In the context of the story I can see how and why Kit has slowly (or quickly?) slipped out of his role as "financial advisor" to the team to the point he is now, where he's making many of the crucial decisions for the team -- he's older than most, if not all, of the members, and until recently this team has suffered from a lack of leadership. But Kit simply shouldn't have those kind of dictatorial powers over the team, and he needs to come to account for his questionable actions over the past year -- why didn't any of the other members have a choice whether or not to admit any of the newbies since they moved to La Perdita? I could have understood it better if one of the founders had been let in on the secret of Priest and backed Kit, but no -- Kit alone made the decision to let in this guy, even after he tried to kill Danny! That's WAYYYY out of the mandate he's supposed to have with the team. I definitely think some rethinking/clarifying of Kit's role needs to be done at the conclusion of this current story, especially since his own personal situation (the mafia kidnapping of his daughters and their blackmail demands) is putting the team as a whole at a risk.

I recently re-read HR #5: "Hide and Seek" -- and I was impressed by Kristogar Velo's wrapup posts at the end of the story:

quote:
Kristogar speaks up again. "Why would you do this for us?"

D'goon sighed. "Because, I also have some...non-friends, let's say, in high places. I do this favor for you, you owe me one. In case I need some assistance, you provide it. If you don't, well, I can always just kill you." D'goon smiled at his last remark. "The choice is yours, Velo."

Kristogar shook his head. "No, General. Our group is not a dictatorship. Give us time to discuss."
Unfortunately, it seems in our haste to write we haven't given much, if any, time to democracy in our group. That's something that needs to be changed. I really like the current story's method of assigning team leaders for each mission -- that's something I've been pushing for since way back. Theoretically, every member should have his or her chance to lead a mission based on his or her experience and capability for that mission... and the team under his or her charge needs to be trusted to follow his or her leadership, especially in a tense situation.

But ultimately, I don't want our MBL (whatever those initials stand for) to become a dictatorship, whether it be Kit, Quantos, Danny, or anyone else at the helm. I do think that all new members should most definitely be in a probation period -- something I mentioned when Drax joined the team, but something that should have been done immediately when Turkish, Grimm, Dirk, Chance, Ameristar, Tayden, and all the rest joined up. It's ludicrous to give complete strangers (for the most part) full membership simply because Kit said so. I also explained that the Hurricane issue in effect put the group through a "baptism of fire," so that the group became somewhat stable, but all new members from now on really should be in a probationary status until they've earned the team's trust.