“Ending up in this mess made James start asking questions about himself. He knew he wasn’t a very good person. He was always getting in fights. He was clever, but he never did any work so he got bad marks. James remembered all the times his teachers had told him he was wasting his potential and that he’d end up in a bad way. He’d sat through billions of lectures with his brain turned off. Now he was beginning to think they were mostly right and that made him hate them even more.”

Taken with the previous quotation, these lines show James realizing the problem with his lifestyle. After getting in trouble with large consequences, James feels bad about what he did, but since he’s at the beginning of his character arc, he struggles to take responsibility for his actions. Instead, he blames the adults who have told him he acts and performs poorly, wanting to believe their assessments are inaccurate—not that he is lazy and spoiled. The final line of this excerpt does reveal that James is aware he’s placing blame externally, which opens him up to do better.

“Sixty games! I don’t believe you, James. You must be the most spoiled kid in the world and you don’t even realize it.”

Kyle says this after James is assigned as his roommate at the children’s home, and this cements that James is spoiled from an external perspective. James has brought a host of video games and other things from his apartment, which marks the difference between him and the other kids. This moment also forces James to start realizing that, family aside, he has led a sheltered life. Kyle’s first reaction to James’s belongings also shows how Kyle understands James better than James himself does, which foreshadows Kyle revealing he’s a CHERUB agent.

“It’s a frustrating situation at your age, James. You know what you want but you have to do what you’re told. You go to school when you’re told, go to bed when you’re told, live where you’re told. Everything is controlled by other people. It’s common for boys your age to enjoy sudden outbursts where they have control over someone else.”

In therapy, James has just asked his therapist why he lashes out when he knows he shouldn’t, and this response cuts to the heart of why James feels so angry—because his situation, spoiled or not, left him feeling helpless. As a result, James has sought opportunities to take control of his life, which has often come out in inappropriate ways, such as getting in trouble or pushing others around. While James’s behavior is not acceptable, it is understandable, and once he is made aware of it here, he is able to start moving past it, particularly when CHERUB gives him control of his decisions and life.

“James, don’t kid yourself into thinking it’s not your fault Samantha got hurt. You can never predict what will happen in a fight. If you’re stupid enough to start one, you’re to blame for what happens whether you mean it or not.”

This dialogue is spoken by the police officer who gives James a warning regarding his incident at school. Prior to this, James tries to argue the fight wasn’t his fault, showing that James is still trying to blame other people for his actions and outbursts. The police officer sees through this, and these lines show where responsibility truly starts. Though the exact way the girl got hurt may have been an accident, James entered the fight with the intention to do harm, even if that harm was to scare someone. Thus, James’s decision to escalate the situation makes him complicit in what happened and responsible for the consequences.

“‘Do you know anyone connected with this organization?’

‘No.’

‘Do you have any evidence at all?’

‘No.’

‘Do you think the newspaper would print your story, James?’

‘No.’”

Prior to this exchange with the chairman of CHERUB, James asks what’s stopping him from reporting the organization to the newspapers. After some back-and-forth, James realizes that the very idea of CHERUB sounds absurd. Additionally, CHERUB has carefully covered its tracks, so James doesn’t know exactly where the base is or the names of anyone involved, which leads to James realizing the organization doesn’t fear being exposed. This also highlights how good CHERUB is at what it does. As an organization of spies dedicated to undercover work and espionage, CHERUB uses its own talents to keep itself concealed.

“Life on the campus will be hard to begin with. You have to learn a lot of skills and CHERUB needs you to learn them before you’re too old to use them. Everyone will seem better than you at everything.”

Here, James has learned that his therapist recommended him to CHERUB, and these lines from his therapist (a former CHERUB agent) are a warning to James that if he wants to succeed as a spy, he needs to start changing his attitude. Up until now, James has let his spoiled lifestyle make him lazy and uncaring, but these qualities will not serve him at CHERUB, which will demand much of him both physically and mentally. James also needs to check his ego and realize that he has a lot to learn—not let his temper get in the way so he ends up in more fights because he feels inadequate.

“Once James had sneaked two of Uncle Ron’s beers and got a bit drunk, but this was way beyond that. Amy’s girlfriends all loved James. They kept giving him more beer. James blushed when one of them kissed him. So they all kissed him until his face was a mass of lipstick smears. As they got drunker one of the girls decided it would be funny to give him a love bite. They tickled James until he gave in. He knew he wasn’t much more than their drunken pet, but it was fun being the center of attention.”

