Ginny uselessly clasped her hands across her bosom and began to sob piteously, but Ameer kept his eyes on me the whole time. Dammit, I was so angry at her for betraying me, but I still didn’t want to see her tortured. I couldn’t shake off years of protecting her that easily.
“Alright, alright,” I said, “don’t shoot her. I’ll give you the password.”
“Much better,” he said, turning away from Ginny and back toward the keyboard. “What is it?”
“His hands,” I thought, “I’ve got to capture his hands.” Suddenly I had a crazy idea. If it didn’t work he would probably kill me on the spot. But then, I thought, he’ll probably kill me anyway once he’s certain that I haven’t figured out how to disable his virus.
“I don’t have it memorized,” I told him. “I used the product code written on that metal cube on the bookshelf.”
“You really are a nerd,” he said with contempt as he picked the cube up and examined it. It was made of a flat silvery metal about an inch on each side.
“But that’s only half the password,” I said breathlessly. “The other half is on the second cube over here,” I said, pointing at a wooden cabinet behind me.
Now his suspicions were fully alerted, and I could almost feel the spot on my chest where his gun was aimed. “Pick it up and show it to me – slowly now,” he directed.
Being careful not to make any sudden moves, I picked up the cube off the wooden shelf and held it up for him to see. It was identical to the one he held. “Do you want me to bring it to you?” I asked.
“No!” he snapped quickly. “Place it on the floor and slide it over to me with your foot. Gently. . .”
Ginny was still crying and Esther was watching me with a curious expression as I knelt down, placed the cube on the floor and gave it a shove toward him with my shoe. “Now back up, all of you,” he snarled.
When we were back against the far wall he put his gun down within easy reach, knelt and grabbed the second cube in his right hand while still holding the first one in his left. Then he stood and brought the two up to examine them. But, to his astonishment and ours, his hands seemed to accelerate towards each other and slam together with so much force that I heard the bones in his fingers fracture.
Ameer screamed in pain and sank to his knees, frantically trying to pull his hands apart. I ran at him somewhat clumsily and hit him with my shoulder, knocking him to the floor. Esther was only a moment behind me, and as he fell over she kneed him viciously in the head. She did it a second time and Ameer slumped unconscious.
“Have you got any tape?” she yelled at me. I yanked open one of the desk drawers to pull out some duct tape. In seconds we had Ameer’s arms wrapped together, his fingers still pinned between the metal cubes.
After Esther had wrapped his legs together with the duct tape, she turned to me in puzzlement. “What in the hell were those cubes?” she demanded. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
I actually blushed. “It’s kind of a nerd thing. They’re neodymium magnets,” I told her in an apologetic tone. “They’re incredibly strong rare earth magnets. I saw them in a science catalog and bought a pair out of curiosity. But I never did anything with them because they scared me. Each one of those has a pulling force of about 140 pounds. It was the only way I could think of to keep him from setting off that damned vest.”
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