makes a lot of sense to me on those grounds.  The main plan being to talk to the Reds as if they were sincere about the peace offer (that way, if they are, everything is fine, and if they're not, they're the ones who have abused the Accords and they don't have any legitimate grounds for complaint to muddy the waters), the backup plan being the Grey Council, and the ace-in-the-hole being "hey, all you loyal White Council folks, let's isolate Harry Dresden so he will go elsewhere for support and bring big guns into play against the Red Court, with that gift for mayhem we've seen him display over and over."

I agree with a slight tweak. I think the main plan was to let the peace talk proceed in case it was on the level. The back-up plan was to wait for the RC to show their hand and then counter-strike hard (as evidenced by Merlin's talk with Harry in the Worry Room). The ace-in-the-hole was the Grey Council taking the Red Court by surprise and doing what needs to be done outside the "rules of the council."

I think McCoy was trying to get Harry ready for the Merlin's counterstrike by getting him to the specific meeting point. Furthermore, I don't think Merlin finds Harry easy to understand, predict, or direct. He may have primed him to do something and had the Grey Council on stand-by to help, stop, or clean up after Harry.

I do not think that Bonnie would count because she was not created with the intention of duplicating the Archive. She is like the archive in the sense that she has a tremendous amount of knowledge being the offspring of a wizard and denarian copy. However, she was created naturally (through an act of love) instead of artificially as Bob is assumed to be (indicated by SmF like neuro said above).

One was that  Leah may have already infected before the party, just some of her actions speak to that.  I also think she was fighting for her sanity just as she was in Proven Guilty when Harry saw her under treatment in ice.  Another is what a dupe Bianca was, and the Mavra and others played her like a harp.  Last but not least how Susan willingly blinded herself to what was really going on.  She covered the supernatural but I doubt that she fully accepted the reality of that world and thus chose to ignore Harry's warnings of the dangers and made that fateful step of stealing the invite to the party.

The Susan thing always bothered me. She has been working with Harry for a while now, has seen the supernatural up close and personal (Toad Demon and werewolves) and still chooses to ignore Harry's warnings about the vampires. That tainted her character for me. Her overall series arc was still emotional for me, but only from Harrys point of view not for her sake (if that makes sense).

As far as rereads go, once PT is announced I will start at the beginning and read to the end incorporating the short stories in the series so I get a timeline accurate lead up to PT.

Would Ivy know? As far as we know nothing written every passed between Harry and Kincaid. As long as he did not leave a paper trail to Chicago (which I am sure he knows how to do) there is really no way for her to "know" outside of human intuition.

Harry Dresden called aboard an aircraft carrier by the US Navy to solve a mystery with supernatural indicators. Harry has to not only find the killer, but deal with strict military regulations and authority.

The Lord will provide a way.  LOL

Broken sword is probably more of an issue than the skull. Michael managed to travel without issue for the most part.

I see your point about stretching the early books too far. Definitely do not want to end up with a hobbit situation.