“A root cellar!” Oak declared. She leaned forward and yanked the metal chain that led to the door, hauling up upright.

“Let me go first. There could be someone down there.”

I grasped a spare flashlight I had brought, turned it to the brightest setting and the plunged it into the hole.

There was a scream from inside, but it was high in pitch and terrified. My heart in my throat, I stuck my head down into the cellar. Only a portion of the space was illuminated, but what I saw made my mind reel.

“This isn’t a root cellar,” I said to Oak as I righted myself. Without further ado I clambered down the awkward steps of the ladder leading into the cellar, my light in my mouth. The first thing I had seen was layers of complex glassware, connected in strange formations. It looked like a laboratory, but an extremely out of place one. Next thing I saw was scuttling forms and small faces as they retreated behind crates and boxes.

“It’s ok,” I said softly. My heart was fully in my throat. The faces sunk into the shadows.

“Luna. Luna Lampour? I’m a detective. I know your dad. We’ve been searching for you since the day your vanished.”

The faces continued to shrink away.

“Lysha,” I said. “Lysha of Kasepo. You parents are looking for you. Nilo is looking for you.”

There was a small squeak from one of the faces.

“Luna, your mother and father and are looking for you. They love you and want you to come home. Your mama and papa bear want you to come home.”

There was a slight sob. Then a tiny body moved forwards, trembling in the light of my flashlight. I reached out a hand, and a small hand entered mine in return. I gazed into the soft dark eyes and almost managed to smile when I saw the dandelion necklace about the girl’s skinny shoulders.

“You’re safe now, it’s over,” I murmured.

At that moment, Oak appeared at my side and the shadowy figure moved back a pace, but Oak reached out her arms.

“Come on sweetie, let’s get you home,” she said softly.

There was a beat, then another, then the girl was rushing forwards into Oak’s arms. Luna Lampour buried herself into Oak and she lifted her up and cuddled her sobbing form. The girl was garbed in a stained white cotton shirt and pants and her short curly hair was one massive frizz.

I turned back to the other hesitant faces, wishing that Bract was here to translate. For they were clearly foreign, of the olivine skin of the nomads. They hovered on the edges of our flashlights.

“Lysha of Kasepo,” I tried again. “Nilo is hoping you will come home. Nilo, your brother.”

Hesitantly another small figure moved forwards. A thin girl with oily dark hair appeared in my light and shook as she stepped forwards. Her eyes were sunken and her face was ghostly. My gut twisted at the sight. She was garbed similarly to Luna and she too wore a dandelion chain about her neck.

“It’s ok Lysha. I’ll help you. Nilo. Nilo your brother. He is waiting for you.”

She moved close enough to touch and I reached out my hand in increments. Her tiny palm slid into mine and I squeezed it lightly. Then I looked back. There were at least four more faces. I pressed my left hand to my radio.

“Meryl, we need some help in here.”

As Meryl and the other moved into the cellar, I bent down and motioned for Lysha to climb onto my shoulders. There was a moment of uncertainty before she leapt aboard, her small arms about my neck. I hauled her out, dearly wishing that Bract was here, or that he had a cell, or that I knew a word of their language.

“Do you speak this language?” I asked.

“Yes,” Lysha whispered.

“Do the other children?”

“Some of them.”

“When we get you to the truck, can you tell them all in your language that they will be ok and we will find their families?”

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I felt her nod her chin into my shoulder.

“Thank you.”

All told, there were five girls and one young boy in total. Each one bore a dandelion chain about their necks. The Burkus crew took the four unknown kids with them, they had a dormitory they could put them up in for the evening. Tomorrow, I would find Bract and ask him to help us translate their words and find their families. We took Luna and Lysha with us to the station. They sat in the back of the car next to Oak, the two girls holding hands tightly. When we got back, Ashley was still there. She nearly burst into tears when we brought the two girls into the light. She and Oak took them to the back to help them shower and Meryl ran home to grab some of his daughter’s old clothes that might fit them. Meanwhile, I called up Luna’s parents and gave then the news. I knew they would pick up, even though it was close to midnight. Then I called the number of an on call nurse at the hospital to ask if she could come check the girls out to make sure they were ok. She did so and examined both the girls while we were waiting.

When she came out of the makeshift examination room, she shook her head. “No signs of sexual abuse,” she declared. “But they’ve both got a lot of odd first degree burns all over their arms and feet. Like they got into some nasty chemicals. Luna appears in reasonably good health but Lysha is malnourished. She’s lethargic due to this and can barely keep her eyes open. I took some blood tests and urine tests to make sure everything is ok internally, but they should both go in for a proper check up. But I think in time with proper feeding for Lysha, they’ll both be ok.

