Book Review – Tom Clancy’s “Op-Center – Mirror Image”
Late last night I finished reading the second book in Tom Clancy’s Op-Center series, Mirror Image.
Published back in 1995, Mirror Image takes us back to the days just following the end of the Cold War between the U.S. and Soviet Union. In this story, the newly-elected president of Russia, Kiril Zhanin, is trying to install more of a western-style of government. The problem is that Communist sympathisers lead by Minister of the Interior Nikolai Dogin along with Colonel Rossky want Russia to return to its old ways of running things.
Op-Center: Mirror Image begins in St. Petersburg, Russia as a couple of English spies are executed by some of Colonel Rossky’s agents. We learn that Dogin recently lost the presidential election to Zhanin, but while accepting his loss, Dogin is already planning ahead to his personal vision of the future — a future with all of Russia and parts of eastern Europe and the Ukraine reunited again under the Soviet flag. Dogin had been using funds and building the St. Petersburg Operations Center, a very sophisticated reconnaissance and communication facility built underneath an art museum and next to a television studio.
Across the Atlantic Ocean, things are quiet in Washington, D.C. at the National Crisis Management Center, also known as “Op-Center.” Director Paul Hood finally takes some time off and flies with his family cross-country to southern California, leaving General Mike Rogers in command of the Op-Center.
Suddenly, a terrorist detonates a bomb in one of New York City’s many underwater tunnels, killing many people and wrecking havoc in the city. It turns out that this was a Russian extremist who committed the act, and in a move that surprises everybody at the White House, he turns himself in to the authorities. The attack was an attention-getter for the U.S. President. The Russian warns the president specifically not to interfere with what’s about to happen in eastern Europe, or many other bombing will quickly be carried out throughout the country.
The Op-Center still wants to resolve this issue with the Russian extremists. A specialized group of Op-Center soldiers, known as Striker, flies to Helsinki, Finland, for the first stage of their mission, something that’s still being sorted out by the commanders. Op-Center is aware of Russia’s new spy center in St. Petersburg, but its details are unknown as all the spies who try to get close to the center are being executed.
To help fund his massive operation of overthrowing the current leadership, Dogin cuts a deal with Dmitri Shovich, a notorious Russian mobster. Shovich agrees to supply the financing in exchange for the ability to better run his own operations in Russia once Dogin and his men assume control of the country. Part of Shovich’s operations involve drugs and laundering drug money, commonly sending goods and materials to Russia from sources half a world away in Columbia.
While Dogin has control of the St. Petersburg Operations Center, the man in charge is General Sergei Orlov, a former Russian cosmonaut. The cosmonauts are a different breed of individuals, and after flying through space and orbiting the planet, they tend to have different views and opinions on world events. In other words, although he is from the older era of Russian soldiers, General Orlov is not really a Communist. He is a hard but fair Russian soldier with more of an open mind about the differences between the East and West governments.
While flying en-route to Finland, it’s decided that one of the Strikers, Private George, will remain behind in Finland while the remainder of the team will fly over Russia on a stolen Il-76 heavy transport aircraft. Private George has been selected to join British agent Peggy James on a special mission into St. Petersburg. Travelling via mini-sub, they’re to investigate the art museum and, if possible, find a way to disrupt the Russian operation center.
While this is occurring, a special agent with the FBI is working undercover at an airport in Tokyo, Japan. He’s investigating drug runners using the airport as a re-fueling point before heading to Russia and other destinations. The FBI agent attempts to stop a small jet aircraft, but he’s killed in a hail of gunfire. The agent fired several rounds and struck a few points on the aircraft. That aircraft is still able to depart, but it isn’t until later in the flight that the pilots are forced to land in Vladivostok, Russia, and not their destination of Moscow.
General Orlov’s son, the commander of a Spetsnaz team in Vladivostok, is ordered to use a train to carry the aircraft’s special cargo to an air field so it can then be flow the remainder of the way to Moscow. The Op-Center knows about the special cargo being shipped across part of Russia via train. They send the rest of the Striker team on a mission to parachute into the region, stop the train, and inspect the cargo. If the cargo is drugs, money, weapons, or anything else that could help the Russian extremists, then it is to be destroyed. The only catch to the mission is that despite going against highly skilled Spetsnaz soldiers, the Striker commandos are not to harm any soldiers or civilians on the train.
Easier said than done, especially when the Spetsnaz are prepared to kill anybody who comes close to the train.
The last parts of Op-Center: Mirror Image deal with the simultaneous missions in Russia. Private George and Peggy James use a mini-sub and successfully reach the art museum in St. Petersburg, and the Striker team is able to parachute into Russia before the Il-76 is intercepted by Russian MiG fighter aircraft. On the ground, Striker is successful in not only stopping the train, but removing the passengers and soldiers along with stealing the train and its cargo. They successfully take the train to a secluded area where C4 explosives destroy it completely.
Of course, lots of action and a twist or two take place along the way. At one point General Orlov communicates directly with Director Hood, and the two leaders try to work out a safe solution for the train and its cargo. At the end of the story, Director Hood takes his family to St. Petersburg so that he could meet General Orlov in person. Naturally, one would expect more involvement from General Orlov and the St. Petersburg Operations Center in later Op-Center stories.
As a whole, Op-Center: Mirror Image isn’t bad as a short story. It’s clear that the story could have gone into further detail with several events and characters including Russian mobster Shovich along with the Russian terrorists in America and the Russian military actions in eastern Europe.
Despite the paperback edition of Op-Center: Mirror Image being a semi-intimidating 436 pages, the book itself is a quick read. The chapters are very short, and most of the story moves at a quick pace once you learn the major players. The last third of the book is almost all action as the two teams accomplish their respective missions in Russia.
It’s the lack of details and back stories though that keep what could be a great story as just a mediocre one. It’s hard to feel suspense, danger or sympathy when you really don’t know the characters or the details of what’s driving them to do what they do.
Op-Center: Mirror Image is a decent book if you’re looking for a casual read. You really don’t have to know the details of the first Op-Center book to read this part of the series. Just don’t expect a story anywhere near as good as other Clancy novels such as Without Remorse or Clear and Present Danger.
For the record, the idea for Op-Center may have been partially created by Tom Clancy, but the Op-Center books were actually written by Jeff Rovin.
