History Literature / SpySchool

** Zigzagged in "Evil Spy School" where Spyder bought a bunch of construction companies for money laundering purposes only to find that they could be legitimately profitable, especially when [[spoiler:they use those construction companies to get lucrative contracts to ''repair'' the massive infrastructure damage from their evil plans.]]
** In "Spy School Revolution" it's revealed that the plot of the movie ''Film/KingKong'' was originally one of Croatoan's evil plots, but when they couldn't find a real giant gorilla they sold the idea to Hollywood.

* FailedASpotCheck: In "Spy School Goes South," Cyrus somehow made a mistake when the pilots he vetted turn out to actually be undercover SPYDER agents who nearly kill the heroes if it weren't for some quick thinking and action from Erica.

* GracefulLoser: In ''Spy School: Project X'', several assassins who go after Ben are falsely told that someone else killed him first. They react fairly calmly and decide to make the best of things and visit a nearby tourist attraction.

** In one scene of ''Spy School: Project X'', the heroes debate jumping six stories off a moving train into a river below. Mike is more concerned about how uncomfortable wet underwear will be than about how dangerous the jump is.
* SlobsVsSnobs: In ''Spy School: Project X'', two pairs of assassins (a well-dressed BattleCouple with lots of experience and a pair of bumbling Midwestern hunters partaking in their first attempted murder) get captured at the same time. The experienced assassins spend a while insulting the inexperienced ones.

* WeNeedADistraction: In ''Spy School: Project X'', it looks like the heroes will have to jump off a moving train and into a river to escape from several assassins. Mike and Jawa are excited about finally getting to do this, after seeing it in so many movies, and Erica lets them (and the principal) jump overboard to distract the villains while she and the others remain onboard.

5. ''Spy School: Secret Service''

* CarnivalOfKillers: In ''Spy School: Project X'', a bounty on Ben attracts many professional and amateur killers. They include most of the recurring villains from earlier books, a Mafia goon, a pilot in a stolen military jet, an eyepatch-wearing woman who legally changed her name to Myrtle Combat, an arrogant couple who drive a sports car and wear bodysuits, two hunters who believe in a ConspiracyTheory the BigBad started claiming that Ben is an evil alien (which eliminates any moral qualms they have about HuntingTheMostDangerousGame), a ninja, a woman who looks like a suburban mom, a woman in a fancy gown, and a man dressed like ''Film/MadMax''.

* CardboardPrison: Zigzagged. Some captured villains remain in jail but [[spoiler: Murray Hill]] escapes custody no less than three times, although the first two times he had lots of help from members of SPYDER outside of prison, and the third time, he'd been taken out of jail by the heroes to help track down SPYDER's leaders.

* CaughtMonologuing: Invoked in "Spy School Revolution", where the BigBad's evil speech has clearly been practiced before and the heroes repeatedly pretend that they can't hear it over the noise of a bowling alley to make the annoyed villain repeat the whole thing, word for word, buying them time and humiliating said villain.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Spyder isn't above trying this. [[spoiler: Murray Hill learns this the hard way.]]

A Spy-Comedy series by Stuart Gibbs (also the author of the ''Literature/FunJungle'' series, ''ComicBook/BruceWayneNotSuper'', ''Literature/CharlieThorne'', and the ''Literature/MoonBaseAlpha'' trilogy). 12 year-old Ben Ripley finds his life turned upside down when he is abruptly secreted for a secret CIA training school. Once there, it quickly becomes clear that his presence is being used to try and flush out TheMole of a secret [[Franchise/JamesBond Spectre-esque]] organization, SPYDER. Due to a complicated series of events, Ben ends up the hero of the hour, and gets dragged into adventure after adventure.
The series consists of:

5. ''Spy School: The Secret Service''

* MuggleBestFriend: Ben's buddy Mike remains unaware of Spy School for a while, although he gradually gets suspicious and is soon recruited.

* OutOfFocus: Murray Hill only appears in a couple of chapters in books 4, 5 and 8.

* PunnyName: Murray Hill is a neighborhood in Manhattan.

