Chris Wooding

Twelve-year-old Jack is almost killed by intergalactic beings when he is mistaken for precocious superspy Gradius Clench, and his only chance for survival is to team up with a ragtag group of alien bounty hunters.

When the students at Mortingham Boarding Academy find a group of strange, silvery beetles on school grounds they are excited, but when the beetles attack them and a mysterious virus starts spreading, a group of mismatched students must work together to survive.