Chapter By Chapter> Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image chapters 57 & 58

Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter (or possibly multiple chapters 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.

Get read for the first in a series of short multi-chapter reviews, as the next bunch of sequences jump between locations a lot and every new scene change is a new chapter in these books. It’s one of the things I don’t like about this novel. That works on television, but in novel form it just causes too many stop points, hoping the story is enough to carry you through. This is not the month to try that game with me. I need good stop points but I also need to have enough content to fill a full article. So two chapters for the next few installments.

Last time the heroes of our two Op-Centers got together and compared notes. Now it all relies on what happens on the train between Striker and a character whose loyalties are still up for debate. Does he think he’s acting in Russia’s best interest, or his replacement father? Would he be part of a plot to restore the USSR or is he loyal to the current regime? These are the questions I’m looking for the answers for, if not in these two chapters then before we’re done. We have three to four-ish pages per chapter so let’s get a move on.

Chapter 57: Tuesday, 10:45 PM, Khabarovsk

Chapter 58: Tuesday, 3:50 PM, St. Petersburg

The jumping time zones don’t help with keeping events straight.

The first chapter is back at the train. Both are in the same location, but with two scenes I wouldn’t have been surprised if chapter 58 was Tuesday, 10:46 PM, Khabarovsk at this point. Combining events, Orlov calls Nikita just as they reach Striker’s fallen tree. The sudden stop damages the communications, just to up the tension, and Nikita is really feeling the tension. This could be a case of bad timing, but I’m hoping this doesn’t lead to an issue later on. I’d like to avoid a shootout as much as the good guys do.

I was expecting the next chapter to be from Orlov Sr’s perspective, which would have slowed down the story but by now it wouldn’t be the first time. Instead it’s Peggy and Squires and they near the Hermitage as still being their way to sneak out of the country. They did let the agent go and there’s some kind of police activity that may or may not involve them. It’s still the option they had. This does come with a nice character moment as we see Peggy showing a hint of sadness about Fields-Hutton’s death after showing very little emotion even for most of this short chapter. I’m still thinking this is going to lead to a confrontation with the Russian agent who killed Fields-Hutton, probably either not aware that they’re allies against the false war or that she’s part of the coup attempt. That’s the thing about this story: you don’t know who is scum and who is the sucker among the Russians. Plus we’ve seen the agent make a return in this story, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she followed the pair back to the Hermitage to finish them off.

We’ll have to wait to see what the right answer is. The next two chapters are back to the train and back to regular Op-Center. Will we finally learn if Orlov Jr is going to choose a side?