** [[spoiler: Mr. E, the head of Spyder, is a woman]], something Ben is chagrined to have never considered, with all of the misdirection inherent in the spy business.

* ShootTheBuilder: The architect who built the Paris home of Mr. E, the head of Spyder, was murdered after completing the job. Her body (along with the bodies of various other people who've done vital, but sensitive jobs for Mr. E) can be found in the sewers beneath the house.

* SpoiledSweet: Jessica Shang, the daughter of the BigBad of the fourth book.

* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: Erica is a very focused ActionGirl, though she has a few interests or hobbies outside of Spy School. She has a bedroom full of gingham pillows and posters of kittens (which Ben is under strict orders to never reveal). When she was younger, she loved to pretend she was a princess, although she claims that she was really pretending to be a spy undercover as a princess.

* EmergencyMultifaithPrayer: Murray Hill engages in reciting prayers of at least eight different religions when it seems like he’s about to die from a missile strike in ''Spy School Goes South''.

* FailedASpotCheck: In "Spy School Goes South," Cyrus somehow made a mistake when the pilots he vetted were actually undercover SPYDER agents who nearly kill the heroes if it weren't for some quick thinking and action from Erica.
* FakeUltimateHero: Erica's father Alexander is a LivingLegend, but is a bit of a hapless buffoon in the field who is always StealingTheCredit (it's eventually implied to live up to his father's expectations) whose biggest real asset is that he's TheSocialExpert.

* GoodIsNotNice: Erica's grandfather, Cyrus, serves as the BigGood of the series, but is constantly demanding and ungrateful (especially towards Ben) and doesn't hesitate to use Ben as bait, or manipulate him into going on dangerous missions without his consent.

** Mocked by Erica in the first book. She says that Spyder is convinced Ben has some algorithm which would let them do this, and then she describes how real hacking is a complicated affair that generally takes a minimum of several days.

* IceQueen: Erica is practically this trope's poster child. (Zoe even ''calls her'' an ice queen several times, to the point that it becomes her nickname for Erica). Erica is a very stiff and clinical person whose displays of emotion are generally limited to Ben, and while she does have DefrostingTheIceQueen moments teased they rarely last. After she comments that Ben's friend Mike is "Not so bad," Zoe accuses Erica of liking him based solely on that.

** One of the Spy School professors, Kieran Murphy, once infiltrated a terrorist cell so expertly, that he was asked to be the best man at their leader's wedding.

* InstantlyProvenWrong: In the fourth book, Cyrus refuses to believe that it's [[ContrivedCoincidence only a coincidence]] that Ben's best friend from before spy school just happens to be on vacation at the same ski resort where the mission is happening and that neither of them planned it, declaring that such coincidences don't happen. Alexander speaks up, saying that actually something like that did happen to him once when he ran into his third grade teacher on a mission in Istanbul while disguised as a nun.
* InternalAffairs: Agent Nora Taco in the latest book, head of the newly formed Double Agent Detection Division.
* IronicFear: Evil Agent [[spoiler: Murray Hill]] is afraid of.... you guessed it Spiders. This gets used to frighten him into making a confession at one point.

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: When The Hales are describing how Leo Shang is trying to destroy something in the Rocky Mountains.

* ActionInsuranceGag: Kind of. It's eventually revealed that SPYDER insures their EvilPlans in the event of failure, although, by the events of the 6th book they've been operating at such a loss lately that none of these companies will touch them anymore.

* AmusingInjuries: SPYDER agent [[spoiler: Joshua Hallal]] is assumed dead at the end of the second book. He returns near the beginning of the third with an artificial leg, a hook hand and an eyepatch (which he got swatting at a fly on his face [[EyeScream before he'd gotten used to the hook]]) and continues to suffer injuries every time he clashes with the heroes. Warren sometimes suffers these on a more minor scale (like by skiing into a tree, and whacking his head, causing him to spend the rest of the day sprouting gibberish).

* DeanBitterman: The Spy School's principal is a PointyHairedBoss who slacks off a lot, and hates Ben for somewhat irrational reasons. The students codename for him him is "The Idiot."

