Guardian Angel

Guardian Angel is the fourteenth novel in the CHERUB series by Robert Muchamore, and the second book of the Aramov series, the sequel series to the original CHERUB series. The book was released in August 2012.

Plot
Ning completes basic training, along with Ryan’s younger twin brothers Daniel and Leon. During his stay in Kyrgyzstan, Ethan keeps in touch with Ryan. Ryan manipulates Ethan’s suspicions about Leonid’s involvement in his mother’s death by suggesting that he place a USB memory stick with several hacking programs into Leonid’s computer.

Irena eventually decides to send Ethan to a boarding school in Dubai. After Ethan mentions this to Ryan, he passes the information on to Zara and Amy, who decide to send Ning and Alfie undercover to the boarding school to befriend Ethan. However, Leonid diverts Ethan’s flight from Dubai to Botswana and hands him over to Aramov smuggler Kessie with orders to kill Ethan once he has gained control of the Aramov bank accounts.

When CHERUB and TFU lose track of Ethan, they realise that Leonid must be planning something. Ning suggests that they enlist Dan to spy on the Aramovs. Ryan, Ning, Amy, Ted Brasker and Kazakov travel to Kyrgyzstan. Ning and Amy find Dan and convince him to assist them, while Ryan and Kazakov try to infiltrate the clan’s Bishkek headquarters, the Kremlin, without success.

Ethan escapes from Kessie’s compound and manages to call Irena, explaining that Leonid had ordered him to be killed and is planning to take over the clan. Irena discovers that Leonid has stolen most of the clan’s funds. Ethan explains that he can try and use the information saved on the memory stick to gain access to Leonid’s accounts and gets Irena to upload the stick’s contents to a file transfer protocol site, unaware that Ryan holds the passwords to the site. Irena sends a smuggler to rescue Ethan and take him to Dubai so that he can transfer the funds back to Irena’s bank account. However, a CIA team manages to hack some of Leonid’s accounts first and confiscates some of the funds. Meanwhile, Irena expels Leonid from the clan.

Ethan contacts Ryan and mentions that he is hiding the bank passwords. Ryan hacks Ethan’s email and recovers the login details, allowing the CIA to seize the rest of the funds and lock the clan out of the accounts. Meanwhile, Ethan is taken to hospital to be treated for an injury to his ankle he sustained during his escape. However, Kuban and two other Aramov goons arrive and try to kidnap Ethan to regain access to the accounts. Ryan hides Ethan and pretends to be him, and is kidnapped instead. While being interrogated Ryan lies that the passwords are hidden at a nearby hangar used by the clan. After two of the thugs leave, Ryan knocks out Kuban and escapes.

Ethan confronts Ryan, who spins a cover story that he and Ted were coerced by the CIA to use Ryan’s friendship with Ethan to gain information on the clan. Dr D contacts Irena and offers her immunity from prosecution in return for handing over control of the clan to the CIA so that they can wind down Aramov’s operations without a rival taking over. Irena grudgingly accepts.

Ryan returns to campus and tries to apologise to his ex-girlfriend Grace, whom he had broken up with before the mission for being too controlling. Grace becomes enraged and the two begin fighting. However, after Ryan pins Grace he realises she still feels attracted to him. Ryan cannot make up his mind about how he feels about her, beyond the fact that he drives him nuts.