She led the way through the tip. Now they were here, she felt apprehensive. She wanted to help the devils, but she didn’t want them to be hurt. The devils trusted her, and her special connection with them had been built over time. It was fragile. If the devils were captured, the bond might be broken. They would be released again, of course, but they wouldn’t know that when they went into a trap.

Rubbish racketed as two quolls sprang out from a pile. ‘Hey!’ Dale called. ‘Quolls.’ He swung his spotlight to find them, but Miki knew they were long gone. Quolls were sensitive creatures.

She trudged among the hummocks to the back of the tip. ‘If you wait here near the excavator, I might be able to coax the devils out,’ she told Dale.

He liked this idea, so she laid some meat at the far end of the yard then shifted a short distance away and sat down to wait.

For a while, nothing happened. Wind stirred pieces of plastic and loose bits of tin. Garbage creaked and moaned. Miki was beginning to think they would see nothing tonight, when a dark shape loomed from the shadows. It was the male devil, and he was suspicious. He stopped and sniffed the air then hunched and hissed and snarled, sound rising and falling in this throat like the noise of the takeaway’s espresso machine. He must know strangers were present, but the scent of the meat was tempting, and eventually he scuttled forward and snatched it up.

Dale switched on the spotlight and the devil stopped chewing, squinting into the brightness. The sore on his lip had grown distinctly larger: red-raw and as big as a fifty-cent piece. Dale was beckoning to Miki, so she crept back to him. ‘It looks like that devil might have the disease,’ he whispered.

A stone rolled in her stomach. ‘Could it be anything else?’

‘I don’t think so. They get some bad fight wounds but that looks more like a tumour. We need to catch him and take a sample.’

Dale started towards the Toyota, but Miki hung back, worried about using the traps. The devils wouldn’t understand. It would be terrifying for them.

Leon waited to walk with her and Geraldine. ‘Are you okay with this?’ he asked.

She was unaccustomed to being asked her opinion—but if she didn’t stand up for the devils, who would? ‘I’d rather we left them alone.’

‘Dale has trapped tons of devils. He knows what he’s doing.’

Miki imagined the devil in a trap, butting wildly against the sides. She knew what it was like to be locked in, and the devil would be confused. She wished she hadn’t brought people here.

Geraldine patted her arm and smiled reassuringly. ‘I’m sure your devil will be okay. He’s such a feisty animal. So much attitude for a little guy!’