Musket leaders meet with their benefactors in Yemen and encountered a strange combination of individuals and personalities. Eric and Tiffany arrive a day later after the others have left for the Amran hills. Eric meets the mysterious Persian cleric, Fahad, and encounters Spritz, who had been flown in separately. During the meetings, operation Milk Truck is planned in detail, and a working paradigm is established between the Americans and their international collaborators. This segment deepens the character study of Spritz and Eric in particular, but of all protagonists generally.

Written after the Ayatollah Khomeini’s death at a time of earthquakes in Iran. "Rolls dead in the dust" refers to an incident where Khomeini’s corpse fell from its coffin and fanatical supporters trampled it in hysteria. The mafia verses refer to Khomeini acting like a mafia don, putting a hit out on Salman Rushdie.