Chapter 23 – The Hunter Tech Vault
Monday – March 11, 2024
Tanner
Nigel and I arrived at Hunter Tech at 8 am sharp.
“Do you feel free?” asked Nigel as we stepped into the elevator. “I feel free.” He ran his hand down all the buttons.
Damn it, Nigel. I wanted to look at my lamp immediately. Not spend all day going up to the offices. I snapped my fingers to make the elevator zoom to the top.
Nigel looked very disappointed when the doors parted on the correct floor.
But it didn’t matter that we were there when the Hunter Tech offices first opened. Because Robert was missing.
We had to wait 30 minutes for the idiot to show up.
He strolled out of the elevator whistling. But he stopped whistling when he saw us waiting in reception. “Oh. I forgot you were coming.”
I stood up. I knew he hadn’t forgotten that he’d stolen my lamp and was keeping it in his stupid vault. He was just messing with me. “No you didn’t. What took you so long?”
“I accidentally slept in. And then I needed to play with RJ. Follow me. I’ll give you the grand tour. ”
I didn’t want the grand tour. I wanted my freaking lamp back.
Robert took forever showing off the cool tech they were working on. He was just wasting time.
“Oooh, what’s that?” asked Nigel and pointed to a very thin laptop.
“A laptop,” said Robert.
“No. Really? Mine is much thicker. More like a brick.”
Robert laughed. “How old is your laptop, man?”
“Relatively new, I think. It even has the internets. I’ve learned how to turn it on. That took a month. And now I’ve graduated to searching the internets. Did you know that if you type a question into the Google, it tells you the truth?”
Robert laughed. “That’s not how Google works.”
Nigel shook his head. “Yes it is.”
“Definitely not. Wait. I need to hear the whole story of how you two met. Or do most genies just hang out together? Like a weird genie club?”
“Please lower your voice,” I said.
“I’ve known Tanner since we both got cursed,” said Nigel. “I tattled on him for being a naughty boy. He seduced a woman in the sultan’s harem. And then I got in trouble for not keeping secretses.” Nigel’s shoulders slumped. “I hate secretses.”
Robert laughed. “Nigel ratted on you?”
I sighed. “Yes.”
“Shouldn’t you two hate each other then?”
“At first Master Tanner hated me very much,” said Nigel. “He kept trying to kill me.”
Someone in a nearby cubicle gave us a weird look .
“He only jests,” I said.
“No, remember when you threw me off a balcony on Bourbon Street? Or that time you had Blackbeard make me walk the plank? Or when you tried to light me on fire...”
“With his cum?” Robert asked.
“What?” I shook my head. “No. Stop dicking around, Robert, and take me to my lamp.”
Robert sighed. “Fine. This way.” He finally took us down the hall and to the vault.
I held my breath as Robert put in the code.
Would COOPER be written on my lamp? It had to be, right?
The panel turned red. “Oopsies,” said Robert. “I put the wrong password in. It’s going to be locked for three hours now.”
“WHAT?! Damn it!”
Robert folded his arms and leaned against the vault door. “Can’t you tell if you’re free by trying to skeet? And seeing if you light everything on fire?”
“Oh.” Huh. I shrugged.
“How about you do that snappy thing and take us to your masturbatorium. I want the specs of that. Daphne thinks I don’t need one, but we’ve agreed to disagree.”
I didn’t care about anything he’d just said. But I could at least test the skeet theory. I snapped my fingers and we appeared inside my masturbatorium.
Robert looked around. He walked over and poked the hand that Ash had controlled.
“Master’s erect penis has been in that,” said Nigel .
Robert gagged and wiped his hand off on his pants. “Why is everything so white? It’s practically blinding.”
“It’s a special tile that doesn’t light on fire.”
“There are a few scorch marks,” said Robert.
“But this building is still standing. That’s what matters.” I walked up to the water feature. “A little privacy, please?”
“Yes, you must leave,” said Nigel. “Master doesn’t like skeeting in front of nemeses.”
Robert laughed. “Shouldn’t that include you, you little snitch?”
“We’re very good friends now. The best of friends. He likes me most of anyone in the world. Including Destiny.”
“Who is Destiny?”
“I will show you.” Nigel and Robert left the room.
I pulled up one of my favorite gifs of Ash. She was dressed like a sexy school girl and sitting in a fake classroom. She shyly lowered her bra, distracting the teacher with her beautiful tits. Seeing her exposed already had me growing hard. I wrapped my hand around my cock and slowly stroked up and down. The frame shifted to her being railed from behind on the teacher’s desk. I stared at Ash’s tits bouncing. I imagined I was the one behind her. And then I imagined I was the lucky student who’d just walked up to the front of his room. Ash looked shocked when he pulled his massive cock out. But then she started deep throating him as more students lined up for a turn.
