Lauren Adams

Lauren Adams (née Lauren Zoe Onions) is one of the principal protagonists in the fictional book series CHERUB by British author Robert Muchamore and the sister of James Adams, the main protagonist. She works for the CHERUB organisation as a secret agent, and lives on their campus with James.

Background and early life
Lauren was born with the name of Lauren Zoe Onions in Tufnell Park, London in September 1994 when her half-brother James was three years old. Lauren's mother was Gwen Choke, who was recognised for running the largest shop-lifting empire in North London.

Gwen married Ron Onions but did not get a divorce from him, which meant he had every right to care for Lauren after Gwen died of heart failure. Lauren hated her father and she seemed to be extremely happy when he was imprisoned for 9 years for the illegal sale of tobacco and drugs which was discovered after he had been abusive to Lauren. After this incident, she was recruited by CHERUB.

Gwen had been extremely successful and earned a great deal of money from her shop-lifting business. Following her death her wealth was placed in trust accounts by CHERUB for Lauren and her brother James, who are each allowed to take out £30 a month in cash and £100 at Christmas and birthdays. Both siblings will receive several hundred thousand pounds from their trust funds when they turn 18 and come of age, after they retire from CHERUB.

Physical appearance
Lauren joined CHERUB having not had any sporting history, and hence was not in suitable physical shape. Since beginning training, she put a lot of effort into sport and has since become one of CHERUB's best swimmers in her age range.[1] She is also noted to have fair hair (although she dyed it black during The Killing) and blue eyes.

Academia
Lauren's has an IQ of 147 and uses this intelligence in various academic areas. She is fluent in both Spanish and Russian and has taught the latter to younger CHERUB agents.[2]

Involvement in CHERUB
Lauren Adams is one of the main protagonists in the fictional series CHERUB. Her role in the first book, The Recruit, is not considered to be major but as the books evolved her role in the series expanded, resulting in Lauren being considered to be the second main character behind her older brother James.

In the February 2008 book, The Sleepwalker, Lauren is the main protagonist of the main plot. She is strongly attached to her brother and her best friend is Bethany Parker whom James increasingly dislikes.

The Recruit
[3] In the opening stages of the book, Lauren is portrayed as the 'annoying little sister' James never wanted. However, when they end up being split up (when James is taken away to the Nebraska House children's home), Lauren misses her brother thoroughly. Later, before James is taken to CHERUB, they are able to meet up again before James starts his official training, which lasts a hundred days. When James returns to campus after Basic Training, he is very surprised to find Lauren there, following her fathers' imprisonment. James is very happy to see her there and their friendship is rekindled.

Class A
[4] Similar to the previous book, The Recruit, Lauren does not have a large role, as this book is mostly concerned with James and his companions. However, Lauren makes a brief appearance when she goes to Luton (where he is on a mission) to visit James for her tenth birthday. Whilst there, Lauren gets a sense of what being in a mission really involves and is present when a discovery is made about the drug cartel 'KMG', which CHERUB and MI5 are attempting to infiltrate. Later on, during Lauren's Basic Training she is removed from the course after hitting instructor Norman Large on the head with a spade when she considered he was being abusive to Bethany. Lauren, expecting expulsion, is surprised to learn that she will only get a mildly serious punishment from Mac before having to restart Basic Training from the beginning. Kerry, Nicole and Kyle are with James for the misson there misson instructors Zara and Ewart.

Maximum Security
[5] In the opening stages of the book, Lauren is with her best friend Bethany Parker as they attempt to succeed in their last three days of Basic Training whilst in Alaska. To conclude her training, Lauren is forced to swim across a 50 metre river containing freezing water to acquire the grey T-shirts from Norman Large (chief training instructor) who obviously hasn't forgiven her for the previous incident involving the spade in Class A. Surprisingly, she succeeds and can now participate in missions.

