Neil Riebe

I Shall Not Mate Neil Riebe

Ace Japanese secret agent, Shindo Yamaguchi, feels like a pilot who has been grounded. Instead of globe-trotting around the world, pulling the plug on the plots of would-be world dictators and mad scientists, he's stuck at home collecting intelligence on giant monster sightings. Such is life, now that kaiju have become Japan's top security threat. A photo crosses his desk of a brown kaiju pterosaur, a juvenile, covered in thick armored plates. This is new. The kaiju pterosaurs, known as the Flock, are among the few kaiju Mankind can kill. This armored plated beast could be a game changer if it reaches maturity. As his friend, Professor Yuzo Abe, puts it, "We are in an arms race against the Flock." If the armored juvenile lives long enough to sire offspring, the Flock could become as indestructible as the other kaiju. While Shindo lobbies his government to mount an expedition to hunt for the armored beast, the juvenile kaiju is having problems of his own. While Mankind understands how adaptive evolution works, the juvenile's matriarchs do not. The chief matriarch, Flaking Scales, believes he is a deformity. After all, the Flock is covered in fine, white fur, not in a russet-colored crust. Also, brown represents decay, and death. Flaking Scales wants him destroyed before he can "pollute" the bloodline. Given the unflattering name of "Brown Scale", the juvenile must battle both man and monster to survive.