The General

The General is the tenth novel in the CHERUB series by Robert Muchamore. The primary action of the novel is set in the Nevada desert during a joint training exercise of American and British troops. Plot James Adams is on a mission to infiltrate anarchist group SAG (Street Action Group), whose charismatic leader Chris Bradford plans to escalate to acts of terrorism. James acts as Bradford's bodyguard during a meeting with an arms dealer and successfully plants a surveillance device on the dealer, only for the police to arrive unexpectedly and arrest everyone, having already placed the dealer under surveillance. James returns to campus to discover that his girlfriend Dana Smith has been cheating on him with fellow cherub Michael Hendry, and breaks up with her. Meanwhile, Lauren, Rat, Bethany, Jake, Kevin and Ronan are sent to test the security of an air traffic control centre. They manage to gain access to the centre and incapacitate the security guards, but miss an engineer who calls in the RAF. The mission is still regarded as successful, having exposed security weaknesses. On New Year's Day a select team of CHERUB agents, including James and Lauren, fly to Las Vegas for a brief vacation on the way to Fort Reagan, the world's largest urban warfare training compound. They are to take part in a two-week exercise along with forty British SAS commandos, posing as insurgents in an area controlled by an American battalion of a thousand soldiers. Weapons are restricted to paint guns and grenades.