My Milf Conqueror System novel Chapter 124

Chapter 124: The Minotaur’s Maze

[Ethan’s POV]

The drop into the catacombs was a blind plunge into the abyss.

I hit the limestone floor hard, rolling to absorb the impact, my boots kicking up a cloud of ancient, suffocating dust. Claire landed a second later, stumbling forward. I caught her by the harness of her vest, steadying her in the pitch-black tunnel.

Above us, the jagged hole in the vault floor glowed like the mouth of a furnace. The shouts of Isabella’s PMCs echoed down the shaft, followed by the sweeping beams of high-powered tactical lights.

"Move," I hissed, clicking on my flashlight and grabbing Claire’s hand.

We sprinted down the tunnel, the air instantly growing freezing cold and smelling of wet rock and stagnant water. The Odesa Catacombs weren’t a neat, orderly grid. They were a chaotic, three-dimensional labyrinth of jagged limestone corridors, dead ends, and sudden drop-offs.

"They’re coming down!" Claire gasped, looking over her shoulder.

The heavy thud of combat boots hitting the stone floor echoed behind us. The PMCs had ropes. They were dropping into the tunnels.

"Keep your light pointed at the floor," I ordered, sweeping my own beam across the rough-hewn walls. "Don’t look back. Just run."

We navigated a sharp left turn, then a right, plunging deeper into the subterranean maze. The sounds of the PMCs grew muffled, distorted by the winding tunnels, but I knew they had thermal optics. In this freezing environment, our body heat would light up their visors like flares.

"How did Jake know where he was going?" Claire panted, her boots slipping on a patch of wet moss. "There are no signs. No markers."

"He didn’t need them," I said, my eyes scanning the darkness ahead. "He has the Oracle. He probably memorized the entire topographical survey of the catacombs before he even blew the vault. He’s running a 3D map in his head."

We hit a fork in the tunnel. Three different corridors branched off into the absolute dark.

I stopped, raising my hand.

"Which way?" Claire asked, her chest heaving.

I swept my flashlight across the floor of the middle tunnel. The dust was undisturbed. I checked the left tunnel. Nothing.

I shined the light down the right corridor. About ten feet in, a single, bloody footprint was stamped into the pale limestone.

"Right," I said, stepping forward.

But as my boot hovered over the ground, a cold spike of adrenaline hit my chest.

Flashback - Ten Months Ago

"You’re dead," Darius said, clicking his stopwatch.

I froze, looking down at my feet. We were in the woods behind the Aegis training facility. Stretched across the trail, barely an inch off the ground and completely invisible in the dappled sunlight, was a piece of high-tensile fishing line. My shin was resting right against it.

"I was tracking the target," I argued, pointing to the broken twigs and scuff marks leading down the path. "He left a clear trail."

"He left a perfect trail," Darius corrected, stepping out from behind a massive oak tree. "When you are hunting a professional, Ethan, perfection is a lie. If a man who knows how to hide suddenly leaves you a neon sign pointing exactly where he went, he is not running away from you. He is inviting you in."

Darius walked over and tapped the fishing line with the toe of his boot.

"Never follow the blood blindly," Darius warned, his voice a low rumble. "The moment you think you have the predator cornered is the exact moment you become the prey."

Present Time

I yanked my foot back, throwing my arm out to stop Claire from taking another step.

"What is it?" she whispered, freezing in place.

I lowered my flashlight, bringing the beam parallel to the floor.

There, suspended three inches above the limestone and anchored to the walls with rusted climbing pitons, was a nearly invisible tripwire. It was strung directly across the path of the bloody footprint.

I traced the wire up the wall with my light. It connected to a massive, rotting wooden support beam holding up the ceiling of the tunnel. Wedged into the cracks of the limestone above the beam were three blocks of industrial mining explosives, wired to a crude, analog detonator.

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