** Murray does this when he, Ben, Ashley, and Nefarious Jones drive to the beach for the day. He constantly crosses over the lanes on the highway, and has several close calls with oncoming cars and even a semi truck.

* DungeonBypass: On his first day at the eponymous school, [[spoiler:Mike]] goes around the high-tech obstacle course rather than going through it. His teacher is unamused, but has to concede that in the field, an agent is expected to take the quickest and safest route to stopping the villains.

* TheAce: Erica, the schools best student, and to a lesser extent, Jawa.

* ActionInsuranceGag: Kind of. It's eventually revealed that SPYDER insures their EvilPlan's in the event of failure, although, by the events of the 6th book they've been operating at such a loss lately that none of these companies will touch them anymore.

* ChameleonCamouflage: Camouflage is the only thing Warren is really good at, with TheNicknamer dubbing him Chameleon. occasionally he takes it to far, such as when he puts on wood stainer to blend in with wooden furniture and can't get it off the next day, causing a professor to mistake him for a table and put a book on his head.

* AmusingInjuries: SPYDER Agent [[spoiler: Joshua Hallal]] is assumed dead at the end of the second book. He returns near the beginning of the third with an artificial leg, a hook hand and an eyepatch (which he got swatting at a fly on his face [[EyeScream before he'd gotten used to the hook]]) and continues to suffer injuries every time he clashes with the heroes. Warren sometimes suffers these on a more minor scale (like by skiing into a tree, and whacking his head, causing him to spend the rest of the day sprouting gibberish).

* TheResenter: Spyder Agent Ashley Reeves is very bitter over an Olympic Trials judge saying she didn't stick a landing. Ben's classmate Warren is also pretty jealous of him and relishes the chance to put him down.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Spyder isn't above trying this. [[spoiler: Murray Hill finds this out the hard way.]]

* WhosOnFirst: In ''Spy School Revolution'', there's the new Double Agent Detective Division. ([=DADD=]) which keeps causing Mr. Ripley to think that their addressing him when the acronym is said out loud.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Ben does this to Alexander at the climax of the second book, when he's fallen into a depression, and they need his help, telling him that yes, he is a bad spy, but he couldn't have become a LivingLegend without ''some'' skills, and right now they need him.

* TheSmartGuy: Ben is a math genius whose always able to figure out what Spyder (or any other bad guy) is up to.
* SpoiledSweet; Jessica Shang, the daughter of the BigBad of the fourth book
* TheSpook: Leo Shang, the BigBad of book four is described as having just appeared on China's business scene with millions of dollars five years ago, and no one has been able to find out a thing about his past.
* TheStarscream: [[spoiler: Joshua]] briefly takes an opportunity to try to assassinate several Spyder leaders in the sixth book to take over the organization, although he fails.
* StealingTheCredit: Alexander Hale does this, on occasion, having built most of his career on the accomplishments of better spies. Also, in the fourth book it turns out that [[spoiler: Murray Hill]], who sold the BigBad an EvilPlan, stole it from the plot of the movie [[spoiler: ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}]] something he makes an unconvincing attempt at denying once Ben calls him out for it.
* ThatCameOutWrong: Lampshaded in one scene where [[spoiler: Warren]] is being questioned once by the CIA.

* TheyKilledKenny: Bad guys [[spoiler: Joshua Hallal]] and Dane Brammage are both assumed dead several times after fights with the heroes, but come back. In the eighth book this is lampshaded when Ben comments that he last saw [[spoiler:Joshua]] falling off the Eiffel tower and assumes that he's dead but if he isn't then Ben won't exactly be shocked.
* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: Erica is a very focused ActionGirl with few interests or hobbies outside of the Spy School. She also has a bedroom full of gingham pillows and posters of kittens (which Ben is under strict orders to never reveal). When she was younger, she loved to pretend she was a princess, although she claims that she was really pretending to be a spy undercover as a princess.

