lol did you skip over the duel between Eb, and Harry?  Eb was an absolute boss, and showed no signs of being frail.  He showed the opposite.  If he'd have taken on Harry Dresden without the Winter Knight Mantle, he may very well have kicked his ass up around his ears. (I know it wasn't really Harry but you know what I mean)

Uriel was acting to take back Nic's knights, so I'm not seeing this as a violation of the rules.  Nor did he just give it away and go off to run a tavern in Chicago.

I see Mac as more of a guy who got tired of angelic wars who just walked away. As long as he had his grace, and chose to use it, the placard became a keep out of death card since with his grace Mac is an immortal.

I mean, not necessarily. The Merlin isn't equal to other Senior Council members - he's the leader. The Chairman, President, what have you. He has executive powers. He could do things the others couldn't. He might have already for all we know. Especially with emergency powers.

We know the White Council's legal system is very old fashioned and not terribly complex. We know that it isn't particularly fair and is unfairly concentrated at the top with fairly minimal checks and balances.

We also know that the Merlin is more than simply the strongest wizard (in magical terms) on the planet. He's also got the strongest political strength, the strongest political position, and he's the one who controls the White Council's financial power.

If he wanted to create some extra taskforce, he no doubt could. It would be risky, and if discovered he potentially risks a civil war, but he could do it. Not only that, but likely things would be to his advantage if he used already existing legal powers to create the task force - which he likely has. Considering what the White Council normally does, even if the Merlin were discovered before being ready, all he would have to do is convince them to go after a particular target (like Ebenezar or Christos) and he would divert the attention off of himself. More than likely the stalwarts on the Senior Council would side with him just to prevent a civil war, and throw one of their number (who might challenge it) to the wolves. Especially as by calling him out, it could potentially give the Merlin ammunition to say "Hey, they don't want me investigating because they're the bad guy!".

They threw Morgan to the wolves without blinking an eye to save the Council. The Merlin will always do what he thinks is necessary after all. Assuming they were not suspected of being black council, the Merlin would have the votes of Mai and Rashid easily. Then he only really needs to convince either Christos, Eb, Liberty, or Listens-to-Wind. LtW made it clear he would ruthlessly protect the Council if necessary so it wouldn't surprise me if he was in favor of it - especially if he wasn't on the Grey Council.

Assuming Christos didn't challenge the Merlin, he would almost certainly vote for an internal affairs taskforce whether he was black council or not. If he's black council, he gets to destabilise the Council further and could use it to rid himself of enemies. If he isn't, he would use it to strengthen his personal position. If he challenged the Merlin about it, he almost certainly would be labelled black council and executed - which would justify to the others the necessity for such a taskforce. I can't see the other SC members siding with him to take out the Merlin even if he was right about a taskforce being illegal and/or unethical - especially if they really did think he was black council, which some of them suspect, and they didn't appreciate him bullying his way onto the SC in the first place.

Here's a thought.

Eb summoned them on accident, simply by drawing their attention by inadvertently messing with the localized flow of time.

Bending light?
Universe yawing toward him?

That's the kind of behavior one sees around a black hole.

And as we all know, dense gravity can affect the flow of time. Dense gravity that's strong enough to bend light would be way more than enough to cause gravitational time dilation.

So maybe it was less that someone sent them, and more that they were already in reality, and Eb accidentally did enough, between his power and his fear, to draw their attention.

We're so busy trying to fit the attack into the plot, when it might later be revealed that it had nothing to do with the bad guys, and everything to do with Eb losing control of his power, as others pointed out.

That makes sense. I'd probably argue that Harry was partly guessing at that point, based on Mab thanking Alfred for not handling things differently. I'm guessing he could have smacked them down, and Harry's presumption that he hadn't because he couldn't was likely wrong.

But I can definitely see where they might have some agency over the aspects of Alfred that are tied to nature.
I think it's definitely more than just angelic Grace running things. But the fact that the raw power of the circle invoked Molly to think her mom would talk in her church voice seems suggestive of the nature of it.

The point is, he knew it was off when she said it the first time out.. Just like in his conversation with Cat Sith, he pressed and Nemesis revealed itself.  He didn't press Justine in the apartment because he was already distracted by what Thomas had did,what had happened to him and his fears for Justine. 

Do you not think that it is possible that at that point Nemesis could threaten, Justine, Thomas, and more importantly her baby?  The threat was enough for Thomas to foolishly try to murder and disrupt the Accords.. So is it not logical that that kind of threat would push the mortal Justine to call up the Cornerhounds? Yeah, it was HWWB in the driver's seat, and he pushed Justine to blow the horn.   

Thank you for making my argument... You are answering your own question as to why they just don't get someone to call up a whole army. 

Perhaps, but that was the sentence that tips Harry off that something isn't right about Justine. He says it at the apartment when she first says it and later on the boat, it was a tip off.  So while you may think it is understandable, Harry's gut reaction was that there was something not quite right about it.  Perhaps it wasn't so much what she said but how she said it.

No, her brain had already been taken over, she wasn't tricked, she'd already contrived to get pregnant by that time and proceed to push Thomas into committing murder.  Are you saying that
she was still sweet normal Justine at that point?  Because she wasn't.

Go back and read what He Who Walks Beside says, yes, they want to end reality, but they want to do it slowly from with in..  They are kind of like a cat playing with a mouse, it could end it quickly but it isn't.. It revels in the rot from with in.

Yes, and lets not forget that is what Lord Raith did, he managed to recruit and brainwash Madge in order to summon Outsiders.  She was a low level practitioner.

But if Justine is not driving, then how do the cornerhounds get summoned?

I doubt she would have sent Thomas on a suicide mission and then summoned an assassination squad against Harry of her own choice. That was Nemesis. And if it can summon Outsiders with controlled victims, then why do it in the backyard of the defenders of reality instead of a secluded hidden fortress?

Don't get me wrong. I love these books and I hope I survive to see the end of the story. But there are plot holes and inconsistencies just not enough to ruin it for me.