Who contacted who?

[bigdangmoose]

And now, a little something that doesn't have anything to do with Murphy

Ok, so back all the way back in StF, we have Marcone trick Harry into a soul gaze. The first clue that he is somewhat clued in.

We next see Marcone in FM having dealings with the Street Wolves.

But in DM, he has somehow managed to get the services of Monoc security's and has Gard as a bodyguard/adviser.

So my question is, and I don't know if there is any answer, who got in touch with who and when did it happen?

I wonder if it happened before Harry and Marcone even met? That maybe that is how Marcone knew to soul gaze Harry.

[groinkick]

it was always a mystery to me how Marcone first got into this stuff, and why he looked up Dresden.  The only info I have is that Jim said Marcone saw the supernatural during his military days.  My guess is that someone like Marcone (Dresden's Lex Luthor) has been learning, and trying to figure out what he could when he wasn't being a mob boss. 

[vincentric]

Marcone was drawn into the supernatural world over time.

He saw some of it in the military and then goes home to the Chicago Mob. After rising to power, he begins to encounter Dresden. I'm sure he was skeptical at first, but Dresden keeps saying that he's a wizard, weird shit keeps happening and being strung up for a werewolf to kill, kinda puts it into his face.

He's got to get some kind of protection at least and better still, his own magical employees he can trust but Dresden is not willing to become an ally and he'd be negotiating from weakness against everyone else he's encountered. And he has that injured little girl constantly in his thoughts.

So he goes after the Shroud, and that leads to his Nic and company coming to town. After that he searches around and learns about Monoc. I'm sure he does quite a bit of research and then decides to hire them. They're mercenaries and not his own people but that's had some good and bad to it and it's what he can get.

Then we get SF and what happens then. I think that's when he joined the Accords. Now he has solid contacts in the supernatural world and an ace in the hole. Even then, he doesn't overreach, just expands and strengthens his power on his home turf and fortifies his position. It's a slow build-up but he's just doing the things a confident and smart mob boss does.

[Arjan]

Also supernatural groups keep trying to take his territory. Especially the red court.

[KurtinStGeorge]

Add to this, Odin has great intelligence gathering ability.  He probably becomes aware that Marcone is drawing the negative attention of supernatural powers that Odin himself is opposed to, or is opposed to their sponsors.  Odin / Vadderung probably didn't gave a damn about Victor Sells, but the group or individual who gave the formula for the third eye drug and the exploding heart spell to Sells is someone Odin cared very much about and ultimately would want to find and suppress.

So even if Marcone got tipped off that Monoc Security is an organization he could approach for help with the supernatural, it's entirely possible Vadderung already knew what Marcone was looking for, and was; by proxy, the party that tipped off Marcone to reach out to Monoc in the first place.  If nothing else, Odin might have already been impressed by Marcone's surviving the loup-garou, even if it was Harry that killed it.   

[vincentric]

Yes, we've seen that Mab, Uriel and Odin make many seemingly small contacts that turn out to be big deals in the future. They're playing a very long game and keeps sending out pawn after pawn hoping that a few will make it to promotion to greater pieces. It's just hard on the pawns but as Mab says in BG, "the machine must yet function and the game must be played."