I wiped a hand over my brow in relief that they hadn’t been sexually abused. But I didn’t like the sound of this chemical burn business. Oak led the two girls back out to us.

“Luna, we’re going to take you home tonight. Your parents are waiting for you.”

Luna nodded.

“Lysha, we will take you home tomorrow morning. It’s too late to go tonight. You will stay with Inspector Oak tonight to sleep.”

Lysha swallowed and glanced nervously at Luna, who took her hand. Oak smiled encouragingly at her and held out a hand. “Let’s go sweetie. You need to rest. We’ll see your family tomorrow.”

“Luna, I’ll take you with me,” I said, holding out my own hand. Luna’s small fingers slipped into my palm.

We went out to the car. I set Luna up in the back middle seat and we set off into the night towards Wiggins Downtown. Luna was quiet for the first few minutes. Then she said, “how did you know where we were?”

I let out a long breath. I didn’t know what to say at first. Then I said, “I followed the trail of dandelions you left for me.”

“They let us out in the morning for a little while,” Luna said after a moment. “We picked flowers. I showed them how to make the rings. It was the only fun we were allowed to have.”

My fist tightened on the steering wheel. I thought of the two men I had shot tonight and felt a vicious gratification in the pain I had put them in for what they had done to these children. The Wiggins crew had called in an ambulance for them and Salas after we had gotten the kids out of the cellar. Thankfully the later hadn’t been badly shot, just a grazed arm, but he would need to recover none the less. The other two had been hit more directly and would hopefully have a long and painful recovery, ending in a lifelong prison cell. The other two guys that we had apprehended were sitting in Burkus holding cells now, awaiting their punishments. Sadly, none of them had been Ulug, who must have escaped in the truck. My only consolation was that Toni had gotten off a good shot, hopefully maiming at least one of the fugitives.

“What they made us do, it was like magic,” Luna said after another pause. “But it wasn’t fun. They would make us grind it up first into tiny pieces. Then we had to wash it with something that smelled really bad. That turned it white. Then we had to pour it through the machine that heated it up. Most of it would evaporate and make a bad smell, but then like a little tiny bit would fall into the cup below. It looked like silver. Then they made us wash the silver in something else. It turned it more solid. We had to be really careful and wash the silver for a long time, not letting it sit still. If it did, it would turn into gel and they would be mad at us.”

She stared into the distance for a moment. “It hurt when the stuff got on our hands. And it made us cough when we breathed it. We had to do it for so long. They wouldn’t even let us go to the bathroom. They yelled at us a lot. And when he came, it was really scary.”

I almost jerked the steering wheel I was holding it so hard. “When he came?” My throat felt dry. “The man with the tattoos?”

“Yes,” Luna said, her eyes widening. “You know him?”

“I’ve heard of him. He is a very bad man.”

“He would be nice at first to us. He told us we were special and lucky to be there. But if we did something wrong, he would shout at us really loudly. This one time, a girl knocked over one of the jars of silver and he slapped her. She got knocked out and had a bad bruise.”

There was a pause. We were almost to Luna’s house. When we pulled up outside, I turned to look at her. “You’re safe now. It’s all over. I-I want you to remember how brave you were. If you get scared, remember how much your parents love you. And remember, I won’t let that bad man ever hurt you again.”

Luna nodded slowly. I got out and helped her down out of the car. The door of the house flew open and Luna’s parents rushed out. They scooped up their daughter and sobbed while I watched them. When Mr. Lampour had a chance to detach himself, he walked over to me and held out his hand.

“Thank you son, for bringing my daughter home.”

I shook his strong palm as a few tears leaked out his eyes. He looked back to his daughter in his wife’s arms. “Is she ok?”

“Outwardly, yes,” I said. “There were no signs of physical abuse. But she was around dangerous chemicals, and there is bound to be psychological disruption. Take it slow with her, allow her to recover at her own pace.” I swallowed. “We will need to interview her in the next few days I’m afraid. I want to get it over with as soon as possible so she can move on with life. But unfortunately she was caught up in a very dangerous operation and we need to know as much as we can if we’re to prevent this from happening again to other children.”

Mr. Lampour nodded, but reluctantly. “Ok,” he said, holding his hand up to his chin. “If you must.”

“For tonight and tomorrow, just rest. We’ll be in touch.”