Chapter By Chapter> Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image chapters 66 & 67

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.

Two chapters this week, though both are four pages long. Ordinarily I wouldn’t think that so bad, but the way this book operates and the fact that I kind of want to be done reading this already, I’m willing to do a two-for-one deal this week.

Last week, saw Peggy and George trying to get home, with a possible shot at payback for Peggy. We’ll see how that plays out, but not this time. We’re going between the train and Washington, DC, probably Op-Center for the latter.

We’re getting close to the end and I am long since out of ways to pad the intro, so let’s get on with the review.

Chapter 66: Tuesday, 11:47 PM, Khabarovsk

This is one of those chapters where all of the explaining stuff actually benefits the story because, unlike so much of the trivia, it seems to matter. It might still be padding out a chapter, but given how many pages some of the chapters go in this series I don’t think Rovin or the two co-creators care that much. The Mosquito goes to pick up Striker, the two teams separated. It’s determined that it will be faster and use less fuel if they catch up to the train rather than wait for the others to come back to the rendezvous point, and determining they have enough time before Russian forces arrive they should be able to do it.

The trivia talks about some of the features of the Mosquito helicopter…at least I think it’s a helicopter. The only actual Mosquito that Google showed me under “Mosquito aircraft” was an old WWII British plane. If it’s the same thing, but updated with modern stealth and computer systems, fine. It does hover at one point, and there are VTOL planes (vertical takeoff and landing) but I don’t think the WWII Mosquito was one of those planes. At least it explains how it snuck into Russian airspace to pick up their guys.

Chapter 67: Tuesday, 8:49 AM, Washington, DC

This almost feels unnecessary, as if to remind us Paul and Mike are part of a government organization and the various bureaus don’t get along. A Chinese spy satellite picks up Striker’s actions and asks the CIA about it. The director of the CIA demands to know what’s going on, and Paul dances around it well enough for now. That’s most of the chapter. Honda calls to tell them about part of the group getting on board the aircraft, Paul and Mike silently worry for a few sentences, then Honda calls back on edge about something. That’s it. That’s the chapter. I don’t see why we needed this chapter. It just slowed the story to do nothing of any real importance. Where is the editor on these books, trimming the fat?

Next time we have two more chapters, one really short and the other the same length as these two. Hopefully they’ll be worth our time.