* TyrantTakesTheHelm: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. For all of his incompetence, Alexander is more fatherly towards Ben and the others, listening to their input and trying to keep them well-protected. Once his father takes over, Cyrus is more inclined to risk their lives gratuitously, insults them and ignores their input on almost everything, while still tending to be just as easily OutGambitted by Spyder as his son. He has seemingly improved a bit in the latest books, but that might just be from being OutOfFocus.

** Agent Nora Taco (a descendant of the inventor of tacos) in the eighth book. She has a strong NeverHeardThatOneBefore vibe, and once rants about how she can't even order Mexican food without being teased. [[spoiler:And to make matters worse, her name is also -completely coincidentally- an anagram for the evil organization Croatoan, which provides her colleagues with more fodder to tease her with after Ben accuses her of being a double agent while convinced it was a deliberate anagram/alias.]]
* WeNeedADistraction: In ''Spy School: Project X'', it looks like the heroes will have to jump off a moving train and into a river to escape from several assassins. Mike and Jawa are excited about finally getting to do that after seeing it in so many movies and. Erica lets them (and the principal) jump overboard to distract the villains while she and the others remain onboard.

* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: By the ninth book, [[spoiler:Murray]] has been TaughtByExperience not to get CaughtMonologuing and tries to kill Ben in an uncomplicated way while refusing to reveal the details of his evil plan beforehand.
* WhosOnFirst: In "Spy School Revolution" there's the new the Double Agent Detective Division ([=DADD=]) which keeps causing Mr. Ripley to think that their addressing him when the acronym is said out loud.

** Ben is assigned to infiltrate SPYDER in the third book after the Hales stage throwing him out of spy school, although it turns out that SPYDER was onto him from the beginning.

* IronicFear: Spyder Agent [[spoiler: Murray Hill]] is afraid of.... you guessed it Spiders. This gets used to frighten him into making a confession at one point.
* KleptomaniacHero: Chip spends a lot of a raid on SPYDER's lair in the third book stealing stuff like climbing equipment while scouting around.
* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: When The Hale's are describing how Leo Shang is trying to destroy something in the Rocky Mountains.

* LatexPerfection: Averted, in the eighth book. A latex mask discussed as a possible strategy of the villains to have framed Erica for shooting a missile at CIA headquarters. Jawa reveals the CIA doesn't have any masks like that, as the plastic sags and dissolves in a manner which makes the faces look like zombies.
* LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub: One of SPYDER's rival organizations is called the International Tulip Grower's Association. [[spoiler:Subverted in ''Spy School at Sea,'' where Murray admits that the International Tulip Growers association is a legitimate organization and he only claimed they were evil as part of a LongGame to manipulate Ben.]]

* MamaBear: When Ben's parents finally find out he is a spy his dad thinks it's cool, while his mom is furious about all of the risk and danger he's experienced as a result.

* MasterOfDisguise: Naturally the school has one. Harlan Kelly, who teaches a class in it and show up in a different disguise very day. [[UnsettlingGenderReveal Murray relates an incident in which the principal once spent a while hitting on one of his female disguises before finding out it was Harlan]].

* MuggleBestFriend: Ben's buddy Mike remains unaware of the spies for a while, although he gradually gets suspicious and is soon recruited.
* MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels: A variant occurs when Warren is attempting to translate a conversation between Leo and Jessica Shang (in Mandarin) that they're eavesdropping on.

* ObliviousToLove: Ben spends the first five books marveling over how Zoe can’t realize that her best friend Warren has a crush on her. Somewhat humorously, right after someone finally breaks this to her, it is then revealed that Zoe has spent all of that time crushing over the equally-oblivious Ben, who realized that part of the reason Warren's always been such a {{Jerkass}} to him is out of jealousy. Ben himself has a bit of this towards Erica Hale, whose professionalism causes her to take time to realize that Ben likes her and/or that his interest in her is more than just superficial. Zoe also speculates that Ashley Reeves likes Ben.
* OffstageVillainy: In ''Spy School at Sea,'' Ben and Mike are thrown off a cruise ship. They follow some sea turtles to shore and identify themselves as junior CIA agents, only to discover that they've blundered into the property of a drug lord known as El Diablo. While he's completely unapologetic about being a drug dealer, any villainy he's involved with remains entirely offscreen (save for later loaning his jet to the BigBad, who is friends with El Diablo). El Diablo thinks Ben and Mike are just joking about being CIA agents and lets them leave unharmed after letting them eat and shower at his place. He also talks about how his estate doubles as a sea turtle conservatory, boasts about how he gives back to the community, and seems like a BenevolentBoss to his henchmen.