I’d really designed the Bitten Apple room for James and Penny to use to relive their love story, but I was glad Ash had enjoyed it .
And I certainly enjoyed watching the footage of her enjoying it.
But I enjoyed watching her doing everything. Including sleeping. So many nights over the past few months I’d snuck into her closet and spied on her sleeping. I’d never admit it to her. I wasn’t the stalker she thought I was.
Or...was I? Because here I was jerking off to a gif of her while she was engaged to someone else.
I tried to focus on the gif. I didn’t want to think about her with Mr. Frost. I wanted to think about her with me.
My face between her thighs.
Her fingers buried in my hair.
Her pulsing around my fingers.
I kept watching her tits bounce with the teacher’s hard thrusts. Picturing myself in his place. Stretching her wide. Fucking her hard, just the way she liked. Dirty girl. You like that? You like when I fuck you so hard you can’t stand?
I groaned as I started cumming.
The water sizzled.
I sighed. Shit.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” said Nigel.
I quickly put my dick back in my pants when I saw Robert and Nigel behind me. What the hell? How long had the two of them been standing there? They could have been killed.
“We might be required to have a hearing before we’re released from our curses,” Nigel said. “Or...something.” He looked disappointed though.
But he might be right. Or we just weren’t free yet .
“Your dick really is dangerous,” said Robert. He shook his head. “Okay, we can go back to the offices now. I was just messing about having to wait three hours. You only have to wait 30 minutes.”
“Idiot.” I snapped my fingers.
Robert put the correct code in this time and the vault door hissed open.
I walked in. But it was entirely empty.
“Oh no!” said Rob and threw his hands over his mouth. “We’ve been robbed!”
I shook my head. I wasn’t falling for his shit. I’d gotten wise to his tricks. “Show me the real vault. Now.”
Rob frowned. “How did you know?” He looked devasted that his prank hadn’t worked. But then he pulled a tile out of the wall, revealing a second control panel. He typed in the code and it blinked red. “Rats. I keep forgetting the password.” He laughed.
I was going to murder him.
***
This one actually did take three hours to reset. But finally, Rob put in the correct password. Part of the wall disappeared, letting us walk into the hidden vault.
The lamp was right in the center on a pedestal. I lifted it up. But I didn’t see COOPER.
I turned it over to look at the other side.
Holy. Shit.
COOPER was scrawled across this side of the lamp in huge letters.
“I’m free,” I said quietly.
“What?” Nigel grabbed it from me. “We’re free boys?” He screamed at the top of his lungs. “We’re free boys!” He started jumping up and down. “Robert, we’re free!”
“Okay,” said Robert and shrugged like it wasn’t that big of a deal.
I just stood there. Ash’s last name was really there. She’d done it. I was free. I opened my mouth and closed it again. Is this real? I grabbed the lamp back. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
I’m free.
Ghazi appeared beside me.
“Ah!” Robert jumped back. “You can’t be in here,” he said. “Whoever you are.”
“I’m Ghazi. And you will be silent, mere mortal!”
Robert’s eyes grew round.
Ghazi turned back to me. “Congratulations on getting free. Now you can be a mortal, magicless loser like everyone else. Like that guy.” He pointed at Robert. “And then he reached for my shoulder, but I pulled back.
“Wait, don’t take my magic.” I...I didn’t realize I was going to lose it. For some reason I had in my head that I’d be free from my curse but still get to keep my magic. And I wasn’t ready to lose it. There was still so much I wanted to do before I lost my powers for good.
“And why on earth would I allow you to keep your magic?”
“Because…” Shit! Think! “Because I need it to help find whoever stole Santa’s magic.” I knew Ghazi had a soft spot for Santa. Probably because they were both assholes.
“Hmm…no. Better idea. I’ll just give your magic to Santa. ”
He put his hand on my shoulder.
I almost fell forward as the magic left my body. I suddenly felt weaker. I put my hand on my chest. I felt...breakable. I swallowed hard. I was used to feeling invincible. But I could die now. Did normal people constantly worry about how fragile they were? A car could just hit me on the street and kill me now. How was I supposed to function?
“But I’m feeling generous, so if you can find Santa’s magic, you’re welcome to keep it.”
Ghazi turned to Nigel. “Congratulations on your freedom, Nigel. You have truly earned it through years of faithful servitude. May your magic serve you well for the rest of your days.” Ghazi gave Nigel a respectful bow.
What the fuck? Faithful servitude? Nigel barley even worked anymore because he had so much time off. “Wait, Nigel gets to keep his magic? What the hell?”
“Of course. If I took his magic, how would he come to Morocco once a week to draw me a bath?”
Nigel had been sucking up to Ghazi just for this moment, hadn’t he?
