Billy Clikk’s parents are never home at night. He wonders why so much of their work is done after dark. Are they really exterminating insects? Or is their business a cover for something more sinister? When Billy catches his parents in the act—saving a small island from an invasion of something other than bugs—the truth is out. Jim and Linda Clikk are members of a secret organization whose mission is to protect humans from monsters, or creatches. But before Billy can join the real family business, he’ll have to prove himself. And when his parents are suddenly called to India to find out what’s lurking in the caves beneath the Taj Mahal, it looks like he’s going to get his chance sooner than he thought.

After months of intensive training, Billy is finally ready to go on his first solo creatch op for AFMEC (Allied Forces for the Management of Extraterritorial Creatches). Godzilla-like monsters are menacing the Chinese mountain village of Hua Qing. Billy is more than fired up to fend them off–until he discovers that bossy Ana García will be tagging along. Though Ana is no older than Billy, she’s a full-fledged AFMEC agent–and doesn’t hesitate to remind him of that fact. Whenever possible. At first, the mission is pretty straightforward. Billy and Ana help Hua Qing fight off the monsters, and life for the villagers goes back to normal. But Billy can’t shake the feeling that things in Hua Qing are not what they seem. Is Billy being paranoid? Or is something really bad about to go down? If Billy is right, then he, Ana, and the villagers of Hua Qing are in a whole lot of trouble. From the Hardcover edition.