Bryony's thoughts

 'She raised one hand and flexed its fingers and wondered, as she had sometimes before, how this thing, this machine for gripping, this fleshy spider on the end of her arm, came to be hers, entirely at her command ... The mystery was in the instant before it moved ... when her intention took effect. It was like a wave breaking.'

'Was everyone else really as alive as she was?'

'She knew it was overwhelmingly probable that everyone else had thoughts like hers. She knew this, but only in a rather arid way; she didn't really feel it.'