Chapter By Chapter> Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image chapter 36

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.

Over 70 chapters but the last few are really short and will possibly run together. That’s how far we have to go until we’re done, and we’re currently slightly over halfway to the end. Last time we saw that Orlov is still very much in the dark about what’s going on around him. Not a good place to keep your operation center head in but Commie Op-Center is a fool’s project because a fool is behind it.

So far we haven’t seen that hurt Commie Op-Center but we’ve still got almost halfway to go, so I expect it will happen sooner or later. Right now we’re checking in with our two undercover operatives. I didn’t know soldiers would also work as undercover agents, but Striker isn’t exactly an official branch of the US military, they’re part of a crisis management team. Maybe it requires other skills and this is the story where we get to see it in action versus the previous novel. We’ll find out because it’s time to check out this week’s chapter.

Chapter 36: Tuesday, 12:26 AM, Helsinki

It’s Striker agent George Squires and MI6 agent Peggy James getting underway for Russia. That’s all there is to summarize, but what makes this chapter different is that all that minuta information that shows up so often actually matters to the story. They go over how the trip is going to take place in the mini-sub, how the Russians will be keeping an eye out for intruders and how they’re going to avoid those as much as possible, and how long it will take to reach the drop-off point. Even the part where we see how James sees the future of the UK without Margret Thatcher, whom she’s apparently a fan of, and her relationship with Keith Fields-Hutton are important to tell us about her character, whether or not it will directly matter in the future. Her priority is uncovering what’s going on, not revenge, though since his killer is following them, or at least followed them to the docks presumably, she might actually get her chance. Whether or not she’ll know and be able to defeat her we’ll have to wait for the next chapter.

That makes this installment surprisingly short, and possibly ironic in that if this is a regular sized chapter but a shorter comic. A lot of it is explanation, which these books have been doing a lot, but for once it actually works. We learn information about the minisub, the Russians using microphones to listen for people the sonar isn’t picking up, and what preparations are made. They’re a man down, but they’re still confident they can succeed. I apologize that this isn’t a very long read for a feature article or this series, but I also don’t have a lot of time tonight, so it’s a benefit to me at least. There just isn’t that much to go over, but it does fill out the chapter properly and makes for a good read, if a weak review.

Next time we’re going to the Russian/Ukraine boarder. This book came out in 1995, so it will be interesting how much of the 2025 situation at the boarder they predicted. Is the motivation the same, or does the coincidence continue? Maybe we’ll even get some insight that can be applied to current real world events. We’ll have to find out next time.