"Where's Chahda?"
"Getting cleaned up. He'll be back."
"Where's Zircon?"
"Gone out. He had a call from the hotel desk."
Rick got into the shower for a quick wake-up bath. By the time he was dressed Zircon had returned, a yellow sheet of paper in his hands. Chahda arrived a moment later.
"All here," Chahda said. "Good. Now I tell. You know who got our friends? Pirates!"
Rick stared at him in awe. "How did you find that out?"
"Word you said, one that scared Bagobos. I said it too, in few places at Davao. I try different ways to say, and I must have said it good one time. Filipino snapped at me to shut up, because word no good. But did Chahda shut up?"
"Never," Scotty said emphatically.
"Is true. Anyway, Filipino whispers to me about Pirates of Shan. He knows little. Only that they kill quick, and no one knows who is a pirate and who is not. Not many have heard of them."