The Lost Diamond

Chapter 1

Zeniyah didn't know why she even went along with Helen on these "adventures." Ever since they were in sixth grade, Helen had done nothing but put Zeniyah in situations where she got hurt or in trouble. They were in twelfth grade now and had more freedom which, for Zeniyah, meant more trouble to get into.

"Helen, where are we going?" Zeniyah said exasperated.

"Uhhh," Helen looked around, "Alright, we're far enough from school so I can tell you."

Zeniyah sighed. "Tell me what? Where are we?"

"We are in Delpoint and we are going to my boyfriend's house."

"Oh my God!" Zeniyah should've seen this coming. Helen was the type to get a new boyfriend every week but somehow this boyfriend she's had for the past 3 months. She's never met him but she talks to him through the TalkToMe app every day- all day.

As they started to come upon a dark brown, shamble of a house in Nowhere land, Helen stopped. She checked her phone, looked up, looked confused and then repeated that same process three times.

"So, what you're telling me is that this is the house we're supposed to be at." Zeniyah sighed and shook her head in disbelief.

"I mean maybe my Maps is acting up...but this is the address that he gave me." Helen turned to Zeniyah and gave a shrug of her shoulders. "Well, it's worth a try."

As Helen began to walk towards the house, all Zeniyah could do was hope that Helen wasn't dating some old, 75-year-old creep who pretended to be someone her age. Helen knocked on the door as Zeniyah waited next to her now visibly anxious friend. A boy with dirty blonde hair and skin to match his light hazel eyes answered the door.

"Hey, Helen."

The sudden, obnoxious barking of her neighbor's Labrador retriever startled Zeniyah and the memory abruptly ended. She pulled out her phone from her back pocket and realized that she should have been home 10 minutes ago. It's not that her mom cared or anything (it was still daylight and she would be 20 in 3 months) but she had homework to do. Z's mom was a stickler for homework and she didn't feel like hearing her mouth- especially not as soon as she gets in the door. When Zeniyah arrived to her home, she braced herself for the lecture but instead got a gun to her temple.

"Don't make any noises and walk into the house normally." Zeniyah did as she was told and walked over to her mother who was huddled, crying on the couch in their living room. She sat down trying to calm her mother. After the villain had shut the door, his troupe came out.

" Now, where is it?" Shouted one of the evil home invaders.

"Where is what?" Zeniyah yelled back, trying to keep her posture.

"The diamond!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Zeniyah pulled out the TV remote, "but you need to shut up."

She pressed a button on the remote and all of the men fell down, completely unconscious. Zeniyah grabbed the box that contained The Lost Diamond and stuffed it in her bookbag. She turned back around to see her mother staring at her in awe and fright.

"How did you do that?"

"I'll explain later but I have to go now." She gave her mother a kiss and ran out the door to find John.

John wasn't like your average man- and most people couldn't deal with that fact. He was a tall, dark-skinned man with bleach blonde hair. He always wore black clothing (sometimes Zeniyah wondered if he wore the same outfit everyday).

"John!" Zeniyah came rushing into the alley John found himself in everyday. He freaked out on her and slipped out a knife but before he could do any harm she identified herself.

"Now, you know better than to run up on me like that," he put the knife away. "What's wrong? Why do you look so frantic?"

"The Mondules found me! How am I supposed to act?!"

"What? How?"

"You tell me! I told you hiding The Diamond at my house wasn't a good idea," she tried to calm herself. "You told me that this job would have risk but, I swear to goodness, if anyone hurts my mother-"

"No one will hurt your mother," John interrupted. "Now stop whining and let's do something productive."

Zeniyah arrived at John's house to see Helen and her boyfriend sitting on the couch, cuddled up, watching a movie.

"Hey, Dad," Patrick said nonchalantly in the direction of John.

"Yeah, okay," John grabbed the remote and shut the TV off, " We have something important to do."

They all sat down at the table and John briefed Helen and Patrick about what had happened to Zeniyah while she made some popcorn for everyone. Well, mostly, it was for Zeniyah because she had a bad habit of stress eating but she didn't want to seem like a hog. She brought back a bowl full of the buttery goodness and set it down at the table.

"I don't know how The Mondules found out about Z but we obviously can't keep hiding The Diamond at her house," stated John.

"Why in hell are we still hiding The Diamond? Why don't we just go on with the mission already?" Helen blurted out, worry and concern thick in her voice.

"Listen, I know you want your best friend to remain safe but it is too risky-"

"Too risky, my ass! The only reason we are holding back is because you don't know if we are still in The Agency or not!"

Silence engulfed the room. Nobody had said that fact out of their mouth before but they all knew it to be true. John Capron had gotten into an argument with Head Director Mallon around 5 months ago. Ever since then, their whole team has been in the dark towards The Agency's going ons and, more importantly, what in the world they were supposed to do with The Lost Diamond.

"What if it's not even the real one."

Everyone's heads turned towards Patrick in confusion.

"I mean, think about it. This would not be the first time that The Agency put a team onto a fake mission to, well to put it nicely, get rid of no longer useful and way too knowledgeable links."

This was correct, too. There was a team by code name Falcun who were given a mission to wipe out terrorists in Afghan. What they weren't told was that these were actually natives who the local government had experimented on. The experiments had made all of the natives - including the children- crazy in the head and bloodthirsty. They didn't last for more than a week.