Chapter 112 - The Ashes of Paris

​The Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport was plunged into the grayish, monotonous turmoil of an autumnal stormy afternoon. Through the massive thermo-acoustic windows of Terminal 2E, wide-body aircraft lined up on the tarmacs like sleeping giants beneath a heavy, uninterrupted curtain of rain falling over the black asphalt. The electronic screens in the boarding lounges flashed with last-minute technical delays, disrupting travelers' itineraries and reflecting their phosphorescent lights onto the polished marble floors. The dull echo of official public address announcements, repeated first in flawlessly pronounced French and then in automated English, bounced off the high exposed concrete structures and steel beams, creating a constant, suffocating hum that only intensified the psychological and physical wear and tear of the sports delegations leaving the Old Continent.