This excerpt comes during Amy’s birthday party. In contrast to the hard work and demands of CHERUB thus far, the party is an example of how the kids at CHERUB, despite being spies, are still kids who participate in activities like underage drinking. James’s spoiled nature reemerges here in a new way as he thrives off of the attention Amy’s friends give him. However, he does realize that the attention is because he’s new and different, meaning he is starting to understand that nothing (not even himself) will be the center of attention forever.

“He’s nearly fourteen. Kyle should be in a navy shirt doing the most difficult missions; instead he keeps making silly errors of judgment. If you’d come and asked me, I would have let you go and see your sister.”

Mac says this to James after the London mission is botched and the boys get in trouble. Up until now, James has looked up to Kyle as a model of what a future at CHERUB could hold, and this is the first place where James sees that the future is up to each individual agent. Since CHERUB agents are retired at age 17, Kyle is nearly at the end of his run, and while other 14-year-olds are senior agents, he lags behind because of his poor decision-making skills. In this way, Kyle offers a different representation of Making Difficult Choices, and he also becomes a new type of role model for James by showing that being at CHERUB doesn’t guarantee a bright future.

“You either dive in or we throw you in. If you swim fifty meters that’s the end. If you climb out before you swim fifty meters, you get a one-minute rest before you jump back in or we throw you back in. After thirty minutes you get a ten-minute rest, then we go for another thirty minutes. If you still don’t swim fifty meters we’ll do more lessons with the same rules. Don’t try to run off, don’t fight, don’t cry. We’re bigger and stronger than you. It won’t get you anywhere and it will make you tired.”

These are the terms laid down by the tough swimming instructors after James has failed to swim the required 50 meters to advance to basic training, and this monologue represents The Power of Extremes. Rather than upping the stakes slowly, James is literally and figuratively thrown into the deep end and given no path but to swim across the pool if he wants to be relieved of lessons. This also shows the lengths to which CHERUB will go to make or break agents. The instructors and higher-ups of CHERUB know what agents might encounter, and they also know that an agent who can’t stand up to this type of treatment might fold on a mission. James may never face something this brutal in the field, but CHERUB is designed to desensitize him to this type of treatment, so anything less harsh will seem kind by comparison.

“It’s not you, James. There’s always some excuse why you don’t get lunch. Or why everyone has to do an extra run of the assault course. Or why everyone has to drag their beds outside and sleep in the open air with no covers on. They try and find ways to make you hate everyone else. Don’t let it get to you. Everyone will get their turn.”

Here, the instructors at basic training have just punished everyone and blamed the infraction on James. James’s guilt shows again how he feels for those he cares about, and this response from Kerry makes it clear that James isn’t special. This also highlights how basic training is as much about physical endurance as psychological fortitude. In addition to strengthening the recruits, the instructors also know that dividing people is the best way to make them feel isolated and weak. Blaming one of the recruits so the rest turn on them is one way the instructors prepare the kids for what they might face in the field, and Kerry encourages James to see past this because remaining loyal to the other recruits will help all of them in the long run.

“The instructors punished everyone for an individual mistake, so the trainees developed a sixth sense for covering each other’s weaknesses. James knew before a long swim that Kerry and Shakeel would stick close and grab him if he lost his nerve. Everyone took Kerry’s stuff when her knee was painful. Mo was weedy and needed help climbing and lifting. They all needed each other for something.”

In conjunction with the previous quotation, these lines show Kerry’s advice in action and also how the kids are stronger when they work together. Despite the instructors’ efforts to break the kids apart, the recruits refuse to be pitted against each other, which shows the mental strength basic training instills. This also highlights that no CHERUB agent is perfect and suggests that the instructors know this. Thus, the instructors are also testing the kids for teamwork and loyalty because the agents will need to work together on missions and be able to implicitly understand when someone needs help and how to compensate for another agent’s weakness.

“‘I told you we should have taken the stuff out.’

‘You didn’t,’ James said.

James was nearly right. Leaving the stuff in the boat was his idea, but Kerry’s objection had been on the basis that they wouldn’t have the strength to push it, not that the extra weight might make the boat sink when it hit the water.”

Here, James and Kerry are on the second portion of the Malaysia challenge, which involves navigating a boat down a twisting river. These lines highlight how the two need to work together in order to complete the challenge and also how past attitudes are brought into prominence by difficult situations. James is at fault for insisting he and Kerry could push the boat into the water while it’s loaded up, but when the boat almost sinks, he pushes off responsibility for the suggestion because he is tired and frustrated, which leads to him falling back on old patterns.