“And speaking of teleporting halfway across the world…” Ghazi snapped his fingers and the zapper that I’d stolen appeared in his hands. “Did you really think I didn’t know what you were up to in India?” He shook his head. “Anyway, good luck with your mortality!” He snapped his fingers and disappeared.
I touched the center of my chest again.
“That guy seems like a real asshole,” said Robert.
“Right?” But I didn’t have time to awkwardly agree with something Robert said right now. I’d lost my magic, but I hadn’t lost everything. I still had Ash. As long as I could win her back. I needed to summon her and tell her everything. And stop her from this sham of an engagement.
I snapped my fingers, but nothing happened. Damn it! I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to not having magic anymore. “Nigel! I need you to summon Ash here immediately.”
Nigel slowly smiled. “No.”
“What?”
“I don’t have to listen to you anymore! You’re not my master! I’m a free boy!”
“Nigel...come on...”
“I’m not your houseboy anymore! I’m finally free for the first time in over 300 years. And I don’t take orders anymore.” He put his hands on his hips.
That saucy little traitor. “Seriously? You’re quitting on me?”
“What?” Nigel shook his head violently. “No? Do I have to? Don’t make me! I don’t have anywhere to go!”
That wasn’t true. He had multiple houses. “I don’t want you to go,” I said. “But...you are free. To do whatever you want. You don’t have to work for me anymore.”
“But I love working for you.”
I smiled. But...did he? Because I’d just asked him to summon Ash and he’d refused. “And I love you working for me,” I said. “I’m honestly now sure what I’d do without you. Losing magic is hard enough.”
“But losing me would be devastating,” said Nigel.
“This feels really gay right now,” said Robert .
“Shut it, Robert, Tanner and I are having a moment! We’re free boys!” Nigel turned back to me. “I want to be a free houseboy, please. We’ll need to renegotiate my work hours.”
“Sure. Whatever. Now summon Ash.”
“No, we need a new contract.”
I sighed. Was he serious? “Just work whenever you want.”
“I need it in writing.” He turned to Robert. “Can I use a laptop so I can type up the contract?”
“This is the weirdest day of my life,” said Robert. He laughed. “I love it. Yeah, sure, this way.” He guided us to his office.
Nigel hurried around the back of Robert’s desk. “I can’t wait to show you my new skills, Master Tanner!” He cleared his throat. “I mean Tanner.” He opened up the laptop. And cracked his fingers. He was really making a whole show of it. And then he literally took a whole minute to touch the power button to turn it on.
That seemed unnecessary...
“You don’t have to hold the power button that long,” said Robert.
“Yes you do,” said Nigel. “It’s part of the steps.”
“What steps?”
The two of them started bickering.
I ignored them and shot off a text to Marty: “Any updates on the Santa investigation?”
I’d asked him months ago to figure out who had stolen Santa’s magic. But there hadn’t been any news yet. I was happy to sign whatever contract Nigel wanted. But I needed to find Santa’s kidnapper ASAP so I could get my magic back and not have to rely on Nigel to do magic for me. I didn’t like this weak feeling in my chest. I wanted to go back to feeling like me. Well, like me without a flaming genie penis. God, I couldn’t wait to fuck Ash.
Marty texted me back: “I’m close. I have two more leads to track down. I should have an answer for you this afternoon.”
“Ready for this?” asked Nigel.
I looked up.
He slowly dragged the mouse and clicked on Word. The whole thing took several minutes. Why was he moving so slowly? Was he scared he’d frighten the computer?
“That took me another month to learn. The mouse is a finicky mistress. And she goes through batteries so fast.” He stroked the mouse.
“Don’t touch my mouse like that,” said Robert.
“Like what?” Nigel kept stroking it.
Robert grabbed the mouse. “Just type up the contract, man.”
Nigel cracked his knuckles again and started typing at record speed. He’d always been fast at that from his time on a typewriter.
“So what exactly are your demands?” I asked.
Nigel smiled. “You’ll see.”
“You could just tell me.”
“It’s too many to list out loud.”
“Holy shit,” said Robert. “The document is already like 50 pages long.” He laughed. “You’re only going to work one hour a week?”
“It’s not that much less than I currently work,” he whispered too loudly, so I could hear .
But I already knew that. We were friends. But I couldn’t give him every hour off before or else he wouldn’t have been serving me, and therefore not doing what he needed to be free. I wasn’t the monster here. Ghazi was.
“How long have you been drawing Ghazi baths to get on his good side?” I asked.
Nigel shrugged and kept typing. “A century or so. I knew you’d get us free eventually, Master. I mean Tanner. Maybe I’ll keep calling you Master. It just feels natural.” He smiled at me.
No it did not. I glanced at my watch. Yeah, I definitely needed my magic back. Nigel was a good lad, but being at his mercy was awful.