The Pirates of Shan

Thirty-six hours later, after a grueling transcontinental--trans-Pacific flight with only the briefest of stops to change planes, Rick, Scotty, and Zircon were in Manila. Their stay in Manila only three hours old, they had already visited the American consulate and found that no new information on the missing scientists had been received; they had arranged a luncheon date with Dr. Okola, and had reserved space on Philippine Airlines to Davao on the following morning.

Rick paced the floor, sipping a glass of fresh limeade, made with calamansi, the tiny, pungent local limes. His time for the past three days had been spent alternately dozing and thinking about the problem of the missing scientists. The more he wondered about their strange disappearance, the more worried he became.

"There's simply no reason for it," he said aloud.

Scotty looked up from the chair in which he was reading the Manila Times. The husky ex-Marine didn't have to be told what his pal was