The first meeting ended in a heavy atmosphere.
After dinner, Haftar arranged for them to rest in a relatively intact two-story building near the command center.
The night fell over the Desert City like ink, replacing the day's bustle with a tense silence.
Gunfire and explosions sporadically echoed from afar, like the groans of a dying beast, further highlighting the vulnerability of this lonely city.
The power supply was intermittent, and the dim emergency lights cast flickering shadows on the walls.
Song Heping was sleepless.
The heavy despair in Haftar's eyes during the day, the alarming red arrows on the map, and the Hunter's icy cost-benefit analysis tangled repeatedly in his mind.
He needed some space, some quiet, to untangle this nearly unsolvable chess match.
Alone, like a lone wolf surveying its territory, he paced silently in this temporary accommodation.
The corridor was deep, the walls cold.
