The Guardian

days. You didn’t have any choice but to take the alternate route.
    Everyone bitched, especially the ones living in Boulder City. They were loosing revenue don’t you know.
    The bike ran smooth and quiet, running at about 75 mph. The big motor didn’t have to work at all. That was the reason he had done what he had to the motor. It was a Honda with an 1800 cc engine. The engine, torn down, bored, stroked, was blueprinted. It had a turbo charger added for the extra power. Beefing up the suspension was another plus. It had an onboard air compressor already and he was able to totally adjust and fine-tune the suspension to any ride level he wanted.
    Besides the little extras such as the AM/FM stereo, police monitoring system and a two-way radio, he had electric cruise control, reverse, and GPS guidance system. It had a high tech alarm system installed. The bike was all black with ghost flames done in blue with purple tips at the ends of the flames. Everything was black, even the chrome was black. The lights had smoked grey covers over them so as not to reflect the red lenses if he were being followed. There were no yellow or otherwise reflective devices anywhere on it. This bike was built to move without being seen and it did that very, very well.
    The plates weren’t traceable as he had cut and welded two halves of two different plates. He had developed a way to duplicate and make the registration sticker. He’d just find out what the color was for that particular year, duplicate it and he was good to go.
    His van was the same way. It was a large Chevy Express. It too was all black. He’d pulled the small V8 out of it and put in a large, completely overhauled 454 cu. in. It put out well over 900 hp. The suspension had been beefed up to support anything that he could ever want to carry, even the Brooklyn Bridge if he wanted to. The tires on the van and the bike were puncture resistant and self-inflating in case one of them did happen to go flat while in operation.
    The suspension was equipped with an anti-roll, anti skid system. It would automatically decelerate the engine and working in conjunction with the ABS brakes, would prevent any serious rollovers. It would prevent any other loss of control. Hydraulics had been added so that, if needed, the entire body would lower itself down over the wheels, resting on the ground.
    He had installed steel a floor to roof roll cage. It would resist any structural impact from any direction. The cage was sealed within a thin metal skin so that it wasn’t visible. The floor even had hidden compartments. The Center compartment was big enough to hide a grown person, lying lengthwise.
    The glass on the van and the windshield of the bike were all bullet proof. The metal in the doors of the van were all bullet proof. He wanted to be sure he covered all the bases.
    As he cruised along SR160, he was focusing on the one house that sat back off the road. Surrounded by railroad timbers, they looked like trees. They were flush up against each other all the way around.
    Someone really wanted their privacy. He slowed down and prepared to turn in. Suddenly he noticed that the large gate in the front was opening. He hesitated, slowing slightly and kept going straight. As he watched, an immaculate, like new, 74 Jaguar XKE came pulling out.
    Going up to the next drive, he saw a post with about a half dozen mailboxes attached. He pulled in and made a U-turn. He watched the Jag make a right turn out of the drive and head east down SR160. He watched for several minutes making sure that the car wasn’t going to backtrack. He proceeded to head back to the large house where the Jag had come from.
    Once there, he steered the bike off the main drive and circled to the back of the compound. It didn’t go all the way around as the house and wall had stopped at the base of a large mound. From the looks of it, they had used the extension of the mountain as part of the property. Using it for what he did not know. At any rate, this large mound was definitely a part of the property. The fact that the timbers butted up against this large, protruding mound meant no one was getting in over that wall.
    He climbed off the bike, and proceeded to walk around the compound. The wall was very high. Getting over it would take a considerable amount of work. He didn’t have the right type of equipment to do it with him. Annoyed at himself for not considering those when preparing for this trip, he proceeded to walk