--> '''Catherine:''' Doo not make this argument about which country is better. If you do, I will crush you.
* {{Portmanteau}}: Ashley Sparks has a VerbalTic of throwing at least one of these into all of her conversations (eg: Jidiots, or Jerks + idiots).

* PunchClockVillain: Spyder is a business and a lot of its members casually try to recruit Ben on occasion, or act like it's just a gig.

* ReassignedToAntarctica: At the start of the second book, Tina the RA bemoans that she is being sent to Canada (which is a nice place to live, but not the kind of place with the kind of vital, action-filled missions she was looking forward to) after some of her files were stolen by TheMole. Ben convinces her to look on the bright side and later when he calls her she admits that the job has turned out to be alright after all.

* SharkPool: Erica learned to swim in one blindfolded (although she had to use grouper instead of actual sharks).
* ShootTheBuilder: The architect who built the Paris home of Mr. E, the head of Spyder, was murdered after completing the job. Her body (along with the bodies of various other people who've done vital, but sensitive jobs for Mr. E) can be found in the sewers beneath that house.
* SickeninglySweethearts: Murray and his new partner/girlfriend Jenny are this when they show up in the fourth book, although it quickly falls apart when he gets caught lying to her and she takes it badly.

** In the sixth book, when Ben figures out the villains EvilPlan, and all of the death and destruction it will cause, the first reaction of Vladimir Gorsky (who has just been captured) is to complain that it will destroy a place he just bought a condo in.

** Zigzagged in "Evil Spy School" where Spyder bought a bunch of construction companies for money laundering purposes only to find that they could be legitimately profitable, especially when [[spoiler:They use those construction companies to get lucrative contracts to ''repair'' the massive infrastructure damage from their evil plans.]]

* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler: Warren]] defects to Spyder shortly before the events of the fifth book.
* FailedASpotCheck: In "Spy School Goes South," Cyrus somehow made a mistake when the pilots he vetted were actually undercover SPYDER agents who nearly kill the gang if it was not for some quick thinking and action from Erica.

* ForeignQueasine: The fourth book has an example set in a different part of the same country as the person unhappy with the food. Alexander is aghast to learn the ingredients for Rocky Mountain Oysters are bull testicles after eating several. He quickly excuses himself to vomit in the parking lot. He's also not too crazy about how the salmon he ordered with it has turned green.

** Erica herself is an odd example. While everyone appreciates her skill set, her strict professionalism and reluctance to socialize mean that her eventual boyfriend Ben is the only one to get along with her well on a personal level (especially in the earlier books).

* GirlPosse: From Ben's old middle school, Elizabeth Pasternak and her friends Kate and Chloe seem to have one, although they aren't bullies and don't seem particularly shallow.
* GoodIsNotNice: Erica's grandfather Cyrus serves as the BigGood of the series, but is constantly demanding and ungrateful (especially towards Ben) and doesn't hesitate to use Ben as bait, or manipulate him into going on dangerous missions without his consent.

* GuileHero: ''Ben.''

* HypocriticalHeartwarming: Cyrus Hale has fairly "old-fashioned" views about women doing field work in general, but has been teaching his granddaughter Erica everything he knows practically since she was able to walk.

** One of the Spy School professors, Kieran Murphy, once infiltrated a terrorist cell so expertly, that he was the best man at their leaders' wedding.
** Various Spyder agents have infiltrated the CIA.
** Ben is assigned to infiltrate SPYDER in the third book after the Hales stage throwing him out of spy school, although it turns out that Spyder was onto him from the beginning.
* InstantlyProvenWrong: In the fourth book, Cyrus refuses to believe that it's [[ContrivedCoincidence only a coincidence]] that Ben's best friend from before spy school just happens to be on vacation at the same ski resort where the mission is happening and that neither of them planned it, declaring such coincidences don't happen. Alexander speaks up, saying that actually something like that did happen to him once when he ran into his third grade teacher on a mission in Istanbul while disguised as a nun.

