In this novel CHERUB agents James Adams and Dave Moss infiltrate a maximum security prison in Arizona to get to the son of an international arms dealer.

[1] The FBI discover that Curtis Key, a 14-year-old boy imprisoned in an Arizona maximum security prison for murder, is the son of Jane Oxford, an international arms dealer who has evaded capture for decades.

It is proposed that CHERUB send agents undercover in the prison to help Curtis escape, in the hope that he will lead the FBI to his mother.

James Adams is recruited for the mission, along with Dave Moss, a well-respected CHERUB agent with a reputation for womanising.

In the epilogue, Oxford refuses to co-operate with authorities and is remanded in ADX Florence, and is expected to face life in prison, though the missiles remain unaccounted for[a].