HIGHER INSTITUTE OF VILLAINOUS EDUCATION Otto Malpense may only be thirteen years old, but so far he has managedto run the orphanage where he lives, and he has come up with a planclever enough to trick the most powerful man in the country. He is theperfect candidate to become the world's next supervillain. That is why he ends up at H.I.V.E., handpicked to become a member of theincoming class. The students have been kidnapped and brought to asecluded island inside a seemingly active volcano, where the school hasresided for decades. All the kids are elite; they are the most athletic, the most technically advanced, and the smartest in the country. Insidethe cavernous marble rooms, floodlit hangars, and steel doors, thestudents are enrolled in Villainy Studies and Stealth and Evasion 101.But what Otto soon comes to realize is that this is a six-year program, and leaving is not an option. With the help of his new friends: an athletic martial-arts expert; aworld-famous, beautiful diamond thief; and a spunky computer genius -- theonly other people who seem to want to leave -- can Otto achieve what hasnever been done before and break out of H.I.V.E.?