The other night, it occurred to me how much the Christmas story is a tale of international intrigue. A head of state meets with visitors from another country and tries to co-opt them into providing sensitive information about a suspected security threat. But the conspirators are warned and escape to an African nation.

Yet the Christmas story goes beyond international intrigue, or even intergalactic intrigue. It is the story of a powerful ruler beyond the galaxies who seeks to regain domination over his former territory. So he infiltrates his own secret agent within its borders – fluent in the local language and indistinguishable from its citizens – but who is completely loyal to him.

And no one suspects what this ruler has done, because this secret agent is the ultimate sleeper, the ideal mole. For who would suspect a homeless baby of plotting to take over the world…