All attention turned to Tylanni and Donald. Donald brushed off his injury as nothing more than a flesh wound. Rachel quickly recovered and jumped to Tylanni’s side. The bullet had gone straight through her thigh and fortunately missed the femoral artery. However, she had lost a lot of blood which weakened her considerably. Rachel stemmed the blood flow while Donald made some calls.
Within ten minutes, a major rescue operation was underway. Donald was a personal friend of the Malaysian King and so no expense was spared on their rescue. A helicopter rushed Tylanni and the rest of the group to the best hospital in Sabah. The chiefs of police and the military were tasked with hunting down and finding any further assailants. Over 200 crack troops were ordered to protect Donald, Rachel, Saki and Tylanni.
On arrival at the hospital, Tylanni was rushed to Intensive Care where it became apparent that an emergency operation was needed to deliver the baby. Saki and Donald were again left alone. As Saki paced up and down Donald’s room he began to talk, he needed to do something, the more he talked the more Donald’s jaw dropped.
“I should probably explain,” started Saki, “our islanders speak English as their first language because we were colonised and saved by the British many, many years ago. A British doctor saved us from a plague that would have surely wiped us out. As a result our leader at the time swore allegiance to Britain and as such we are governed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.”
Despite the questions flying around that he was desperate to ask, Donald stayed quiet, he needed to let Saki talk.
“We have dual nationality, British and Malay, due to a long standing agreement between both monarchs. We are descended from an ancient warrior tribe, who had sole responsibility for the protection of a powerful emperor but through a great betrayal our emperor was murdered and our tribe almost extinguished. A few managed to escape and eventually found a home on our island, Penaraja, named in their honour and translates to, ‘Emperors Guard’.”
“We are a simple people who believe in the teachings and ways of our ancestors and as such continue to train as our ancestors before us, we train from birth, just as our ancestors, in an ancient martial art and at the age of eighteen we join the British forces.”
Donald couldn’t help himself, “what you join the British army, I mean I’ve heard of the Ghurkas but the Penr…Penarajans, never.”
“We don’t have a specialist unit as such, we just go straight into the SAS or SBS, you know the British special forces.”
“You need to train for that though, go through selection, have a few years experience.”
Saki laughed, “Did you not hear me, we train from birth, by the time we’re twelve we could pass selection. At any one time there are about ten Penarajans across the two services. Why do you think the British Special Forces has such a great reputation,” added Saki with a wink.
Before Donald could respond Rachel rushed in and informed Saki he was the proud father of a beautiful baby girl. She explained that they were still concerned for Tylanni as she remained very weak. However, Tylanni, despite her condition, demanded to see Saki and their new daughter. She held her baby daughter in her arms and they named her Lela. An hour later, with Lela and Saki still with her, Tylanni passed away.