Chapter By Chapter> Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image chapter 38

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.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to have as much political commentary as the last chapter, but I kind of had to comment due to how closely it mirrored (no pun intended) current events. It’s time to check back in with the rest of Strike this round.

I know I harp on all the extended trivia about locations, weapons, vehicles, and even unnecessary background on the characters. I also know that at least the first three are one of the things fans of Clancy’s franchise are totally into that. I’m not, so not learning this until I had gotten three Op-Center novels and a Net Force means I wasn’t prepared for it, and probably wouldn’t have gotten more had I known. Also, I thought the series regulars were terrible in the first novel, though that’s improved in this one thus far. What works for some people doesn’t work for everyone and that’s fine. That’s why I look for things I like or thought were at least done well in something that otherwise wasn’t made for me (a loaded term these days), to be fair about my assessment. I don’t want to write something off that isn’t to my taste unless it’s ruining something that was “made for me” in the past. Sometimes a choice isn’t bad overall, just not something everyone likes, or sometimes it is a bad idea and you would have been better off not doing it. For the target audience, this is an improvement over the first one and there’s stuff I can get behind.

With that, let’s check in with our field team and see what they’re doing to save the world from the commees.

Tuesday, 3:05 AM, over the Barents Sea

The focus of this chapter is on Squires as he waits for Rodgers to call in with the next part of their assignment. We get a peek into the Striker commander’s head via him trying to figure out why he enjoys being part of the team. There’s the stuff you’d expect, like wanting to protect America and what it stands for (or should stand for), but there’s also a part where he thinks about how shared fear can bring a group together. His previous answer to Liz asking about it was that they share fear because it’s “caused by something that threatens us all, as opposed to courage, which comes from the individual”. Now he believes rather than be something to overcome it should be used to bring a team together along with patriotism and valor. This is a use for backstory I can get behind, one that tells us about a character we didn’t spend much time with in the first book despite being a series regular because there wasn’t time. Now we have that time and it’s a good view into what drives him.

Mike calls, and learn that they do suspect someone trying to restore the Soviet Union, which is Putin’s Dogin’s ultimate goal along with restoring communism to Russia. The rest of the orders are given, to check the train and if they find weapons or money to destroy them, but do not hurt the soldiers. They’re just doing their job and nobody wants an international incident when the goal is to stop a rogue faction. I’m not even sure how much either Orlov knows about Dogin’s plans, though I still suspect junior would be all in on it. Squires notes that could be connected to the Hermitage and just have pictures and stuff. We know the Hermitage is involved, but as the secret home of Commie Op-Center. So he’s not wrong about that part, but I wonder if that will lead to them putting more of the plot together, at least realizing the museum is involved. That was what Fields-Hutton and his allies were looking into, after all.

Next time is a longer chapter as we check back in with Commie Op-Center. What have they picked up this time?