Charlie went to Manila and crashed China Cruz’s party, where he found Diego San Antonio. The latter told Charlie that if Astrid had wanted him to find her, she would’ve told him where she was. He then said that Charlie had created the problem of losing her in the first place. Charlie became blinded by rage and lunged at Diego.

Back in his suite at Raffles Makati, he heard a knock at the door. A petite Filipina “in a gold lamé cocktail dress” identified herself as Angel and said that she had a message for him (369). Charlie was to go to a private airport in Pasay City and take a flight scheduled to leave at 7:30 a.m.

The next day, Charlie followed the girl’s instructions, which she said had come from her boss. The plane landed at El Nido Airport. A young Filipino man named Marco greeted Charlie and asked him to come along with him to a private dock where there was a speedboat. Marco drove them across the Sulu Sea and to Palawan. Marco then anchored the boat near a rocky cove and gave Charlie a mask and snorkel. He instructed him to dive underwater, swim toward a cave opening under the rocks, and hold his breath for a maximum of 20 minutes when doing so.