Otto and Wing have permission to leave H.I.V.E.'s secret island location to attend a funeral. But before they can reach their destination, the duo is ambushed. Who would risk assassinating the star pupil of the Higher Institute of Villainous Education?

The world’s most powerful villains have a problem. One of their own is threatening global Armageddon, with himself at the head of a sinister new world order. Meanwhile, Otto, Wing and other students from H.I.V.E. are en route to a training exercise in the Arctic known as the ninety-three-percenter, owing to the proportion of students who make it back alive. But before they arrive, events take over, and Otto and his most trusted villain-friends find themselves in the sights of the most dangerous man alive, with nowhere to run to....

The leaders of the world’s villainous forces are being picked off one by one, and Dr Nero is forced to take temporary control of G.L.O.V.E. after Diabolus Darkdoom is seriously injured. Nero discovers that Otto, who has been missing for several months, is leading the attacks, and he is forced to issue a capture or kill order.When Wing learns of the order, she persuades Raven to join her on a mission to retrieve Otto.

Otto and the rest of the elite Alpha stream at H.I.V.E. have been sent on their most dangerous exercise yet: The Hunt. But when Otto and the rest of the Alphas arrive in the icy wastes of Siberia, it becomes clear that something is wrong. Dr Nero, the head of the school, has made some powerful enemies at the Global League of Villainous Enterprises - and the first strike against Nero will be a strike against the Alpha stream.

Otto and Raven are desperate to rescue their friends from the clutches of Anastasia Furan, head of the evil Disciples organisation. First they must track down the location of the Glasshouse, the prison where Furan trains children to become ruthless assassins. But Otto is also being hunted. The three months that Otto has spent following his expulsion from H.I.V.E. have given the Artemis Section - an elite division of the American intelligence services that specialises in capturing the toughest targets and reports only to the president - an opportunity to locate him.