"Never knew what was in the bag, didn't need to know, I was there for my hands and my eyes not my brain. Only thing I knew was shoot for the man in white because he was a mutant soldier of the Masonic Order."
-Ace admits to being told to shoot Michael.
That makes this very much Molly's PERSONAL business, since she presumably disapproves of people shooting her father.
It also points at an information leak, since very few people had any way of knowing Michael would have been at the Pier.
-Gorefel knew the meet site, and knew Michael would be there. That gives us several options
1)He scried us. Unlikely, since the only people who I remember can do that reliably are angels and maybe Chandler. Dresden cant.
2)He was able to scout the meeting site with that notRaven summon he had flying around, which is possible if they shared senses.
3)Someone called him and told him.
2 and 3 means we have a spy afoot. Or a Denarian.
-Gorefel telling Ace to shoot the man in white as a soldier of the Masonic Order means that he knew who Michael is, and deliberately lied about who he was to his goons.
Most supernaturals avoid attacking the Knights directly for fear of attracting the attention of the White God and his agents.
The Red Court have left them alone even when Bianca was alive in Chicagp, and have avoided them during the War. So have the Black Court, the Black Council and even the modern Kemmlerites.
His going ahead here and making Michael a target?
Thats puts him in a very small, very dark, very exclusive club, along with people like the Denarians.
-The hints of underlying organization could be just Gorefel lying to puff himself up.
Or it could be that there actually is a neoNazi occult league of sorcerers with an interest in necromancy operating in Illnois and the northeastern United States. The fact that the bones were stolen by the Ahnenerbe makes the neonazi sorcery society likely.
-If Gorefel actually dates back to the Nazi WW2 occult programs, he's very much the White Council's problem.
The neoNazi occult programs, and both WW1 and WW2, were very strongly associated with Heinrich Kemmler, Bob's old master and the previous Warden of Demonreach. THE original necromantic threat of the Dresden Files backstory of the last two centuries.
A name that gives Mab herself pause.
Even Michael would have heard of him after the Darkhallow of last Halloween.
Word of Butcher is that he's dead dead dead; the White Council eventually killed him, but it took seven tries over several decades and the White Council's entire combat force(both Wardens and every wizard capable of combat) to finally true death him in 1961.
Kemmler ate ghosts and spirits for power and knowledge.
The Heirs of Kemmler attempted to use the Darkhallow to eat a bunch of ghost and spirits for power.
Gorefel wants the bones of dead powerful demonhunters, which would likely call up powerful ghosts.
There is a very troubling chain of events here.
-People like Gorefel survive decades by keeping go the shadows.
When they start acting openly, its usually a harbinger of Bad Things. Something made him think that staging a midday heist in Chicago with automatic weapons under the nose of a Knight of the Cross was something he could get away with.
-That said, Molly's inexperience is showing.
Literally first thing to do here is to frisk the prisoners and relieve them of their wallets and any interesting stuff or potential magical weapons in their pockets.
Wallets have ID, and personally identifying information. So do cellphones, which also have things like call history.
The warlock might or might not have a working cellphone because techbane, but his minions should, and she can check who they spoke to in the last twenty four hours, and see if there are any familiar numbers to look up.
VOTE
[X] Suggest leaving the mooks for Marcone or to run, but take the Warlock with you to Harry
-[X] "Best case this idiot here was lied to and the old sorcerer is in fact the entire organisation. But if that's not the case, I think the White Council or at least Harry personally should really know about the secret, magic Nazi-organisation that acts in Chicago and other places"
-[X] Try to get more information out of the old man once you are in a less time-pressed situation.
Catch and release the minions. Grab their wallets and phones so we can search them for info, but dump them.
They're tools, who arent a significant threat without their puppetmaster, and who might or might not be scared straight by a seriousface encounter with hostile supernaturals.
And Molly just finished talking to Dresden about how crimes have degrees and not everything is worthy of death.
Something both she and her father agree on.
Ask Dresden if they need an exorcism, but I would direct them to a church, probably.
If they run away and keep a low profile, Marcone might be content to just let them run.
Especially if Michael puts in a word.
And Molly can use Tool Constructs to draw a physical description for Dresden or Murphy to check.
If they show up again in the same line of business in the same city, a lot of people will know what they look like, and its a self-resolving problem.
The warlock on the other hand is, if "Ace" is telling the truth, a neonazi spellworker who descends from the Kemmler-aligned occult programs of the Third Reich and has an active interest in necromantic artifacts. Who might belong to an active neonazi magic society with necromantic aspirations.
That one gets interrogated further and we call Harry on his home phone to show up.
Possibly passing him up the chain to the rest of the White Council.
