How do you find the next 3 terms from the pattern: 2,6,18,...

The pattern appears to be

2(3)^(n-1)    for n = 1, 2, 3, 4.......

So we have

2, 6, 18, 54, 162, 486

One possible pattern would be to get the next term by multiplying by 3:

2 x 3 = 6     6 x 3 = 18     etc.

so:  18 x 3 = ?     ? x 3 = ??     and     ?? x 3 = ???