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.
Last time we saw Commie Op-Center go online…and noticed a few potential flaws that might come into play later.
For all the heck I give the characters at the National Crisis Management Center (regular Op-Center), much of it deserved in the first book, they don’t intentionally let their personal issues affect their work. It’s only when they put their differences aside and worked together that they were any help in the Korean bombing situation of the first novel. Their first responsibility was the defense of the nation and US interests while attempting to prevent a second Korean war, the aim of the villains in the first book.
On the other hand, the St. Petersburg Operations Center, or as I call it “Commie Op-Center”, seems to be all in on putting themselves ahead of the needs of the nation or even the mission, looking out for themselves and their rank/status in order to advance in the military. They have a shared goal, to restore Communist Russia and perhaps the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, but while protecting the US is the main goal of our Op-Center characters, our Commie Op-Center characters are putting their personal interests over the main goal. I see this ending badly for them.
In the meantime, we’re off to see that plane flight from the previous chapter and see what importance it has in this Op-Center Cold War.
Chapter 20> Thursday, 3:05 AM, Tokyo
And we have another bit of cannon fodder to join Fields-Hutton. Stop making me like characters only to kill them off. At least Fields-Hutton had a few chapters before he was bumped off. Simon Lee of the FBI didn’t make it to the end of this one.
Like with most new characters in this franchise thus far, the book takes time to give us the history of the character, whether it matters or not. Many times this felt like padding, but points here for giving us the drama we need to feel sorry for a character only lasting seven pages. With his last name being Lee I thought the “Jet” nickname was some nod to his ancestry, but instead we learn the Hawaiian native was just a big fan of Jack Lord from the original Hawaii Five-O (the remake not existing when this book came out) after his dad was an extra on the show. Apparently watching Steve McGarrett take down his dad made him the boy’s hero. I’m kidding, that’s not how it’s presented. He just thought Lord was really cool and wanted to emulate his TV hero, so he joined the FBI. I’m not sure why. McGarrett in the original was a state cop and a former member of Naval Intelligence. Simon was neither of those things.
Unfortunately, Simon is about to drop headfirst into one corrupt airport. His contact is paid off by the mob, and despite the car crash and shootings nobody else comes to investigate. You have to wonder if the backstabber got everyone out of the way or if Simon is right about the Russian mob paying everyone off. While Simon manages to get the corrupt Self-Defense officer (he dead), the Russians take him out.
I’d call this whole scene pointless if Simon didn’t seem to damage a plane engine with nobody noticing. Maybe he actually did help in stopping the bad guys, but he won’t live to see it. We do also learn that the plane, which Simon and the FBI thought might be running drugs from the Mafia, with Shovich being one of the suggested bosses behind it, got their stuff from a certain bagel shop. That means it might be drugs, but if Dogin wants Commie Op-Center to follow it, and the bagel shop is where our bomber came from, there might be something else on that plane, possibly more stuff that goes boom.
It’s that big of knowledge that makes this chapter worth it and save it from being unimportant. In two weeks, because this is not really a discussion I want the day before Christmas Eve, we’ll check back in with regular Op-Center.
BW Media Spotlight 
[…] Last time we killed off another potentially interesting character. That worries me. While the series cast seems to be doing better in this book than the first one, it was the side characters that I actually found myself rooting for while shaking my head at the cast that were going to be part of the later novels. So killing off two perfectly good one-book characters makes me a bit disappointed, and I can only hope the regular cast steps up from the previous book. There are still concerns, and admittedly I am carrying the baggage from the original Op-Center, but there have been some minor improvements. We’re going back to them so hopefully this trend continues. […]
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