“Going 188 kilometers in thirty-six hours works out at slightly over five kilometers an hour. That’s about normal walking pace, but you had to stop to eat and drink, to check you weren’t veering off an overgrown footpath in the middle of the night, and when the pain got so bad that you couldn’t take another step. It wasn’t just James’s and Kerry’s legs that hurt from the walking; their whole bodies ached with tiredness.”

The final stretch of the Malaysia mission involves the longest hike of the challenge, and this excerpt reveals exactly how rigorous the journey is, especially since James and Kerry are already exhausted. This excerpt is also an example of the technical detail Robert Muchamore brings to the story in order to cement it in reality. Passages like this offer readers a comparison between CHERUB tasks and a situation the reader can understand. Comparing walking 188 kilometers (approximately 162 miles) to doing so under the conditions James and Kerry face bolsters the realism of training and CHERUB as a whole.

“The second half was always a game of football or rugby. James liked it best when they played girls versus boys, which usually went a bit mad, with insane tackles and punch-ups breaking out everywhere. What the girls lacked in strength, they made up for with cunning and gang tactics. Boys always scored most goals; the girls edged the carnage.”

This passage comes after basic training. James has settled into life at CHERUB while he waits for his first mission assignment, and it shows how training has become both a part of his life and a way for him to hang out with his friends. The description of the girls-versus-boys game here highlights the strengths of each group from a traditional gender divide. Muchamore describes the boys as stronger and the girls as more organized, which may be true in some cases and circumstances but is not necessarily definitive of every CHERUB agent.

“Next morning the photograph of police beating nine-year-old Joshua Dunn made the front page of every newspaper in Britain. The police announced they would withdraw and destroy the camp at a later date. The police made a plan. A thousand officers would be needed to destroy Fort Harmony while successfully blockading the surrounding countryside. The police and National Park Authority didn’t have enough money to pay for such a massive operation, so nothing further was done.”

These lines come from the briefing James receives about Fort Harmony, and it shows how traditional establishments of “good” and “bad” are not always true. The people who originally settled Fort Harmony did so as a protest to protect the environment. When police were dispatched to remove the settlers, protesters continuously blocked their progress, and the tensions eventually led to the police beating a child. In turn, this upped the protests, and together, this shows how the people have power. The police eventually give up the operation because the support from the masses has made it so the task requires more resources than the police can muster. As a result, Fort Harmony is left alone because of support from the greater population.

“Then he looked at his hands. They were filthy, but the other kids, who were all ten times dirtier, scoffed the chicken with bare fingers.

A hand rested on James’s shoulder. It was Gladys Dunn.

‘A bit of dirt won’t harm you, boy,’ she laughed.”

This excerpt comes during James’s first night at Fort Harmony, and it shows how CHERUB tests James’s understanding of the world. Up until now, James has believed that he must wash his hands before eating or else something terrible will happen. While this idea is generally sound, he here sees that not everyone subscribes to it. Since James has never experienced this before, he is initially skeptical because it collides with how he believes the world works. However, the people of Fort Harmony have been living like this for years (some of them, their entire lives) and seem to have suffered no ill effects, revealing that there is more than one way to live and that this does not mean one way is right while another is wrong.

“In principle, I support fair wages for people in poor countries. I want to help save the environment. I want Bungle and his pals to save the world. But I’m eight months pregnant. The baby presses on my insides, so every half hour I waddle through two hundred meters of filth to go sit on a stinking portable toilet. Gregory is driving me crazy. My ankles are swollen like beach balls and I’m half terrified the car we borrowed is going to break down on the way to the hospital when I go into labor. I’d happily surrender all my principles for a comfy bed in a private hospital.”

These lines are spoken by the wife of the Help Earth cell’s leader, and they show both what she is willing to do for the cause but also how even people with a cause are like everyone else. While she believes in the cause enough to remain at Fort Harmony through her pregnancy, these lines support Making Difficult Decisions and show that there is a limit to what she’ll do for principles, even if she hasn’t reached it yet. This also shows that the people of Fort Harmony aren’t the society-hating people James thought they were. In fact, the people of Fort Harmony acknowledge the benefits of modern conveniences and how those conveniences have made a better world for a lot of people. They hold on to their principles because they want this world to be available to everyone, not just the few who can afford it.

“‘Beg for mercy, weakling,’ Amy said.

‘No way,’ James spluttered.

