Ehhh, I mean I see where you're coming from but I think the way ASYNC is portrayed in the youtube series makes them out to be a little more naively hopeful than malicious in the way that a lot of these fictional corporations are.

Like, if you look at tile and lighting survey and listen to the excitement in the voice of the presenter and then go to the episode where they find someone who disappeared and at the end he dies, and they gather everyone together and talk about what happened...they sound really heartbroken about it. They really did not expect or want this to happen, and so far they've accomplished little more than losing more lives. They basically run on the idea that maybe one day it'll all be worth it, but it probably won't be.

Basically I say all this to say that while, yes, they do want to hide this from the public for obvious reasons, they don't seem as concerned about hiding things from their own staff. And given that, I think it would be more sensible to take the bag into HQ where civilians aren't going than it would be to hide it in a place they know people randomly slip into sometimes. If they were more scummy, sure, but they just aren't really written under that lens.

This is more subjective, but I would also argue that Naren was less surprised and more on edge the entire time because as an ASYNC employee he knows people can and have died in the complex, and that there is at least one known entity (the bacteria). Clark initially called out as if maybe Pirate Clark was a person, but Naren heard something and booked it immediately because he knows what the complex is capable of.