“Oh, this beast? It's...perspicacious loris. 'Perspicacious' meaning 'wise or canny'.""Get stuffed," Bovril said, then giggled."And it insults people," Telsa said. "How peculiar.”

“Dess shook her head. "Before he walked off, Rex said for you to wait. He said it's totally important you don't touch Angie until he comes back. and he said that if you were a pain about it, I get to hit you with that." She pointed to where the darkling had flung Flabbergasted Supernumerary Mathematician, its tip blackened by ichor and fire. "So, go ahead.”

“Sprinkled across the black waters below were at least a hundred small boats set out to greet the Leviathan, their navigation lights like shifting stars. Among them loomed a glittering cruise liner, her fog horn bellowing in the night. The low groan grew into a chorus as the other great ships in the harbor joined in.Perched on Volger's desk, Bovril attempted to imitate the horns, but wound up sounding like a badly blown tuba.Alek smiled. "But they're already singing our praises!""They are Americans," Volger said. "They toot their horns for anything.”

“They'll be fine," Wickersham said. "Practice makes perfect."I had to ask. "You practice running away?""We knew we'd make enemies. Other organizations have fire drills; we have oh-shit-someone-found-our-ass drills.”

“Why are you still wearing...?" Aya began. "Oh, that's not smart plastic? You're really an ugly?"David rolled his eyes and Shay said quietly, "David's never had any surge at all. But I wouldn't use the word ugly...Tally might eat you.”

“Becoming pretty doesn't just change the way you look," she said. "No," David said. "It changes the way you think.”

“It's not the way Zane looks, David," she said, her voice trembling with anger. "It's because he makes me bubbly, and because we took a lot of risks together. It could just as easily be me lying there, and he would stay with me if it was.""It's just programming!" "No. It's because I love him.”