The night wind of Mosul carried the scent of gunpowder and sand, sweeping in from the Northern Desert.
The joint action group's base was situated on the edge of the abandoned industrial area in the east of the city. Above the three-meter-high concrete walls, the searchlight beams anxiously swept through the darkness.
Every thirty seconds, the beams would sweep across the wide wasteland outside the base, illuminating the cracked asphalt road surface, rusty abandoned pipes, and farther away, the steel torrents glistening coldly in the moonlight.
Lemont stood at the observation post on the top floor of the command tower, his fingers tightly gripping the handle of an M24 telescope, his palms drenched in sweat.
The scene through the lens was suffocating.
The low silhouette of a T-72 main battle tank was faintly visible, its barrel pointing toward the base in the night.
