“Hey,” I said. “Don’t I get a backpack?”

“No, boss,” said Snix. “You get something better. You’re the commander of this operation, so you, uh …” He looked around and then picked up something from under the driver’s seat of the Camaro. “You get this special Inter-Modal Communications Module. With it, you can monitor and direct our incursion.”

He handed me what looked like an espresso cup.

“This looks like an espresso cup,” I said.

“It’s designed to look like that,” said Snix. “Camouflage, boss. It’s all about camouflage. Okay, men. Are you ready?” (Christopher Bunn)

Hilarious and irreverent short-story about Santa and the elves.