H.I.V.E. (Higher Institue of Villanous Education) is a top-secret school where children with a preccocious talen for wrongdoing are sent to develop their talents to turn them into criminal masterminds. One small catch is the children cannot leave until their education is complete, six years later.
With villany come a certain freedom of thought, - after all, it takes the best to produce the worst.
This year there are two exceptional students: Otto Malpense and his best friend Wing Fanchu, and they are definatly not keen on being held against their will for six long years....
Higher Institute of Villanous Education is the first book in the H.I.V.E. series.
Summary
After realizing that the government funding that keeps the orphanage from closing down is being cut, Otto Malpense creates a robotic mind control device that he intends to use to publicly embarrass the Prime Minister during one of his speeches. After successfully completing his objective, he is ambushed and stunned by Raven (most feared assassin in the world) and then awakes to find himself in a helicopter, strapped to his seat, and sitting across from a complete stranger. He finds out the stranger is called Wing Fanchu and they quickly become close friends. When the helicopter lands, Otto is informed that he will be spending the next six years of his life being schooled at H.I.V.E. , the Higher Institute of Villainous Education. Dr Nero, H.I.V.E's headmaster,is interested to know that it took more than two shot's from sleepers (knock-out weapons designed to replace tranquilizer darts) to capture Wing,enough to send a normal boy in a coma for a few weeks. He expresses his concerns to Raven and asks her to keep a close eye on Wing and Otto. Meanwhile,Otto's special skills have marked him out as a member of the Alpha stream—a leader of tomorrow. He quickly works out that his little stunt with the Prime Minister now have landed Otto at H.I.V.E though he has no intention of staying in this new prison, and befriends many others who have been taken to H.I.V.E., like Laura Brand , Shelby Trinity , Nigel Darkdoom , and Franz Argentblum . Otto teams up with Wing, Laura, and Shelby, and together they hatch a daring escape plan. They travel through the hidden parts of the school, but as they nearly reach their freedom, their headmaster, Dr. Nero, reveals that all along they have been going on an impossible mission. However, Nigel Darkdoom has managed to stir up his own trouble on this night, and an enormous, flesh-eating plant (named Violet ) he has accidentally bred escapes from the hydroponics lab. Everyone, including the four students, jump into action to save the school, and they succeed. Otto and Wing are suddenly given a small window of opportunity to leave the school forever, but at the last second, they decide to stay because Wing had seen a necklace on Nero that directly matched his (Yin Yang symbols). This necklace was given to him by his recently deceased mother, hence why it's important to Wing that Nero's matches. In the last chapter, it is revealed to the readers that Number One, Dr. Nero's boss, in essence, has plans for Otto Malpense. Soon they will meet, and it will not be pretty.
