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.
Only one chapter this week, folks. We’re very close to the end. Last time Peggy got her payback, while we set up this chapter from the train. I still don’t know why they bothered. As a scene in a movie or TV show it might have worked, but something I think this novel forgets it’s a prose book.
Chapter 72 of 78, I’m long since out of padding, so apologises for this page looking lame from the homepage. We’re just going to get on with it. I’m definitely choosing a shorter book for next time.
Chapter 72: Tuesday 11:57 PM, Khabarovsk
We’re back with the train as the Mosquito helicopter tries to extract the team. Nikita, still not really knowing what’s going on, tries to hold on to the train…that’s a runaway train set to explode. The money isn’t going help anybody, including the cause of overthrowing your government and reestablishing the USSR, but he still doesn’t know about the coup. Dad never had the chance to tell him and nobody among the Strikers speaks Russian. Squires has to shoot him to save him. That’s not something you see very often. The first time I tried to play Mass Effect, my hero Germain Shepard (yes, the pun was on purpose, apparently I should have added an E according to spellcheck) knocked a panicking guy out that he was trying extract from a battle situation. It was not the choice I thought it was when I chose it. I just thought he’d maybe slap the guy, not punch him out cold. Squires went the extra step and shot him in the shoulder so he’d let go of the train.
They get Nikita aboard the copter, and then the train starts exploding. The good news is only one person was left on it. The bad news is it was Squires. Is he dead? It looks that way but it could be a cliffhanger. If he is, it worries me that the earlier thought that someone from Striker dies in each book was accurate. We lost a man in the first story and we just lost Squires in this one, unless he somehow managed to get off the train before it went boom. This is our last visit around here, so it looks like we lost one of our main characters and I’ll be disappointed if that’s the case. Otherwise, there’s some serious stakes and action in this issue, though I did have to go back and reread part of it. Admittedly I made the mistake of reading this with tired eyes. I feel sorry for Sondra, who did everything she could to get him off but in the end this was not a great first mission for her.
Two chapters next time. We’re in DC and Moscow. What’s happening in the two capitals? Found out next time or read ahead in the book. Just don’t spoil anything. That’s the rule for this article series.
BW Media Spotlight 
[…] Last time we lost a member of the cast. I hope this isn’t something that happens in every novel. It’s already difficult getting used to the regular Op-Center cast, though this book has presented them in better light…mostly because they’ve barely shown up outside of Paul, who was always good, and Mike, who is better in this novel than the original. All of the interesting cast tends to be outside the Center, the agents and soldiers in the field. I’d be okay with this but the book isn’t Tom Clancy’s Striker or Those Local Agents or something. The focus should be on the Center itself, and it only happens rarely. At least this time I’m not annoyed when it does, unlike the first novel, when I basically hated everyone beside Paul. […]
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