Read the following poem and answer the questions that follows:
Are You There?
My father and I shove back the furniture
to the four walls of the sitting room
then lie on the carpet wearing blindfolds,
his left hand holding my left hand
Are you there, Moriarty? he enquires, before tightening (I imagine) the grip on his rolled-up copy of yesterday’s Times. There is only one possible answer to that.
I give it while rolling away to the side but still clasping his hand, still in range, and sure enough he manages a direct hit. Now it is my turn, but the moment I lift my weapon I realise there is no reason to continue I can tell from his stillness, and the chill and stiffness of his fingers, he has been dead for a good while already.
Andrew Motion

The ‘weapon’ mentioned in the first line of the fourth stanza of the poem is