Meanwhile, her elder brother James is offered a mission by John Jones (former MI5 agent and Cherub Mission Controller) involving travelling to Arizona to attempt to track down weapon dealer Jane Oxford. John informs James that he will need a female companion, not too old, whom he knows fairly well. James chooses Lauren the day she graduates from CHERUB training and along with Dave Moss (a very experienced CHERUB agent), they head to America. As Lauren showed a consistently strong performance throughout the mission, Mac (the principal/headmaster of CHERUB) awards Lauren a navy t-shirt. This means she is now on equal rank with James, who also earned his navy t-shirt on his first mission.

The Killing
[6] Lauren appears a few times during this story, although it is a much more minor role than in Maximum Security. When James is punished for assaulting Andy Lagan, a CHERUB red shirt, Lauren is extremely ashamed of James and they have a long-winded argument. Their relationship improves as the story progresses, and in time Lauren realises eventually that James merely made a stupid over-blown mistake. Lauren is more angry at the fact that throughout his life, James has violently attacked several people, including Lauren. Lauren has a small part to play in James's mission which turns out to be more important than everybody previously expected. As the mission concludes, she must impersonate a teenage tear-away and wreck a house, something very popular at CHERUB.

Divine Madness
[7] Lauren Adams along with her brother, James, and Dana Smith are sent on a mission to Australia, posing as the children of an ASIS agent. They are sent to determine whether a very serious religious cult, The Survivors, are associated with Help Earth!, a terrorist group. As the mission develops, the trio are sent to a 'recruitment hotbed' area. The supposed 'family' begins to visit cult meetings, and are eventually accepted into the commune. Lauren and James are accepted into the elite academic foundation in the Ark, the cult's headquarters. There, James befriends Rathbone 'Rat' Regan, a son of the cult's founder, whom Lauren develops a crush on. He uses his influence with one of his father's many wives to get Lauren a fairly simple job in the office, rather than in the stifling warehouse or laundry rooms.

However, as the story develops, ASIS discovers the links between Help Earth! and The Survivors. Having previously been waiting for an excuse to attack the Ark, elite troops are acquired and sent in to dispose of it, despite the CHERUB agents' warnings that the cult is well-prepared for such an event. A helicopter and dozens of troops are killed in the first attack, and in the lull that follows, Lauren, aided by James and Rat hatch an escape plan and attempt to do so. However, the three are caught and captured by a sadistic overseer, who locks them in a room full of toddlers.

When they manage to eventually overpower her, Lauren points out that they must bring the children with them as there is a risk of them being killed. James reluctantly agrees, and the half-asleep toddlers join them. Rat states that the most likely way out is through the sewage system, but as James is journeying through the tank, an engineer appears. A brief moment of panic is proved unfounded as Rat persuades the man that he is on a divine mission, and as such is helped eagerly by the man, who asks them why they haven't turned the light on.

The now-eight strong group escape, but later hear that in another unnecessary ASIS attack, several dozen children were killed when a wall collapsed on them. Rat is reported dead, but is revealed to be alive, recruited by CHERUB, and actually very good friends with Lauren. Lauren, for her impressive performance during the mission is given a black t-shirt - the highest rank for an agent at CHERUB and also one of the youngest to wear it, aged just 11.

Man Vs. Beast
[8] After having a minor argument with his girlfriend Kerry, Lauren's older brother James enters his bedroom where he is met by Lauren. She requests that he helps her and her best friend Bethany Parker sneak into the basic training compound to give Bethany's brother, Jake Parker, and Lauren's crush, Greg 'Rat' Rathbone (formerly Rathbone Regan), some food and provisions otherwise she will reveal to Kerry an affair James had a few years ago. James initially refuses, but after this blackmail he grudgingly agrees, so he joins the couple on the task to safely get the food and provisions to the trainees. All runs smoothly until Mac discovers them on the back up CCTV system and they are caught.

Lauren and Bethany are thoroughly punished, however James is not, due to the fact he was blackmailed. James is infuriated and disappointed with Lauren, because of the fact his sister would use him in a manipulative fashion. However shortly afterwards, Lauren, along with James and Kyle are sent on a mission to penetrate the AFM (Animal Freedom Militia). Together the trio succeed in their mission and return home. During the mission, Lauren becomes a vegetarian and as they leave to visit the summer camp, James places meat in her bag on the plane to get revenge on her.

