I don't think that's why they are afraid of Cobel

I mean...the invention of this by a different person than Jame... A person who until recently was born bred and educated lumon... I don't know if that's enough to "scare" them. They could still take credit by virtue of Cobel being a lumon soldier. They could bury her in disinformation. They could say she's crazy or her sketches are fake. If she went public with what they are doing they could easily refute her by saying she's a disgruntled ex employee.

She knows that they could eliminate her if she became a threat in public or even by going to their competition.

I feel like there's something much deeper going on for them to have put up with her for this long.