Every stop in The Last Taxi side story runs the same way. Once one of the anomalous cabs pulls Dylan into a fog-covered version of Manhattan, a payphone starts ringing in a side alley, and answering it puts a trapped civilian named Mila on the line. That call is what wakes up the taxis on the street, so you cannot skip it.
Quick answer: Enter an anomalous taxi to reach the Threshold, sprint straight down the road, turn right into the side alley, and press F on the ringing payphone to talk to Mila.
Reach the Threshold first through the Central 7 taxi
You can only reach Mila from inside a Threshold, and you enter a Threshold by climbing into one of the strange cabs scattered across the city. The easiest one to demonstrate this on sits in Central 7, just north of the Dig Site Threshold and west of the Patterned Factory.
Open your map in Central 7 and set a marker on the taxi icon northwest of the Dig Site Threshold. Walk up to the yellow cab parked in the alley and use the E prompt to enter it. The moment you get in, Dylan is teleported into a deserted, amber-lit copy of the city.

Join readers who trust AllThings.How
Add us as a preferred source on Google so our practical guides show up first next time you search.
Add to Google Preferences →Find and answer Mila’s payphone
The routine below is identical at every taxi, so once you learn it here you can repeat it in any zone. Listen for the ringing as soon as you arrive.

The taxis out on the main street do nothing until this call is finished, so answer the phone before you bother inspecting any cab.
Pick a reply to end the conversation
Mila asks what is happening out in the city, and you are given two dialogue options. You can choose “The city’s… fine” or “There was an evacuation”. Either one closes out the call and moves the side story forward, so there is no wrong pick here.
Once the exchange ends, hang up and head back the way you came. Answering the phone is what activates the puzzle, so you will know it worked because the cabs lining the street are now live and ready to interact with.
After the call: work back through the taxi loops
After exiting the alley, get back onto the main road and climb into the yellow taxi beside the sidewalk. Choosing the correct cab triggers a brief cutscene showing a traffic light change to green, then takes Dylan farther along the foggy avenue to the next group of taxis.

Each correct pick spawns you a little further along, next to another cab with an Enter Taxi prompt waiting. Keep taking the right one through each loop transition.

Between transitions you will keep running forward down the street to reach the next set of cabs before making your choice.

The final cab of the sequence sits at the street corner. Entering it sends Dylan back to the normal daytime city, where alert drones circle overhead and he notes he will need to find another taxi to reach Mila again.

From there, the loop repeats at the next taxi you track down elsewhere in the city, always starting with the same ringing payphone and the same call to Mila.






