>>>Sylia could certainly afford
>>>to hire a trustworthy outside contractor who wouldn't care that he
>>>didn't have a clue who was on the other end of the voice-scrambled
>>>phone line as long as he got his agreed pay.
>>
>>She could... but would she?
>
>*blinkblink* ...assuming that she was actually trying to gather
>information on Stark, failing to do so would be stupid, given
>that the choice is between detailed information with complete
>anonymity and running an excellent chance of totally blowing
>her hand-picked core operatives' cover out of the water...
>
>Assuming. Which, from your reply, it seems I shouldn't.
>
>Doublethink. Ow.

Of course, that kind of hardsuit development takes a lot of cash to finance. She could simply not have had enough cash on hand to pay for freelancers. And, there's no telling what freelancers might find out. KS would have a problem if they saw Stark carrying around a hardsuit, even though he's not associated with them.

It was the right call, if Stark were some random schmuck that got lucky.