The Consul is said to be stationed in City 17, like Breen in the final version. He also says that he spent the last trimester in City 49, which, according to Samuel, is very similar to City 17 and City 40, and has never been in the same zone more than six months. He states that this population shuffle is to keep people confused.
He further explains that the authorities hand 'Notices' to people, telling them they have to move from their city to another. Samuel then explains to him the train is going to arrive soon to a so-called City 17 and wonders why the train was stopped in the middle of nowhere, which is apparently when Gordon was 'put' inside the train by the G-Man. Samuel notices him and quickly gives him a spare gas mask, needed to survive in Earth's atmosphere, due to the Combine's Air Exchange replacing it with a gas poisonous to humans. After Gordon is dismissed by the G-Man, he wakes up in a decaying train cruising through a desolated landscape, the car walls covered by identical posters of the Consul. Samuel appears in the story fragment Now Arriving: City 17 Vignette featured in Raising the Bar.