* TheAce: Erica, the schools best student, and to a lesser extent, their friend Jawa.
* ActionGirl: Erica, Catherine, and Zoe and Ashley can all beat up most of the male characters without trying and only seem to have difficultly dealing with against MadeOfIron villains like Dane Brammage and DarkActionGirl Ashley Sparks (and even then they usually beat those two in the end).
* ActionInsuranceGag: Kind of. It's eventually revealed that SPYDER insures their EvilPlan's in the event of failure, although by the events of the 6th book they've been operating at such a loss lately that none of the companies will touch them.
* AffablyEvil: Many of the villains, most notably [[spoiler: Murray]] who can get pretty mad at Ben and willing to see him dead but would genuinely like it if Ben ever defected to their side.
* AmbiguouslyRelated: Mr. E's headquarters contains a post-it note saying to wish someone named Tina happy birthday. It's possible (although unconfirmed) that this is referring to Tina the RA from the first two books, but her being a SPYDER agent would cause some tricky continuity questions, leading to theories that Tina is a relative of Mr. E. (multiple other families have more than one member whose a spy), and that Mr. E is the BlackSheep of the family.

* AncientConspiracy: Croatoan, the villains of the eighth book. In some ways they serve as a ContrastingSequelAntagonist to SPYDER (a relatively new organization OnlyInItForTheMoney). Croatoan is filled with Spanish zealots who were behind a series of FalseFlagOperation's (beginning with the disappearance of the Roanoke colony, which they blamed on the local Native tribe, even adopting their name afterwards), initially to try and drive the other colonial powers out of the new world and then to try and topple the American government out of bitterness in the centuries afterwards (long after the actual Spanish government disavowed them). They were behind the Boston Tea Party to start the Revolutionary War, crashed the stock market in 1929, and burned the Capitol during the war of 1812. They also are behind the assassinations of Presidents Kennedy, [=McKinley=], Lincoln (giving John Wilkes Booth a NotSoFakePropWeapon and telling him that the assassination was [[AllPartOfTheShow a play]]) and Harrison (who they poisoned with arsenic while managing to make it look like natural causes).

* BigBrotherBully: Hank Schrader is a bully to everyone, and his younger brother Chip is no exception.

* BodyguardBetrayal: SPYDER agents occasionally pull these, notably the pilots of a plane the main characters are on in the sixth book.
* BullyTurnedBuddy: Chip and Ben's relationship improves a lot over the series, starring with Chip's amusement after watching Ben insult the principal (under Erica's instruction) as a form of manipulation.

* CardboardPrison: Zigzagged. Some captured villains remain in jail but [[spoiler: Murray Hill]] escapes custody no less than three times although the first two times he had lots of help from members of Spyder outside of prison, and the third time, he'd been taken out of jail by the heroes to help track down SPYDER's leaders.
* CarnivalOfKillers: In ''Spy School: Project X'', a bounty on Ben attracts many professional and amateur killers. They include most of the recurring villains from earlier books, a Mafia goon, a pilot in a stolen military jet, an eyepatch-wearing woman who legally changed her name to Myrtle Combat, an arrogant couple who drive a sports car and wear bodysuits, two hunters who believe a ConspiracyTheory the BigBad started claiming that Ben is an evil alien (which eliminates any moral qualms they have about HuntingTheMostDangerousGame), a ninja, a woman who looks like a suburban mom, a woman in a fancy gown, and a man dressed like ''Film/MadMax''.
* CaughtMonologuing: Invoked in "Spy School Revolution" where the BigBad's evil speech has clearly been practiced before and they repeatedly pretend that they couldn't hear it over the noise of a bowling alley to make the annoyed villain repeat the whole thing, word for word buying them time and humiliating said villain.

