In Small Favor when I was looking for references to Chandler I came across something curious. A bunch of Denarians had gotten the chop and Harry had collected the coins in his Crown Royal sack, Namshiel picked his pocket.. Here is what Harry says page 380
There's nothing like getting taken with an old trick, I guess. But that meant that Namshiel had been working together with someone else--someone else who had been hanging around to collect the coins after he'd taken them from my pocket and tossed them off to the side in the confusion.
So rereading, when Marcone is freed, he appears hardly worse for wear, he doesn't even appear overly upset. It really doesn't go into too much detail of how he got off the island once freed. Or I missed it in my skimming... But one has to ask, how did Marcone get a hold of Namshiel's coin to begin with? Had some deal been worked out between Nic and Marcone? His kidnapping was a set up, Nic hoped to gain the Sword of Faith and break it, and Marcone would get to bank any coins for future use? Which makes some kind of crazy weird sense if you consider Skin Game.. Supposedly Marcone,Mab, and Hades set Nic up to get revenge for Marcone's kidnapping.. But what if it was a double, double, cross? Nic and Marcone were really setting Mab up, use her Winter Knight to steal the Artifacts, because their object was more than the Grail. But they were double, double, double crossed by Harry who stole them and took them to Demonreach, though he did give the Grail to Nic as bargained for. So Marcone, in a bigger future power grab, takes up Namshiel's coin. Question, does he still have the rest of those coins backed somewhere? But stay tuned sports fans, this is what Marcone might have been thinking when he said he was learning to think long term..
*edited for spoiler in title. ~Blaze