The Fall
[2] The opening stages of the book are very emotional for Lauren as she struggles to cope with the fact that she does not know if James is alive after a mission in Russia concludes disastrously. However, James does survive and their relationship continues. James is suspended from missions after this but Lauren is asked by mission controller John Jones to undertake her first solo mission dealing with the trading of young Eastern European girls as prostitutes.

Lauren makes friends with a young Russian girl named Anna, a victim of a brutal human trafficking operation. The mission is categorized at low risk, however Anna still manages to call the traffickers thinking that they know where her younger brother is, whom she has been searching for since she arrived in England. Anna calls through Lauren's mobile phone and the traffickers manage to track the location of the duo.

John Jones tells Lauren that the traffickers have discovered her location and that she must visit a restaurant with Anna and wait. This plan was too late, however, and the traffickers take Lauren and Anna with them despite many bystanders being in the street. The two girls are taken to a Victorian building where other girls, whose ages range from 12 to 20, from parts of Eastern Europe are forced to have sexual relations with several men at the bar. Lauren manages to hide her mobile phone within her knickers but it is eventually discovered. A man called Keith attempts to rape Lauren but she continually struggles and uses an opportunity to stab him. She manages to escape with some of the prostitutes, however the manager of the club uses pepper spray in her face, temporarily blinding her. Eventually the police raid the building and, over time, most of the girls are sent back to Russia and the other Eastern European countries from where they originated. Lauren comes back to CHERUB Campus still shaken from these horrifying events.

Mad Dogs
[9] Lauren is hardly mentioned in the story Mad Dogs as it concerns James and Bruce's mission, extending the events of Class A. The reason for this is that Lauren is suspended from missions for to blackmailing Mr Large to leave CHERUB.

The Sleepwalker
[10] As a plane crashes into the sea and all the passengers (including Mac's wife, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren) are killed, a troubled boy named Fahim Bin Hassam calls the emergency hot-line and blames his father, Hassam Bin Hassam, for the presumed terrorist attack. Lauren is sent on a mission with Jake Parker by new CHERUB director Zara Asker to discover the truth behind the attack and Fahim's phone call.

After Lauren plants listening devices all over the house, Hassam discovers them, and he and his brother Asif decide to escape. Hassam originally presumes they were planted by the cleaning lady and he tortures her in several painful ways. Fahim feels guilty about this violent act and admits to his father that he was the one who let Lauren and Jake plant them (NB: for this mission Lauren breaks security and tells Fahim that she is an undercover spy).

Fahim is then violently beaten by his father. After being transported to a deserted house, Fahim gets increasingly outraged and throws some stinging liquid at his father's eyes, temporarily blinding him. Hassam chases him across a field, but when an MI5 team (who have been contacted by Lauren) threaten to shoot him, Hassam takes his own son hostage.

Jake bravely attacks Hassam and saves Fahim, after which Hassam is shot dead. After all of the trouble is cleared, Lauren, Jake and Mac discover that the plane crashed because of faulty parts supplied by Hassam's company. Fahim attempts the CHERUB recruitment tests, but is rejected because he sleepwalks and talks in his sleep, which is unacceptable when on missions; he goes on to live with Mac.

The General
[11] Lauren was teamed with Rat, Bethany, Jake, Andy, Kevin and Ronan to test the security, infiltrate, and vandalise a new air traffic control centre. They then take part in a war game in the Nevada Desert with some SAS troops against a US Army battalion.

Brigands MC
[12] Part 1: Is set 4 and a half years earlier when The Recruit is taking place Lauren is mentioned as Lauren Onions-her birth name. part 2: Lauren is teamed with James and Dante Scott to infiltrate the South Devon chapter of the Brigands Motorcycle Club. Lauren gets in a relationship with Joe Donnington, younger son of the Brigands' leader who murdered Dante's family four and a half years earlier, and is undercover as Dante's twin sister. During the mission, Although drunk, Lauren and Dante share a kiss.