This time Ben is the victim of… deadly conspiracy theories!
Murray is mad (that's an understatement) that Ben thwarted him yet again in the Panama Canal. He makes sure it will be Ben's last success and takes out a hit on Ben with every known assassin alive. Every. Single. One.
Ben's first inkling that something's very, very wrong is when the principal of Spy School summons him to his office (he finally got a new desk, after Ben blew up the last one with a mortar round), and … the office explodes.
Ben's not in it, and neither is the Principal, who's left to go looking for Ben. Ben's late, as usual.
But Erica's and his other Spy School friends are there to fight off assassins and whisk Ben into the tunnels below the school because two weeks prior to this, Murray started the first part of his truly evil plan….
Murray launches, using the alias of "X" online, an attack against Ben the teen spy may never recover from: alleging Ben's at the center of CIA conspiracy theories. What theory in particular? Does it matter?
Once Murray clicks "post," Ben's life is changed for good.
The theories spiral out of control. It already looked like Ben tried to kill the President once, remember? So that Ben's really a lizard-like alien trying to overthrow the government isn't that far of a stretch. And there's plenty of good citizens willing to take on the lizard-threat – with guns, no less.
Ben can't ride the subway without being recognized and attacked by …well, everyone, it seems.
Zoe gets the idea to strike back at Murray, exposing him as X, but that only plays right into Murray's hand, as that's exactly what he's been expecting and he's more than prepared for it. Like, within seconds he posts rebuttals all his fellow conspiracy theorists are much more willing to believe than the truth Zoe posts, plus Murray outs Zoe, all the young spies in trianing, and Spy School itself.
I won't spoil how Ben and the others make it out of this one. It's a great book for explaining how conspiracy theories work, who they prey upon, and the confirmation biases people have that mistakenly reinforce them.
Gibbs nails it again and this will make a fantastic gift for middle grade readers this holiday! Enjoy.