James couldn’t wriggle free. Amy unleashed another wave of tickles.”

This exchange between James and Amy shows them getting into character as siblings during the Fort Harmony mission and highlights that, while CHERUB agents, they are still kids. Earlier in the book, James entertained a crush on Amy, but those feelings have been quashed by living in such close quarters with her as her brother, which challenges the common spy fiction trope of agents falling in love on missions. This also shows that, even with all of James’s training, Amy is still bigger and stronger.

“At first Fort Harmony was about freedom and some young people having fun. When the police tried to destroy us, we sent out a signal that a bunch of nobodies could stand up against the government and win. But what are we now? A trendy campsite for backpackers. Half the people who live here clean and cook for rich businessmen in that bloody conference center.”

This is said by one of the original residents of Fort Harmony, and these lines call directly to The Power of Extremes. When Fort Harmony was established, it was an extreme movement of protest that inspired others to stand up for what they believed in. While Fort Harmony served this purpose and showed that the people can win when they work together, time has changed the fort into something less extreme and more settled. This also hints at the difficulty of sustaining any type of movement long term. While the people at Fort Harmony still believe in why they founded the place, they have moved back toward society by taking jobs and relying on nearby cities for supplies and some conveniences. Overall, Fort Harmony symbolizes how time changes things and how there is no going back.

“James wanted to go back to the hut, but Amy would be there with a lecture waiting. He thought about finding Sebastian and Clark, but he didn’t want to spend all night shooting the local wildlife. So he stayed where he was, sulking.”

These lines encompass James’s reaction to nearly blowing the Fort Harmony mission and being told he can’t see Joanna anymore. In this moment, James is more like a kid than a spy, and this is the first time in a long time he’s let his emotions get in the way of his mission. This also shows that, despite the growth James has experienced as a result of his involvement with CHERUB, he still has some spoiled tendencies, demonstrated by how he decides to sulk instead of face the full consequences of his actions. Directly following this moment, James finds Help Earth’s secret workshop within Fort Harmony, and so this excerpt also shows how moments that seem terrible can lead to forward motion.

“‘You’re lucky that driver didn’t splatter you,’ Clark said.

‘Would have been wicked getting up and seeing you mashed into the road,’ Sebastian laughed. ‘Got any scars?’

James pulled up the sleeve of his T-shirt and showed the mass of bruises and cuts where the antibiotics had been injected.”

Following his stay in the hospital, when it’s believed James inhaled a life-threatening strain of anthrax, James returns to Fort Harmony, and this interaction between him and the boys he befriended shows how thoroughly James has managed to keep his cover intact, despite some slip-ups. This also shows how CHERUB pivots to make new circumstances part of an agent’s cover story. Instead of anthrax, the people of Fort Harmony believe James went to the hospital because he was hit by a car. James is given a fake cast for a fake broken arm to sell the story, and the scars from the anthrax medicine are rebranded as injuries.

“‘It would have been superb if they’d pulled it off,’ Clark said. ‘We would have been related to two of the biggest murderers in British history, and by the time people started getting sick, Fire and World would have been gone. Nobody could have touched them.’

‘Two hundred dead though,’ James said. ‘They all would have had families and stuff.’

‘They were rich scum,’ Clark said. ‘With fat, ugly wives and spoiled kids. The world would have done fine without them.’”

This exchange between James and his Fort Harmony friends illustrates The Power of Extremes from a negative perspective. While extremes are used to drive results throughout the books, the extreme beliefs espoused here show the problems that arise when people stop viewing those they oppose as human. While it is wrong for the oil executives to exploit and harm people for their own gain, the idea that they are somehow less human and worth killing is equally poor, and together, James’s friends and the actions of the oil executives illustrate the problem with extreme action in either direction.

“On TV you knew who the baddies were and they got what they deserved at the end of the show. Now James realized baddies were ordinary people. They told jokes, made you cups of coffee, went to the toilet, and had families who loved them.”

This quotation builds upon the previous one to show how media exploits The Power of Extremes. As James notes, the “baddies” in a movie are clear from the beginning and always act in accordance with the director’s definition of “bad.” However, as James has learned from his time at Fort Harmony, “bad” people are not necessarily evil, and there is a difference between a person being bad and doing bad things. These lines also build upon James’s coming to understand what it means to be a spy. Rather than just simply stopping terrible people from doing terrible things, he will be called upon to stop the greater of two evils while recognizing that both evils are just two ways of viewing an issue. Thus, this quotation also calls to Making Difficult Choices.