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.