Mac shook his head as he arrived at the building, it wasn't often these days he got called in for his net security consulting services.

Amusingly clients called him in for the exact opposite, data theft & such were brisk business.

Walking into the building briefcase in hand and seeing the somewhat frazzled looking receptionist Mac gives her his patented charming smile.

"Hello Miss I have an appointment with a Nicholas Kerensky."

The woman looks up from her terminal.

"Your name."

"Wallace McNamara."

"Ah yes the net security consultant, Mr. Kerensky will be right down."

Going over to the waiting area and looking over the table containing a rather outdated coffee maker and some cheap off brand soycaf pods.

"Oh I wouldn't try any of those Mr. McNamara they taste awful and the maker is possessed by the ghost of Juan Valdez's pack mule."

Mac lets out an amused chuckle and turns to look at the man speaking to him.
Nicholas Kerensky was in his late 50 and the manager of this building for the last 12 years, prior to that he was an NCPD Lieutenant till he called the force out on it's bullshit one too many times.

"Mr. Kerensky pleasure to meet you, so I am told you had a ninja infiltrate this building, comprise your net security and attack one of your tenants?"

"Yeah looks like Ion Frontier pissed someone off enough to higher an infiltration expert, knocked a few of my guys around but they got off a lot lighter than Ion's security team.
We were able to capture some footage of the intruder and my friends in the NCPD told me you're both an expert in net security and have some knowledge of the Mercenary scene."

"I know a few people and netwatch taught me a couple tricks, now lets look at your systems and see what damage was done."

The two men walk down to the security office Mac setting his briefcase on a table and taking several devices out of it.
Kerensky lets out a whistle.

"Not often I see an external Cyberdeck, everyone uses those fancy implant chip based ones."

Mac plugs the deck into his neural port and then takes a tablet out of the briefcase and plugs that into the buildings security mainframe.
"Oh I have a standard implant deck as well and while the Netdriver is an effective device the external deck gives me a great deal of extra ram to work with when it's working in tandem with the Netdriver.
ok so I'm running a simple diagnostic first and then I'll need you to give me admin access to go over your systems to see if our ninja left any nasty surprises."

"Not plugging directly in?"

"Never jack into a system known to be compromised before doing a standard security sweep, tablets are much easier to replace than neurons.
can't tell you the number of times I've seen some gonk jack in only to get fired because some jackass netrunner left a surprise behind."
A ping comes from from his tablet and after nodding at the readout Mac jacks into the mainframe.

After about 20 minutes pass Mac jacks out of the system.
"Well good news is whomever our ninja is didn't do any damage to your system, she basically just switched several of the systems offline and added themself to the turrets whitelist just in case someone brought them back online.
Bad news is whomever put together your net security did it on the cheap, several of the security protocols are outdated and the Ice is about as effective as wet toilet paper.
Now I can update the system architecture, beef up your Ice and provide skill chips to your security team to train them in the new software."

Kerensky looks over the readout.
"So besides our net systems being a drafty box, an under trained net security team and the fact we got outclassed by a kid everything is working fine?"

"Well for any given definition of fine, now I can fix up everything in a few hours no problem and for eighteen thousand Euro dollars."

Kerensky's eyes widen much to Mac's amusement.
"Eighteen thousand?!"

"Like I said I have to restructure your entire net architecture, replace your system protocols and install all new Ice.
Now if you want another opinion you can call up Microtech and they'll give you the same diagnosis but will likely charge you twice as much and take a couple days unless you want to pay extra for express service."

Placing a hand over his face and letting out a frustrates sigh of defeat Kerensky takes the tablet and authorizes the work order.
"Welp this is what the owners get for being cheap, bastard will bitch and moan then probably hoist the fee onto Ion for causing this mess."

Mac lets out a chuckle.
"Gotta love them shortsighted penny pincers, if not for them I wouldn't get nearly as much business, alright work order is all set so let me call my people to get me the needed equipment and then we'll get started right away."

Mac calls up his office on the agent.

The image of a Bald woman appears on his HUD.

"Hey boss what's the news?"

"Client is taking the full overhaul, ask João to go into the warehouse and grab one of the green boxes labeled illudium q36 and drive it down here.

Oh and send a gift basket to Motoko Kusanagi's apartment as a thank you for drumming up some business for my security services."

"What should I put in the basket?"

"Good question, look up the file I have on her and see what gifts might match her interests, also get my Granddaughter to help pick out some things Traci is the same age so I'm sure she'll have some idea as to what a teenage girl would want."

"So some netrunning widgets, danger gal themed merch and the new Lizzy Wizzy album?

Mac lets out a defeated sigh

"Yeah that sounds like a gift basket Traci would set up, nix the Album and try to keep the cat themed merch down to a minimum
maybe subscriptions to Gunsmith digest and gearhead quarterly."

"Maybe sign them up for the all foods burrito of the month club?"

"Her brother would love that, Motoko is likely to shoot me in the dick if I signed them up for that."

"So that's a yes then?"

"har har."