“On moment.”

The name and register of the voice had pinged something in the automated system, something that caused an alert to go to Tony’s phone from the AI he had programmed to take the place of an annoying human secretary. He has a personal assistant and she’s too busy to screen his calls. Dealing with one person on that front is enough. Between Pepper, his driver and bodyguard Happy, and a few other contacts here and there, Tony thinks his life is enriched enough as it is. He doesn’t need someone acting as gatekeeper for him when he can write a program to do it.

Besides, it really helps to take the infallibility to the extreme when it comes to people contacting him. This is just more proof that Pepper is wrong about having programs answer phones for you. A glance at the name on the phone makes him grin and he sets a mental note to tell her all about it when she returns from filling in for him at some sort of function or award ceremony or whatever.

Tony drops his tool and peels off his gloves before he punches the speaker option on the cell phone.

“And here I thought that you lost my number.” He’s as arrogant as ever, and the gloating comes right through the phone.