Toby Harbinger, an eighth grader at Hubble Middle School near
Washington, D.C., is in big trouble. He made the mistake of selling his
dad's priceless original Star Wars blaster to a lunatic who thinks he's
Darth Vader and travels with a large, hairy sidekick known as the
Wookiee. Now the lunatic wants more from Toby, whose only hope of
getting out of this mess is to win first prize at the school science
fair: $5,000.
But others want the prize too--a group of rich students and their
super-ambitious, high-powered parents, who will stop at nothing to see
their spoiled kids win. What these parents don't know is that an evil
mastermind is using them to get hold of top-secret military technology
as part of a fiendish plan to destroy the United States.
When Toby discovers this plot, he and his two best friends, Tamara and
Micah, try to alert the school authorities, including the fearsome
principal, known as The Hornet. But powerful forces are working against
Toby and his friends: they're snared in a frame-up and get taken into
federal custody, facing espionage charges. Meanwhile, the mastermind
proceeds with his evil plan of destruction.
In a desperate bid to escape, the kids find themselves in league with a
fairly mad scientist and two bumbling foreign dignitaries armed with
cheese so smelly it is used as wolf repellent. With the seconds ticking
away and the FBI close on their heels, this bizarre band sets off on a
madcap mission to stop the science fair--and save the country--before
it's too late....
