A gripping, suspenseful story with strong appeal to fans of Harry Potter, Alex Rider, The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Artemis Fowl, and Lemony Snicket.

Cadel Piggot, a genius computer hacker, is living with his adoptive parents when he meets Thaddeus Roth, a psychologist who is supposed to cure him of his illegal hacking tendencies. But Thaddeus has a more sinister plan for Cadel. He introduces Cadel to Dr. Darkkon—a criminal mastermind who claims to be Cadel's biological father—and enrolls him in the mysterious Axis Institute. At first, Cadel is happy to be in a school with high-powered computers. But he begins to have serious doubts when he realizes that his classes will qualify him for a degree in World Domination. Soon he starts noticing many strange coincidences and odd fatal accidents. Then the life of his math-genius friend is threatened and Cadel discovers a conspiracy that goes much deeper than he ever imagined.