...is gonna spy/ to see if reindeer really know how to fly....

Debi had been excited about going to school that morning. The child loved animals, and Omega Squad had quietly checked out the zoo her biology class was to visit that afternoon, so Suzanne had laughingly kissed her forehead and sent her off to school with Pvt. Allen as chauffeur of the day. All of which was why, when Debi called home shortly after 1 pm, Suzanne was astonished to hear frightened tears in her daughter's shaking voice. "Mom, can you come pick me up?" she quavered.

"Debi, what's wrong?" Suzanne worried.

"It's - Some of the people here are scary," Debi said. "They talk funny, and they have big sores on their faces."

Norton, alerted by Suzanne's worried tone of voice, was paying close attention. When he saw her blanch, he reached for the intercom button on his extension. "Harrison," he said, "I think you and the Colonel should get down here. Something's up with Debi."

Coming down the stairs, Paul heard most of Norton's call. He paused briefly, and Norton indicated where Suzanne stood, white-faced, trying to calm her daughter down. Paul went to Suzanne's extension and pressed the button to put the girl on the speaker. "-weird, Mom. They look so sick, and they sound like - like radios with too many stations coming in."

"Debi, listen to me," Paul said firmly.

"Colonel!" Debi exclaimed. "It's them, isn't it? The ones you're fighting."

"I can't tell from here," he said. "They might not be, but just to be safe, I want you to tell your teacher that you feel ill, and go sit on the school bus until we get there. Sit all the way in the back so you can go out the emergency exit if anyone gets on that you don't like, and try not to draw attention to yourself."

Debi sobbed softly, but managed to choke out, "All right, Colonel."

"It's going to be okay, honey," Suzanne told her as Harrison joined them. "Just hang on."

**********

While the Colonel organized the Omegans, Suzanne worriedly got ready to go. Norton briefed Harrison, who couldn't help wondering what the aliens could possibly want at a zoo. So although Paul wanted them to stay safe at the Cottage, Harrison insisted he had to go along to find out what they were up to, and of course Suzanne had to go, to make sure Debi was okay. Norton was elected by default to remain behind in case Debi called again.

Within five minutes they were on their way, bundled up against the December cold. Paul and Suzanne rode with Harrison in his Bronco, with two carloads of Omegans right behind.

The zoo was all decked out for Christmas, with red and green lights strung along the top of the front gate, and along the tops of the fences around most of the animals' enclosures. Paul and Stavrakos went over to the line of buses, where Debi met them, hugging Paul in relief before taking his hand and hurrying back with them to where her mother waited, worried and impatient until her daughter was safe. They would stay in the Bronco until the coast was clear, with Stavrakos as guard. Coleman took two of the squad with her through the gates to scout the northern part of the zoo. Derriman took two and went south. Paul and Harrison took the remaining member of the squad and headed for the office to check with zoo management about anything unusual that had happened there lately.

The Salvation Army bell-ringer just outside the gate looked cold, despite the huge earmuffs and heavy coat she wore. Harrison paused to dig his loose change out of his pocket, smiling charmingly while he checked what little of her skin was left exposed to the cold, looking for any sign of radiation burns. "Any elephants in this little zoo?" he asked cheerfully.

"Huh?" she asked.

He gestured to his own ears, explaining, "Your earmuffs."

"Oh." She laughed, touching the dangling trunks of her elephant head design earmuffs. "No, I don't think so. This place isn't built for the big animals. It used to be a farm."

Harrison dropped his coins into her bucket. "Too bad. I'm a big fan of elephants, myself. Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas," she replied. "Many thanks."

Paul was practically stamping with impatience inside the gate. "Elephants? What was that all about?" he demanded.

"Just wanted to get a good look, Colonel, but she seemed okay," Harrison explained, his gaze wandering past two zoo employees costumed as Bigfoot and Buzz Lightyear.

Paul stared at the pair a moment, then shook his head in wonderment and led the rest of the way to the office. "Only in California," he murmured as he reached for the doorknob. "Like living in a bowl of granola."

"Granola?" Harrison chuckled.

"What ain't fruits and nuts is flakes," supplied Pvt. Allen, their escort. Paul looked at him in amazement. "I've watched Sgt. Derriman's Gallagher videos, too, sir," he explained as they went inside.

"Is that where he got it?" Paul asked, deliberately heading off Harrison's teasing inquiry. He wasn't about to admit laughing at the sledge-o-matic wielding comic.

"Hello!" A red-haired woman greeted them as she rushed through an inner door. "Oh, thank you for coming so quickly!"

Paul and Harrison looked at each other, and Harrison said easily, "We got here as fast as we could. Would you mind telling us what happened? I think it got a little scrambled before it got to us. Who are you exactly, and what do you do here?"

