The Trojan Agenda, excerpt

Gun shots crackled in the darkness. But the sound did not get very far in the pouring rain. Night fell all around him as the heavens wept. Waves of torrents rushed from the sky to soak the earth.
His vision blurred by water, Avinash ran across the open field crisscrossing his steps to prove as difficult a target as he could manage. He felt the shockwave from one of the bullets whizzing past his head dissolve into the night. They must have seen him in the headlights from the passing truck.
He could hear a few faint screams from the dhabha to his right. The people in the SUV probably expected to find him and Anjali within the compound. They couldn’t have been prepared for Surjeet, armed and ready. They must have retreated when Surjeet shot at them. Avinash needed to get back to the kitchen. But first, he needed to disable the two men shooting at him.
It was open land around him and except for a few small trees there was no cover from bullets. He knew the land but darkness and rain made it impossible to judge distances.
He saw another muzzle flash about thirty feet off the road. The gun was fired with the right hand held at chest height. Without thinking, he aimed his weapon and fired. Then instantly he dove into the direction of his shot and rolled away to his left as soon as he hit the ground. He heard the scream of the man who had fired followed by another muzzle flash aimed where he would have been standing. Now he had the relative location of the other man. He let out a loud grunt with enough conviction of pain and moved quickly in the darkness towards the direction of his first attacker.
He could hear sputtering and rustling of the first man as he approached the writhing body. He inched closer and lowered his own body to the ground. He could hear muffled breathing through clenched teeth to control the pain. He was now close enough to touch the man. He gently locked the safety of his gun and put it back in his belt.
Years of unwanted experience compelled Avinash to reach out and grab the injured man’s head. With a quick hard jerk, he twisted the skull, breaking the spine with the crisp sound of a fresh cucumber. The body collapsed upon itself quietly. He lowered the limp head back to the ground and moved out. The rain continued unabated around him.
He heard the other assailant. His all-terrain boots were sloshing on the muddy ground trying to locate Avinash. He was well within the range of his Beretta. But Avinash didn’t shoot. He needed answers from this guy.
He crept over taking each step on his toes to minimize sounds his attacker may notice. The pouring rain and pitched darkness made it impossible to target by sight so Avinash focused on hearing. He moved forward concentrating with his ears. When he was sure of their bearings, he leaped forward without looking up.
His assailant didn’t expect this. Avinash dove into the man’s waist from the side and they both went down pinning the assailant’s gun arm under their combined weight. The guy recovered quickly and tried to twist his upper body around by digging into the ground with his heels. Avinash responded by twisting his own body in the same direction making the man overshoot and flip back down again.