| abstract | - The DeVille Academy was founded by Sir Simon DeVille in 1921 to supply the insatiable demand for suave covert operatives. Located outside of Lucerne, Switzerland, it scours the globe for the most vicious gutter urchins it can find. They were students at the DeVille Academy, a school notorious (in very rarified circles) for producing the most skilled, subtle, vicious, and effective covert operatives in the espionage world. They were recruited as ten-year-olds from the nastiest gutter-trash gangs across the world. They were chosen for their cunning, slipperiness, treachery, aggression, feel for the jugular, eye for the main chance, and ability to use their cuteness to their own advantage. They were trained by seasoned covert operatives at a school in Switzerland, where merely ‘cutthroat’ was taking it easy. The First Form numbered over a hundred; the Graduating Class was between 20 and 25. NO ONE dropped out. Ever. There had been one or two escapes, though. They were in New York on the ‘Grand Tour’, a yearly excursion to the great cities of the world, where the students paid their way through burglary, picking pockets, confidence games, smuggling, and identity theft.
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