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.

Under the leadership of Ukrainian trainer Yosyp Kazakov, who is bitterly anti-American, the "insurgents" soon make their first move, knocking out aerial surveillance by wrecking the American spy drones.

Arriving back at campus, Lauren confronts James about his exploits, having deduced that he was responsible from news coverage while she was in Las Vegas, but refuses to report him.

An official competition was run by Robert Muchamore, where a signed copy of the book was promised to any reader who could supply him with the password of one of his forum staff members.