“I’m not para—”

“—I’ll tell ya up front that the Crows won’t be looking at what you got in your account or involving themselves in your business unless you want them to.”

Kera glanced down at the paperwork shoved in front of her, looked back at the woman, then immediately looked back at the paperwork.

“I think there’s a mistake here,” Kera said, pointing at the papers.

“Mistake?” the woman asked, her attention now on her computer screen. “I don’t make mistakes. Not where money is concerned. That’s why I worked for the Russian mob for more than twelve years. Now, you already got your weapons, right? From Ludvig Rundstöm? If you don’t want to work with him for some reason, there are other blacksmiths we use. But I must admit, he’s one of the best. But if you did get your weapons from him, let me know so that I can pay him. He forgets to submit invoices and then six months later we have a bunch of Valkyries here, led by that sister of his, screaming that we’re trying to cheat him. It’s a pain in the ass. I don’t want to deal with it.”

“Yeah. He gave me my weapon.”

“Great. I’ll get that money out to him today then.”

“But wait . . .”

Paula finally looked at her. “What?”

“I don’t . . .” Kera shook her head, pointed at the paperwork. “This says I have seventy-five grand in this account. That can’t be my account.”

“Of course it’s your account. Whose account could it be?”

“Anyone who actually has seventy-five grand to their name. I don’t.”

“Well, you do now.”

“I don’t understand.”

“We start each Crow off with her own cash.” Paula turned her office chair so that she stared straight at Kera. “Every Crow comes here differently. I mean, we all died to get here, but some are given new lives and identities. For instance, we had a gal who worked with the CIA. When she died, she didn’t want to go back to the CIA, so her body was never recovered, so to speak, and Padma Shakofski—”

“Padma Shakofski?”

“She’s half East Indian, half Polish. You’ll hear that a lot when you meet Crows. ‘She’s half this and half that.’ ”

As someone of mixed origin, Kera felt the need to ask, “Why is that something that needs to be pointed out?”

“Just get used to it. Anyway, her body was never recovered and Padma Shakofski was born. And because she left everything behind, we had to give her what she needed to get started again. Now you, of course, are nobody—”

“Excuse me, but—”

“—and your body was taken by Skuld before anyone found it, like the cops. Or EMS. Soyou’re keeping your name and previous life connections. But you still have nothing, so we need to give you a strong enough base to get started.”

“Well . . . do I pay rent here or something?”

“Why would you pay rent at the Bird House?”

“Okay, but . . . will I work for the rehab center or—”

“That’s up to you. Uh, your team leader, Tessa, right? She works for Giant Strides. She manages all the nursing staff at all the locations. She loves her job and it nets her well into the six figures territory. If you want, you can go to one of the locations and see if that’s something you’d like to do. Or you can go back to school. We’ll pay for it.”

“You’ll pay for it? Then what am I supposed to do with all this money?”

“Buy a wardrobe. Invest in bonds. Buy a robot. One of the girls bought a robot.”

“A . . . a robot?”

“Sure. That’s an option.” When Kera only gazed back at her, the Crow asked, “I doubt you planned to spend the rest of your life at that coffee shop, right? So what were you going to do?”

“Re-sign with the Marines.”

“Well, you can’t do that now.”

“I can’t?” Because Kera was ready to sprint back to the Marines like the devil himself was on her ass.

“Because it’s not like you can be shipped off to Afghan-a-wherever—”

“Afghanistan.”

“Yeah. Right. Go to Afghanistan, then fly back here every night to do a job, and then turn back around and head back there. Even if you caught the right tailwind, that would still be too much traveling.”

“Of course it would,” Kera said flatly.

“But there must be something you’ve always secretly wanted to do. Maybe acting . . . ?” She suddenly looked Kera over, her eyes focusing on her legs. “Your legs are a little short for that, so maybe voice acting?”

“Okay then,” Kera said, standing, unable to have that particular discussion again. “Thank you.”

She picked up all her papers and her backpack and walked to the door. That’s where she stopped and turned back to Paula. The woman was already focused on her computer again, Kera immediately forgotten.

“Uh . . . excuse me?”

“What?” Paula asked. She didn’t even bother to look at Kera this time.

“Do you guys have office supplies?”

Paula glanced at her. “We can get you an office. Do you want an office?”

“No. I don’t . . .” Kera shook her head. “I just need supplies. Pens. Notepads. That sort of thing.”

“Oh sure. Second closet on the left in this hallway.”