"Holly Greene. I'm the director of the zoo," she explained, shaking hands with first Harrison, then Paul, who gave their real names, but no titles or rank. "We aren't really a big zoo," Holly continued. "We don't have the funds for the truly exotic animals like lions and elephants, not like LA or San Diego. We can't afford to lose a reindeer, not at Christmastime, especially. They're why people come here, you know."

Harrison and Paul exchanged another glance. "One of your reindeer is missing?" Paul asked.

"Not just missing, stolen!" Holly explained. "We have a small herd, just twelve. Three of them are only fawns, but we have nine adults especially for the Christmas show. We harness them to a little sleigh - it has wheels because the snow is so unreliable here, and one of our staff dresses up as Santa to hand out fruit and candy to the kids. But when we went to harness them up this afternoon, Prancer was missing! We thought at first that he had just gotten out of his pen - he does that sometimes - but then I overheard one of the kids say she'd seen a man leading him out into the parking lot!"

"Reindeer," Harrison said to Paul, a gleam in his eye.

"Come on, Harrison," Paul objected. "What would anyone other than a Lapp want with a reindeer?" He turned to Pvt. Allen. "Go back and check with the bell-ringer at the front gate. Ask her if she saw anything, and if she did, see if she can give you a description."

"Yes, sir." Allen nodded in lieu of a salute before he left, and the boy went up a notch in his CO's estimation. The kid was quick to catch on that they were impersonating plainclothes police officers, and knew that a salute or any mention of Paul's rank would raise suspicion.

**********

To the north, Coleman and her team paused briefly to watch civilians scatter away from an ostrich that had gotten loose. "Should we help?" one of the others asked.

"You're an ostrich wrangler?" Coleman asked sharply. "Leave it to the zoo employees. Anyone see any evidence of the enemy?"

"Nothing, Sarge," they agreed.

"Then we'll swing around through the back and down to the south to see if the others have found anything," she decided. She pointed. "We'll work through the barns on the way. Let's go."

*********

Derriman and his team were watching a group of three men in flannel shirts and light sweaters who were behaving suspiciously. Although they didn't show any obvious radiation sores, Derriman didn't think their behavior was normal, especially as they passed a lighted decoration depicting three caroling snowmen. One of the flannel-clad men paused, and seemed to be objecting to the idea that snowmen might sing. Who hadn't seen that decoration before? It seemed to Derriman that only the aliens could be that unfamiliar with the trappings of the season, but he wanted to be certain before he notified Colonel Ironhorse.

The strange group continued to the east, and Derriman's team followed cautiously. Near the reindeer pens, Derriman's suspicions were confirmed when one of the suspects spoke excitedly in the gargling sounds of their native language, quickly shushed by the others. Motioning his men into cover, Derriman flattened his back against the nearest barn and radioed first the Colonel, then Coleman.

**********

Pvt. Allen was just returning from his errand as Paul and Harrison left the zoo office, and the Colonel motioned to him to join them as they hurried toward the barns. "She saw him, Colonel," Allen reported. "She said he seemed about fifty or so, graying hair, and glasses. He was wearing a green plaid flannel shirt and black jeans. It hadn't occurred to her that he might not work for the zoo."

"Maybe he did," Harrison said ominously, reminding them of the most imminent personal danger, that of alien possession.

**********

Coleman and her team joined Derriman and his men seconds before their Colonel arrived with Harrison and Allen. "They're in that building," Derriman told them, gesturing toward the barn.

"Paul, there may be human civilians in there," Harrison pointed out.

"Colonel," Coleman warned, "the kids!"

Paul looked where she indicated, and was horrified to see Debi's classmates being led toward the barn. He gestured urgently. "Get those kids out of there!"

Coleman touched Allen's arm, and the two of them trotted over to the teacher where she had paused before leading the class inside. Coleman did the talking, and the teacher, recognizing two of Debi's before- and after- school drivers, thought they were there for the student who had gone to the bus to lie down, and tried to tell them where she was. Coleman firmed her lips and pulled out her ID, explaining that she believed there was a terrorist team in the barn, and she couldn't allow the children inside.

Finally the teacher began to herd her charges away, escorted by the two soldiers, clearing the area of at least those non-combatants. But had they given away the team's presence to the enemy? "Stay here, Harrison," Paul instructed as Coleman and Allen returned. "Derriman, with me."

"But Colonel," Harrison began.

"Dr. Blackwood," Coleman interrupted in a voice that promised she wouldn't be treating him as gently as her Colonel did, "do you want to join the children?" Suitably chastised, Harrison subsided, but resentment and sly planning showed in his blue eyes. He wasn't done yet.

Derriman and the Colonel left the others to go to the barn where the aliens were. Derriman cracked the door open for Paul to look inside.

Paul's frown intrigued Harrison. "What is it?" he asked Coleman. "He can't tell what they're doing."

