From the lore of early adventurers to futuristic code breaking and augmented reality … adventure, danger, and a thrilling global mission await 12-year-old Cruz Coronado as he joins an elite school for explorers. Puzzles and codes are embedded throughout. Cruz leaves his tranquil home in Hawaii to join 20 talented kids from around the globe to train at the Explorer Academy with the world's leading scientists to become the next generation of great explorers. But for Cruz, there's more at stake. As soon as he arrives he discovers his family's mysterious past with the Academy threatens his future. His mother had also attended the Academy and gone on to achieve groundbreaking success in a secret research division, before a tragic lab accident took her life. A near-fatal incident and a cryptic warning confirms his worst fear: His mother's death was no accident. Now, someone doesn't want him in the Academy either. In fact, someone doesn't even want him alive! With the help of his classmates, Cruz puts together pieces of a complicated puzzle. Suddenly, he finds himself at the center of an international quest for a missing formula that only he can decode. By the time he boards the Academy's flagship Polaris for his semester at sea, the fate of his friends, and maybe even the world, are in his hands.