The Recruit

Lauren is James’s half-sister and is also recruited to CHERUB after her abusive father is arrested. James’s and Lauren’s mother once said of Lauren that “if there were two ways of doing something, Lauren would always pick the third one” (10), and this description highlights Lauren’s tendency to think outside the box. When James visits Lauren in Chapter 15, her father has started selling smuggled cigarettes, and Lauren uses the cartons piled in her father’s apartment to construct interesting structures, such as a curved wall in her bedroom. This impresses James’s CHERUB friends and ultimately leads to Lauren being recruited, showing how CHERUB operatives are not recruited for any single quality. James and Lauren’s relationship informs James’s decisions and attitudes in the latter portion of the book. In addition to his desire to do right by CHERUB, James is motivated to work hard once Lauren is recruited because he has finally landed in a situation where they won’t be separated, which he wants to keep. For James, Lauren embodies the power of love and caring.

Kerry is James’s partner during basic training and has been a CHERUB operative for years. After failing basic training when she broke her knee the year before, Kerry returns to retake basic before she is fully healed, representing both her commitment to CHERUB and her reckless decision-making skills. In this way, Kerry represents Making Difficult Choices. She knows she’s putting herself at risk by jumping back into rigorous physical training before she should, but she is also still only a kid and tired of feeling left out while all her friends go on missions. Kerry also represents the power of teamwork, specifically how the right team can do things beyond what is expected. After completing basic training, James learns he was paired with Kerry because her expertise and understanding of CHERUB offered him the best chance of passing training so he could take on a mission above his level. This also represents the care with which CHERUB plans missions and focuses on details.

Amy is James’s swimming instructor and his partner on the Fort Harmony mission. As an older operative, Amy is involved in behind-the-scenes planning and coordinating, which allows her to influence James’s movement through the training phases of CHERUB. Together, Amy and James symbolize the closeness that develops between agents on missions. During their time at Fort Harmony, James and Amy pretend to be brother and sister, which leads to the development of a true familial bond between the two. The age gap between them also offers a way for James to have experiences beyond his years. Amy’s birthday party is one such situation, and James’s inability to navigate being drunk and falling behind without Amy’s help shows how new he is, both to CHERUB and to truly being on his own. While his mother had been mostly absent from his life, James still had a home to go to and someone to keep him in line. These things are absent at CHERUB, so James must learn, with the help of Amy and others, to make responsible choices, as well as when to ask for help.