* ConfessToALesserCrime: Invoked and subverted in the climax the fifth novel. Ben and his friends have been framed for trying to kill the President by [[spoiler: a treacherous member of the joint chiefs of staff (who was actually just trying to steal the nuclear launch codes)]] and when all of them are cornered by Pentagon guards, Ben realizes that protesting his innocence will just sound like a bad case of YouHaveToBelieveMe!. So instead, he ''confesses'' to setting off the bomb, but explains that it was to [[spoiler: steal the launch codes]] rather than to try and kill the President, and claims that he was working for the actual bomber. Said bomber tries to deny this, but the guards agree that it does seem more likely that he was the true culprit rather than a teenager acting alone (and who seemed to be confessing to them) and arrest that guy and his accomplice, with their interrogations quickly providing the evidence to exonerate Ben.

** Zigzagged in "Evil Spy School" where Spyder bought a bunch of construction companies for money laundering purposes only to find that they could be legitimately profitable, especially when [[spoiler:They use those construction companies to get the lucrative contracts to ''repair'' the massive infrastructure damage for their evil plans.]]
** In "Spy School Revolution" it's revealed that the plot of the movie ''Film/KingKong'' was originally one of Croatoan's evil plots but when they couldn't find a real giant gorilla they sold the idea to Hollywood.

* DeliberateUnderPerformance: In the first novel, Murray Hill ''could'' be a brilliant student if he wanted to, but as he explains to Ben, students with high grades are sent into the field and are always at risk of dying horribly, while students with middling grades are instead given (safe, well-paying) desk jobs. As a result, Murray makes sure to deliberately and conspicuously fail every class that he has. The entire school (save the narrator) are completely taken in by his facade, until the climax, when [[spoiler: it turns out that Murray is TheMole and was also deliberately failing so he’d need tutoring from the RA and have the access to steal all of her files about the students and the school]].

** Murray does this when he, Ben, Ashley, and Nefarious Jones drive to the beach for the day. He constantly crosses over the lanes on the highway, and has several misses with oncoming cars and even a semi truck.

* DungeonBypass: On his first day at the eponymous school, [[spoiler:Mike]] goes around the hi-tech obstacle course rather than going through it. His teacher is unamused, but has to concede that in the field, an agent is expected to take the quickest and safest route to stopping the villains.

The series consists of nine books.

6. ''Spy School goes South''

A Spy-Comedy series by Stuart Gibbs (also the author of the ''Literature/FunJungle'' series and the ''Literature/MoonBaseAlpha'' trilogy). 12 year-old Ben Ripley finds his life turned upside down when he is abruptly secreted for a secret CIA training school. Once there, it quickly becomes clear that his presence is being used to try and flush out TheMole of a secret [[Franchise/JamesBond Spectre-esque]] organization, SPYDER. Due to a complicated series of events, Ben ends up the hero of the hour, and gets dragged into adventure after adventure.

* HollywoodHacking: Mocked by Erica in the first book. She says that Spyder is convinced Ben has some algorithm which would let them do this, and then she describes how real hacking is a complicated affair that generally takes a minimum of several days. That being said, when a professional hacker does appear, his hacking had made him rich enough to own a mansion even bigger than Buckingham Palace, a Russian Yukutsk 260 helicopter, "a private submarine, a minor league baseball team, and forty percent of Madagascar."

* DrivesLikeCrazy: Murray does this when he, Ben, Ashley, and Nefarious Jones drive to the beach for the day. He constantly crosses over the lanes on the highway, and has several misses with oncoming cars and even a semi truck.
* DumbMuscle: Chip's friend Don Hauser. Chip himself appears to be one, but is smarter than he looks.

* EmergencyMultifaithPrayer: Murray Hill engages in one when he’s about to die from a missile strike in ''Spy School Goes South''.

* EmergencyMultifaithPrayer: Murray Hill engages in one when he’s about to die from a missile strike in Spy School Goes South.

* ActionGirl: Erica, Zoe and Ashley.

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Some of the spies in training, seeing as how they are, well, spies in training. It's mostly PlayedForLaughs though.