Game Reason: Fely is a very emotional person.
True, but this is before we see Felicity outside. Ellen's outside, yes, but we don't see Felicity outside until after this exchange. Drone operator says there are lots of elves, "mysterious woman" says there are only two registered. She says this to him ("man in blue shirt," even though his shirt is green), not to Felicity, who is still inside at the time. They're trying to dig up dirt on MC, and for some reason think they've found it--but none of what they've seen is actually dirt. And if the woman has access to the registration records--which she sure ought to, if Daddy's one of Cornwall's buddies--she knows that.
Same when Kali goes to Ellen to tell her about the drone--she says, "if they find the sanctuary..." as if it were something illegal. But it isn't--it's a separate building full of legally-owned and registered (with one exception) elves (and even though one of the residents there is unregistered, there are easily enough registered elves on the premises to account for everyone who lives at the sanctuary). OK, there are six beds and four legal elves there--so what? Maybe MC's planning on buying more (which isn't far from the truth). I'm sure it looks weird for MC to own these elves and just leave them there at leisure, but if he's bought them, isn't that his affair?
Sure, once Felicity gets there, the woman lies to her--she'll tell her anything to get her to come, and succeeds. And I don't think Felicity knows about the Sanctuary, nor about who's living there, so when the woman (I don't recall if we ever see her name) says "we know about the unregistered elves," that's effective.
Edit: on a somewhat different note, though, it's good from a storytelling perspective to see MC actually face some consequences, because he's had an incredibly charmed life through 0.17. Not only does he have a dozen or so beautiful women falling head over heels for him, he's also pissing off the rich and powerful left and right, with absolute impunity. We're told (at the beginning of F&E's last event) that as an immigrant, he's in a precarious position, but he's (figuratively) spat in the face of an organized crime boss, he's repeatedly and directly defied what's apparently the most powerful politician in the area despite his own paperwork not being in order (sure, Cornwall doesn't seem to care that MC's using his grandfather's license--for now), he's committed multiple violent crimes, and his elf--whom Cromwell knows on sight--started the biggest protest in recent history. But he continues his blissful, consequence-free life, until 0.18.
It isn't that I want bad things to happen to MC, but with this much FA, he has to get to FO at some point--and that point is apparently beginning. I expect, and hope, it will all come to a happy ending, and don't really want the drama, but it definitely makes the story better.