"That's been stumping me too. I didn't get the sense he had a tamer. There shouldn't be a source of all that emotional power. Most Digimon can't just invoke Digivolution by themselves... I've had to chalk it down as an anomaly."

"Anomaly is right. He got that strong in the exact same span of time as us! And he's huge! It's not fair."

"It's really not!" You complain, thinking about how he towered over all of you.

"If you're envious of his strength, you'd better go train up. Or look into getting that big bounty of data we talked about."

That's all you need for now. It's been a long session, and you've caught up by now. There's just one final thing you need his help with.

"Last question before I get out of your hair. Remember when I told you about the metadata issue?"

"Yes, of course."

"Well, there are still bots out there interviewing people. I'm worried that if I get caught by one, it'll ask me to provide an alibi. Is there a way to fake what I give?"

"That's beyond me, sorry. I can't open up user metadata. But you've done a good enough job dodging them so far."

"We had to use optical camouflage. Real expensive!"

"Is there really nothing you can do...?"

"Hey now, I didn't say that. The problem is that they haven't collected what they want, right? So you go out to shop, and there they'll be, ready to snap you up."

You nod.

"So what if you've already given them your data?"

He holds out a strange program file. Its icon is a clock, with a wicked looking series of spikes on the back end. He gives it to you spike-side up.

"What's this?"

"It's your choice whether to use this or not. Consider it an investment. You can keep dodging them, and it'll only be a problem if you get caught. Or you can go find a bot and stab them with this."

"Stab them?"

"Ya, you heard me. That'll run their clock forward, and skip to the part where they thank you for contributing and pat you on the back."

"That sounds perfect! Why's that an investment?"

"Because if you ever do anything that makes them search you up, they'll find the gap. And they'll see that you were marked as having passed the check, even with nothing there. Now, combine that with whatever you might have done to catch their attention, and tell me: ain't that the most suspicious thing in the world?"

That's the catch, then. You can use this to cease pursuit in the immediate term. Combined with your new encryption tools, you're in a good spot to evade future suspicion. But if you fail, the double-whammy of suspicious circumstances will bust you for real.

"Thanks, Doc. I'll hold on to this."