Chapter By Chapter> Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image chapter 13

Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter (or possibly multiple chapter for this one) of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.

So is this how we’re going to do this, going back and forth between Commie Op-Center and regular Op-Center? Last time we met Paul’s evil counterpart, and this time we’re back in D.C..

Paul’s still not here, and I don’t know if he’ll be coming back to take charge during these events. It seems, and I know I keep bringing this up but it’s a big issue out the gate, way too early to do this story at the second novel, and the third in-continuity assignment after the first one went terrible and the second was won almost in spite of Op-Center’s actions. At this point I’m sorry I bought this and the next book in the series before reading the first one. If I had I wouldn’t have bought another one.

This is the power of reputation. It’s a Tom Clancy project, as he co-created the series and his branding is on it. The games that came out were well received when I learned of this novel series. I wanted to know if his reputation was deserved, but since there’s evidence that he didn’t write these books, circumstantial as it is, I can’t really tell. Clancy came up with the idea of an international crisis response bureau of the US government, which sounds interesting in theory but we have so many bureaus that I don’t know if we can afford another one. Would explain why our debt keeps getting worse instead of better because nobody in Congress or the other branches are doing anything to deal with it. Sorry, but it’s just something that came up, this is a political book by nature, and I’m already running low of ways to intro these stories because so far very little has happened to discuss, even as a spoiler.

So let’s get back into the story and see if we get more than a bunch of people talking. My bet is “no”.

I’m calling this a push on the bet. It’s talking, but it’s talking that moves the story. Rogers arrives at the White House to discuss the bombing, and we need the Assistant National Security Director, who lost an arm in Vietnam. Again, these books really enjoy adding in these unnecessary flavor bits as they don’t matter to the story, but you can make the case helps make the world of Op-Center feel more lived-in. So I’m kind of neural on this one because it is in a chapter where story progression happens and this doesn’t hamper it.

The bomber has made contact with President Lawrence. I don’t know how a terrorist gets the President’s number but there you go. He’s willing to turn himself in…with a warning that if they don’t agree to not interfere in events in Eastern Europe (the former USSR) there will be more bombings on US soil. So they have one up on WWII Japan in getting that message out. Rogers recognizes the terrorist’s boss’s name, Grozny, and against his better judgement (and the disagreement of the National Security Chief, Steve Burkow), with assurance he has a plan in mind. Rogers with a plan. That worries me, especially how fast he came up with what I’m assuming is the general plan that needs to be properly hammered out. Despite my ragging on Rogers, I don’t expect anyone to suddenly have a full plan to nab all the terrorists.

I am not an expert in such matters, so take my statements for what they are, an “armchair quarterback” who isn’t in this meeting for a reason beyond being a work of fiction. I doubt I’d be a good consultant on this at all. However, I do understand Burkow’s position. The official position is never deal with terrorists. You know they can’t be trusted and will do this again, and it makes the US look weak. Plus they don’t know that Grozny is part of a plan to restore the Soviet Union. They clearly can’t allow that to happen and resume the Cold War. I’m a bit disturbed by the notation that unofficially they have given in, especially after what happened when we pulled out of Afghanistan early, under fire, and with the Taliban back in power and access to any weapons and secrets left behind. What else have they done in this (or even our, knowing how the Iran Contra scandal backfired on us as well) universe up to this point?

On the other hand, if Rogers does have a plan to smoke them out, they’re already aware of the bagel shop and that could lead to finding the other locations. My kidding aside, Rogers has issues but he isn’t a total moron. This pretend capitulation could end up working to their advantage in taking down Grozny’s operation, which not only would allow the US to avert the return of the Soviet Union but could weaken Grozny’s position in the trio of commies and Dogin’s plans.

Next time it’s back to the Commie Op-Center side of things, which leads to my theory that the book will go back and forth for at least a while. Let’s see how I right I turn out to be.