Rolling over in bed, finding the other side of it empty Carrie frowned.

Sitting up, when her head swam and her stomach rolled she glanced at the half drained Maker's bottle on the floor. Recognized it as the source of her pain.

"Well. You're finally awake."

Approaching the bed, Yevgeny handed her two aspirin and a glass of water.

"What time is it?"

"Why does it matter? You needed to rest. You rested."

"That's not the answer I was looking for," Carrie grumbled, moving to get out of bed.

"Wait! Stay there. Just for a moment," Yevgeny requested, ducking out of the room as her frown deepened.

"Yevgeny, what the-"

"One moment!"

Wanting to go after him but sure that sudden movements wouldn't benefit her right now, Carrie rolled her eyes. Slumped back into the bed pillows before Yevgeny walked back in the room.

"Now, what were you trying to tell me?" he asked, setting the large ribbon-wrapped box he was holding on the foot of the bed.

"That straight bourbon still tastes like gasoline," Carrie muttered. "What's that?"

"Alright, be mindful that since I am not giving this to you on Christmas, technically I am still honoring our agreement," Yevgeny said, pushing the box in her direction.

"Technically you're on thin fucking ice," Carrie said with a scowl, but reached for the box in spite of herself.

Sliding the ribbon off, she opened the box to reveal a brand new laptop.

"My computer's working fine, last I checked."

"I agree," Yevgeny said as she frowned. "I checked it this morning and it is in good condition. But this model will work better for what I have in mind."

"We getting into gaming or something?"

Rolling his eyes Yevgeny moved to sit beside her on the bed. Opening the laptop he powered it on, then plugged a flash drive into the USB port.

"This is air gapped. It is virtually untraceable. Once purchasing it, I brought it to a friend of mine who made some modifications. Additions."

"What kinds of additions?" Carrie asked warily. Sitting up, she watched as Yevgeny keyed in a passcode, then some more code to open up a popup window. One that made the LED light on top of the screen glow blue. As soon as it did Yevgeny slid a protective cover over the camera, getting Carrie frowning.

"Before you ask, we are not going to start vlogging or sharing stories, and I will never consent to anything that happens in this bed being filmed," Yevgeny said dryly, getting a small smile.

"So what exactly are we doing?"

When he entered another command, enlarging the popup screen, Carrie's jaw dropped as a pixelated image began to load.

"What the...Jesus. That...that's not-"

"You would know better than me," Yevgeny said with a shrug. "It is 1AM though. This early, there is likely not much to see there yet."

"Holy fuck, Yevgeny," Carrie breathed, shaking her head in disbelief. She knew she should feel guilty, disgusted even, that she was seeing anything at all. She knew she shouldn't condone the invasion of privacy, that she should shut the feed down and forget it existed. Too bad she couldn't bring herself to tear her eyes away from the screen and the sight of her sister's living room.

"I know that it is not the same as seeing Frannie. But given the way you first got to know her father, I thought that-"

"Oh my God."

Shaking her head Carrie clasped her hand over her mouth, blinked back tears as the Christmas tree in the corner, the view of the fireplace across from Maggie's desk fully came into focus. Once seeing the clear picture though she snapped out of her daze, looked at Yevgeny in alarm.

"How secure is it?"

"Highly secure. The air-gapping should prevent anything being traced back to-"

"Traced back to us? You think I give a shit about that?" Carrie snorted as Yevgeny's eyes narrowed.

"Yes! Given your 'rap sheet'. My stature, I expected you would give a-"

"Can anyone else access this feed but us?" she asked urgently.

"Please, Yevgeny. If there's any chance, any risk to them at all with this set up-"

"Nothing is guaranteed," Yevgeny said softly. "But, I highly doubt anyone else would have the motivation or the inclination to attempt the equivalent here. Certainly no one that I know. No one in the circles I travel with."

"What about your friend? The one who helped install-"

"Ivan simply loaded the software and provided me with instruction. He has no involvement, no knowledge beyond that. That I can guarantee."

"Okay, I...okay."

When she let out a slow breath, fresh tears filling her eyes, Carrie turned back to the screen as Yevgeny slipped an arm around her. Kissed the side of her head.

"Is there any way that she, any of them can detect what..." Her voice breaking she swallowed hard, tried again.

"Can they figure out that we're watching?"

"I suppose that would depend on how tech savvy they are," Yevgeny shrugged.

"Do you know if your sister uses her laptop anywhere aside from home?"

"Knowing Maggie? If I had to guess it's charging on that desk 24-7," Carrie said knowingly.

"You are certain of-"

"She's had the same minivan since 2002. There's no way she'd trash the only PC with all the family photos."

Shaking her head she softly smiled, wiped at her eyes before using the touch pad on the laptop. Programming an alarm to go off at 6:00 PM, RU time on the 25th.

"Not at Christmas anyway."

...

Josie starts to notice the camera LED taking longer to go off on the laptop on the living room desk. Her mom is too busy to notice, and her dad works too much to give it much thought or notice. She notices it though, and one day a thought crosses her mind as to why it could be happening.

She knows her aunt, and her grandpa Frank for that matter, would tell her to follow that thought as far as she could. That she could trust her gut and how goddamn smart she was and go after the truth and answers however she had to.

Then there were her parents. Strong advocates for research and methodology and a patient and practical approach.

Josie decides to blend the best of both. Read that data breach article her dad was still going on about at the breakfast table. Reread the copy of Tyranny of Secrets hidden in the back of Maggie's closet.

She looks up the time difference between Moscow and Falls Church, then sneaks downstairs at 2AM. The sight of the little blue LED both exhilarates and scares the shit out of her, but she sits down in the desk chair regardless.

"Hey Aunt Carrie," she whispers in the dark. Smiling for the camera all the while.