Do You Know What I Know: a Holiday Timeline

That was quick.

"Our troops outside are surrendering. As you said, they weren't to harm Claus."

Poleman braced for impact. He knew Baubler was not inclined to take opposition to his schemes lightly, but this was indeed what he had ordered.

"So our first plan did not succeed. Clearly, our own initial assessment won't work. Nevertheless, we will not let ourselves and our culture become replaced by nihilism." He turned to Poleman. "Radio to Mr. Confectioner that the sleighs need to launch at this instant. All three!"

"Yes sir!" replied Poleman. Other rebel elves handed him a radio. "Group F, launch all sleighs. You know the drill."

"And the rest of you! Take all the punchcards you can. Get the charges ready. We need to get out of here."


"Livingston Baubler?" asked Santa Claus.

"Yes, Mr. Claus. He's the one who ordered us to seize the facility. He's the one in charge." The elf paused. "And he is the one that will succeed."

Claus scowled. "I knew he was up to something," remarked Candycane. "You think someone who gets so mad at committee meetings about continuing deliveries to the Soviet Union would not be planning such a thing?"

Baubler, Claus remembered, was a skilled bureaucrat. He was in the foreign ministry, under Candycane. He kept the naughty and nice records, as well as access to a computer that could read the cards, under wraps from that ministry specifically because of him.

Back during the last war, Baubler had brought up several objections to helping the Soviet Union because they were an "atheist" power. They opposed the idea of Christmas, he said, and therefore they deserved no help from them. Nevertheless, he did a lot of work with the Western Allies, and made sure that the sleighs over Britain, and those that bombed Germany, were in the air. That was how he was promoted to Deputy Foreign Minister, something he had been peeved about. He wanted that Foreign Minister post.

"So what is his plan?" asked Claus to the rebel, who seemed to be in charge.

"He hasn't told me much, and what he did tell, he told me not to tell you. But he also told me not to kill you."

The argument went on for a while.

"Mr. Claus?" asked Candycane, "I hate to interrupt, but look up. There's something you might want to see."

Claus looked upward.

Three sleighs had taken off into the sky, to where he did not know.

But they were going in three separate directions.

That's for me to write and you to find out. 

  Now that's an interesting section.  That Santa would continue to support the SU, especially if the traditional 'support' of supplying Christmas gifts to children is one thing.  That he actually had sledges bombing Germany, presumably not with toys is a different matter.  This also sets a precedent.  What does/did he do during other brutal regimes or not and why?

  We also now know that Baubler's primary motivation seems to be an opposition to the SU. 

  Guessing that the three sleighs are an attempt to confuse their opponents as to where either the chief rebels and/or the information they were after are going and make it easier for them to get away.  Especially since I have the feeling all three are feints. 

Those monsters.

That is true.

 
 I can see why that could cause some upset.