Ring!
His head cocked sideways at the familiar sound, imperceptible to the midday crowd who didn't give him a second thought. He was just another face in the crowd and he liked it that way.
Luck of the draw…what now? Any number of tricky problems might come down to him through the air and fibre optic cables. He didn't get to pick and choose. It was better this way.
Casting a glance at a reflection in the window of a nearby dry cleaners, he effortlessly slipped from the crowd towards the waiting phone booth. They were scarcer than ever these days, but his actions drew no more notice than the young woman behind him who had dropped her smartphone on the cracked sidewalk.
Pushing open the doors, he lifted up the receiver of the still ringing phone and pressed it to his ear. Listening for the familiar sound of a series of numbers repeated in different random voices.
He was not prepared for what he heard.
"Hello"
"I"
"would"
"like"
"to"
"order"
"an"
"extra"
"large"
"pepperoni"
"pizza…"
He stopped listening.
Plowing out of the booth, he stopped in front of a security camera perched just above the dry cleaners' door. He threw his arms up in the air. "Really?"
His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out.
"April Fools, John." Finch paused. "And for the record, it was her idea."