"I would like a gun"

"What sort of gun?"

"Something powerful, but nothing too big"

"Then I recommend this one, it’s a Smith & Wesson 38"

"Is it powerful?"

"If it’s powerful? Son, you can penetrate an engine with this baby" the salesman said and caressed the weapon. He saw that the man hesitated so he continued.

"If you buy it I’ll throw in some extra bullets" he tempted. The man’s next question surprised him.

"Could you put on a muffler?"

"Uhm, sure" he said and wrote it on a paper. He continued.

"I need your name, you know, to see if you have been sentenced or…"

"No problem" the man said and took the paper that the salesman gave him and signed it.

"Good. I will have it ready for you on Friday"

"Thank you" the man said and walked out of the store. The salesman glanced at his back and then looked at the paper. It was something strange with that kid, but he couldn’t tell exactly what it was. The name didn’t tell him anything either. It was a normal, common name. Nick Carter.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Nick walked out of the gun-dealer, out in the sun-shine. His bodyguard, Eddie, waited for him at the end of the street. Nick had ordered him not to follow him, but to wait nearby. Eddie didn’t like it but he had to do as he was told.

Nick didn’t want anyone to know what he was doing, he wanted to take care of it himself. Things could get dangerous and if something unplanned would occur, he wanted his loved ones as far away as possible.

In the car on the way home he thought of his plan. Well, it wasn’t a plan exactly, it was more of a "what-to-do-next".

He wanted to find Stacey. She knew something no one else knew; why he had been kidnapped. He had spent endless nights thinking of it. First in the old factory, then at home. She had never said that she knew, exactly, but he figured that since she knew all the other stuff she knew this too. He remembered very well that Stacey had said that they wouldn’t see each-other again, if it wasn’t under bad circumstances.

But it didn’t stop him. He had an idea of where to start, he had read it in a book a couple of months ago. The author had done some research in the under-world, and she had let the reader know how she had done it. In detail. She wrote that the Internet is a good source, but not 100% correct. And if you want to enter the under-world, then you have to protect yourself. It was easy for her to say, she had a weapon-license, a black belt in karate and more attitude than Nick could ever dream of having.

He had bought the gun just to protect himself, not to shoot or threaten anyone.

"Well, maybe threaten" he changed himself. He had always wanted a weapon, but he had never had a good reason for it, but now, with all the things that had happened, and the things that would happen, he would need one.

*~*~*~*~*~*

When he was home he went straight to the computer and logged on to the Internet. Internet was a source of many things. Both good and bad. But yet a great source of information. He went to different search-engines and searched for articles about the incident in Poland, two years ago. He knew that it wouldn’t say anything about why they had been there, but maybe something.

After three hours of searching, he finally found something. It was an article from the middle of –98. It was in Russian, but after a quick translation at Altavista he was able to read it. It was from the biggest Russian newspaper, Pravda. He read it once and he read it twice. He knew that Stacey had been there now, it was there, black on white. Not that he hadn’t believed her before, he hadn’t have a reason to believe she was lying, but still…

He read it once again.