Petra and the Blue Goo

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Petra loves books. And she loves her job at Nuovo Italiano Rare Books Library. So when a group of Bathybobles threatens to destroy those precious books—and to win a game, no less—Petra must stop them.

Once she gets the slime out of her eyes, of course.

“You always know you’re going to get something good from Kristine Kathryn Rusch.”

—SFRevu

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: Jun 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386103080

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

USA Today bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov’s Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award. Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award. She writes goofy romance novels as award-winner Kristine Grayson, romantic suspense as Kristine Dexter, and futuristic sf as Kris DeLake.  She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own. To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, krisdelake.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com). She lives and occasionally sleeps in Oregon.

Book preview

Petra and the Blue Goo

Petra and the

Blue

Goo

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

WMG Publishing

Contents

Petra And The Blue Goo

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Also by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

About the Author

Petra And The

Blue

Goo

They squooshed. That’s what Petra first thought when she heard them approach. They squooshed.

Worse, they left not-so-little blobs of wet blue goo wherever

they

went

.

Petra stood behind the desk at the Nuovo Italiano Rare Books Library and thanked every god she’d ever heard about that the actual books were behind clear walls. Because these creatures had no respect for anything.

She folded her hands together so that she wouldn’t hit the security button below the desk. She’d hit it too many times in the early days of her career here, and she’d become known as Petra the Panicker. Quintavas, one of the guards, even called her Pee-Pee, and winked whenever he did it, as if she appreciated the joke as much as

he

did

.

Maybe she was folding her hands together so she didn’t have to

call

him

.

The Bathybobles bounced their way past security, holding their gold passes in their cilia. The gold was striking against their bright blue bodies which made her think of nothing more than ugly pulsing balloons with hair stuck randomly to