"You don't know that, Doctor," she replied, not taken in by his hint that he should be allowed to join the Colonel at the doorway. Harrison started to step forward anyway, and she slammed him back with her forearm across his chest. "Behave yourself," she instructed him fiercely, an angry gleam in her eyes. "I won't allow you to endanger my CO and my squad."

Within the barn, five aliens worked around the wheeled "sleigh," harnessing the reindeer to it. A sixth had changed out of his flannel shirt and jeans and donned the Santa costume, and was climbing into the sleigh as his teammates finished harnessing the animals. Just then, one of the team spotted Ironhorse and Derriman peering in through the partially open door, and the two soldiers were forced to duck out of the way when the aliens opened fire.

Suddenly there was gunfire everywhere. The entire Omega squad dove for cover, Coleman dragging Harrison behind another barn and shoving him between a tractor and a wagon. "Stay there, and stay down!" she hissed, then turned and fired at an alien who had the audacity to follow her and her charge. He avoided her shot by ducking back around the corner, but his presence forced her to stay with Harrison instead of rejoining her fellow soldiers as she would have preferred.

Ironhorse and Derriman were pinned down between the main group of aliens and the rest of the Omegans. Pvt. Allen was trying to provide enough covering fire to allow his sergeant and their Colonel to escape to safety. But Ironhorse had other ideas: he meant to stop the aliens from whatever it was they had planned. Taking advantage of Allen's covering fire, he worked his way back toward the barn, with Derriman right behind him. Together they plotted out the aliens' positions, and one by one, they took them out.

As the gunfire died away, Coleman cautiously scouted the last place she had seen the alien that had pinned her and Harrison down. Harrison followed her to the corner of the barn, silently urging caution as she made a fast check around the corner, drew back, then swung out and around the corner with her weapon at the ready.

He wasn't there.

**********

With Santa's appearance cancelled for the day, the frightened reindeer were returned to their pen. But Derriman stood over a slime-covered mass of red velvet, white fake beard, and black boots. "How will I ever explain this to Debi?" he asked Coleman, who shook her head sympathetically.

"What's eating Derriman?" Harrison asked Paul.

The Colonel shrugged. "He shot Santa Claus," he explained. "Do you want to tell Debi?"

Harrison grinned slightly. "I think Debi can distinguish between a fake and the real Santa," he said.

"The 'real' Santa?" Paul repeated in disbelief. "Next you'll be telling me that reindeer really know how to fly."

"I just wish we had some idea what they were after here," Harrison said. "You're sure you've told me everything you saw?"

"For the tenth time, Harrison, they were harnessing the reindeer to the sleigh," Paul repeated. "One had put on the Santa suit, and was getting into the sleigh when we were spotted. I saw no evidence of any technological anomalies. If not for Derriman's report that they spoke like the aliens, I wouldn't have known that three of them had aliens inside them. But the others had the radiation burns. And that's all there was to see."

Harrison wandered over to the bullet-riddled sleigh, wondering aloud how the reindeer had managed not to be hit. He sighed, leaning on it. "What in the hell could the aliens have wanted here?"

**********

A fiftyish man in a green flannel shirt and black jeans approached the three contamination-suited Advocates. "By your leave, Advocates," he greeted them.

"You have obtained the animals?" asked one of the leaders.

"We obtained one of the animals called reindeer, Advocate," replied the soldier. "It escaped its pen while we were attempting to obtain the rest of them. We were unsuccessful, and my teammates were killed. The reindeer at the zoo are closely guarded; we will have to find them elsewhere."

"Then do so," ordered another Advocate. "Our scientists await your success."

The man in green and black bowed, saying, "As you order, Advocates. To Life Immortal."

"To Life Immortal," the Advocates responded. They turned away as their soldier left, going back to the bank of televisions set in a metal rack within the cave system that was their headquarters.

"There it is again," said one, gesturing to a claymation snowman. "It must be very important to them to feed it to their masses so often."

"I would feel more confident of this tactic if this program were of living humans and reindeer instead of these animated representations," commented another, "or if our soldiers had succeeded in obtaining even one of these amazing creatures."

"Yet the protection the animals are given bodes well," countered the third. "And their caregivers were harnessing them to the carrier each day. Perhaps this was in preparation for the night they are to circle this world. We will find others, Advocates. We will discover whether reindeer really know how to fly."

**********

"Hurry, Norton!" Debi cried down the stairwell. "It's coming on!"

Suzanne looked at her co-worker. "What's coming on?" she asked.

Norton laughed softly, wheeling Gertrude toward the elevator. "Oh, I promised to watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with her. I think she rooked the Colonel into it, too."

Suzanne chuckled. "It's her favorite, for some reason. I think she likes the Abominable Snowman."

"Of course," Norton replied as the elevator doors closed. "Bumbles bounce!"