Modern thriller/military fiction idea halp.

[Pulp]

So I have an opening for a story, and a general tone, but no plot. So, where would you go with this opening SFF?

Africa, a former French Legionnaire employed by the CIA to do recon/observation on an arms dealer places a call on his manpack radio from a shack.

He says that he is in trouble, south of the mountains, by the church that his friend Antoine knows about.

Call ends.

The CIA picked up the manpack call and traced it to the shack. They send an agent via helicopter from a nearby station in Africa. He finds the house (marked with a reflective panel on the roof) and inside the dead Legionare. Some self bandaging, used weapon,the guy is full of bullet holes, etc.

The strange item is a bag of diamonds (you know, Africa is famous for "blood diamonds"). The CIA initially considers that maybe the Legionnaire planned to keep them for himself, but that didn't make sense. Eventually it is figured out that the diamonds are laser etched with extremely sensitive information of some type (the logic is that people will protect diamonds fiercely anyway, so who would suspect they have another, intelligence related value).

And then what? I like the opening, but I don't know what to do with it.

[NilsDesperandum]

Not a bad premise.

My initial thought is that the bag of diamonds would have been recovered by the Legionairre's killers, and not left behind - as you say they would be fiercely protected/sought after. You only need a single diamond to trigger your story-trail, so how about if the L manages to swallow one before his pursuers break into the shack. This could be recovered during autopsy (but you'll also need to come up with a plausible reason for the carrying out of the autopsy).
Once they (CIA, or whoever) discover the significance of their find the hunt is on for the other diamonds, the information contained on each presumably fitting together to provide the bigger picture (what this sensitive information is, I don't know).
Anyway, your lead charachter (the same agent that was despatched initially? maybe not) can now swing ito action.

Any help??

ND

[zachariah]

Ooh I like it already. Our hero will need a diamond expert to help guide him through the murky world of diamond smugglers and their links to the world of high finance, who just happens to be a sassy young lady, a Harvard-educated daughter of an African Warlord, unwilling to be dragged back to the world she has tried so hard to leave behind...

...And etched into these diamonds will be a terrifying secret that threatens to turn our cherished ideas on the origins of humanity upside-down...

[NilsDesperandum]

Sounds like a cross between Indiana Jones and James Bond :D

Seriously though, you will have to introduce some charachter traits to keep him original. Or why not turn the tables and go for a femenine lead?

You are getting this Pulp, aren't you?? ;)

ND