[thejazzman]

Or heroes who simultaneously reported what they were hired to do

Not saying they were -- but not a bad alternative to declining the work outright

[klausa]

If they did, none of the moths-long reverse engineering would have been required.

[brokenmachine]

Ever heard of parallel construction?

[p_l]

Yes, it's "Technique not appearing in this episode", to paraphrase.

[brokenmachine]

The heroes also wrote heroically bad date checking code.

[p_l]

If they had reported things... well, it wouldn't take over a year to deal with this.