Chapter By Chapter> Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image chapter 39

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 spent some quality time with Striker’s leader before he got his next set of orders.

Here’s another problem with reviewing this long a book. With normal length novels for this series I have trouble finding spoiler-free ways to introduce the upcoming chapter and discuss the book thus far for people who haven’t been following along and just want my thoughts, or people coming in on the homepage and not wanting to be spoiled. I usually find something for the homepage, but just barely.

However, we are not quite two-thirds in, and at the 39th chapter I’m out of things to discuss. It’s more of the same: it’s been an improvement and without the cast to complain about all the issues are mine, as the Clancy approach doesn’t quite work with me. I think the chapter a week plan is the only reason I’ve stuck with it, because half the book interests me but most of the trivia that doesn’t factor into the story just doesn’t interest me, and the stuff that does I want to write off because I don’t know if fits until I get past it and into the story. That’s all I have to say, so let’s get into this chapter. It’s a longer one and we’re back to Commie Op-Center.

Chapter 39: Tuesday, 3:08 AM, St. Petersburg

The maneuvers in the Ukraine are starting to get attention, at least for the military and politicos. No word about news reports, but in Commie Op-Center, the non-Commie (or at least the one not in on the plot) is concerned. Orlov is concerned about why this is going on, especially when he realizes these aren’t war games or practice. Something big is happening, and conferring with a friend in charge of the Ministry Of Security it may involve Dogin and could be trouble for Orlov and his Operation Center if they’re being used to pull this off. Orlov puts Rossky under surveillance from his own Op-Center. He knows something is up, and it’s nice to know he’s one of the good guys.

He also finds and figures out that the “rogue” Il76-T, the plane being used by Striker, is headed for the train. While his first thought might be “is this from the Americans”, he starts wondering why they’d go through this trouble, and looks into whether or not any US satellite might have seen the train loaded up…then wonders why they’d care. Now he’s really curious about that cargo they’ve been asked to look after, considering it looks like something fishy is going on and one of his own team may be part of it.

The trivia is a mixed bag in this one. There’s too much detail about Orlov’s “power naps” and how it helps him stay sharp and once save a space mission in his astronaut days. On the other hand, two other moments go into how Commie Op-Center does its job and is flavor text I could get behind. Meanwhile, Orlov is proving to be one of the good guys, and I hope he survives and gets to be one of the heroes.

Next time we’ll check in with the train. It’s time to start culling the good guys from the bad guys at Commie Op-Center.