Drone by Mike Maden

notes.
    A few more agonizing moments passed.
    “Madame President, I don’t know what to say,” Jackson stammered. “I’m so sorry.”
    Myers turned toward Jackson. Her face softened. “There’s nothing to apologize for, Roy. I’m the one who asked to see the video. Your division has done an excellent job finding it and bringing it to our attention.”
    “We’re just doing our jobs, ma’am.”
    “So tell us, please, Mr. Navarro, what is the takeaway from these clips, particularly the second one we were asked to observe carefully?” Myers asked.
    Navarro took a sip of coffee to clear his throat. “What’s clear to me is that these two men have received specialized training in weapons and tactics. These aren’t gangbangers running and gunning wild on the street.”
    That was exactly Mike Early’s take on the flight to Denver. “So these are military or ex-military?” Myers asked.
    “Not necessarily,” Navarro said. “I’m only suggesting they’ve received military-style training. I think they’re civilians.”
    “Why?” Early asked.
    Navarro pointed at his iPad. “If everyone will refer to the freeze-frame photo I pulled from the video—it’s on the first page of the upload I sent out.”
    The others pulled up the photo in question. It showed the two masked assailants standing in front of the Hummer.
    “The vehicle is a General Motors Hummer H2. The factory specs indicate that a stock H2 is 81.9 inches in height. But if you’ll notice, the tires are oversize, which means there’s a lift package on the suspension. Our best estimate is that another eight inches have been added to the overall height of the vehicle, so that puts it at just about seven and a half feet tall. Please notice where the heads of the two shooters are and that neither of them is standing fully erect. You can enlarge the photos on your screens, if you need to.”
    “Wow. That means these guys are pretty tall. I’d guess around six three or six four,” Early offered.
    “That’s our estimate, too,” Navarro said.
    “So who are these men?” Donovan asked.
    “They’re masked, wearing gloves. Combat gear. No visible skin, which means no visible scars or tattoos, if any exist. There weren’t any fingerprints or DNA on any of the shell casings or recovered bullets. It’s almost impossible to make a positive ID at this time,” Jackson said.
    “You said ‘almost impossible’ to tell. I take it you have a hunch?” Myers asked.
    “More than a hunch. As near as we can tell, these two men appear to be the same height and the same build, and their movements are highly synchronized, above and beyond any practiced training that they’ve had,” Jackson said.
    “Synchronized in what way?”
    “Like they’re used to doing things together a lot, or maybe even because they share the same build. Their movements are practically mirror images of each other.”
    “You mean twins?” Early asked.
    “Yes,” Jackson answered. “There are an estimated ten million identical twins in the world and one hundred and fifteen million fraternal twins.”
    “Well, that really narrows it down,” Jeffers said.
    “Technically, it does. That gets us down to less than three percent of the world’s population. Less than half of that if you only count adults, and half again if you discount women, which is probably a safe bet. Of course, there really is no way of telling who these men are precisely, but since we’re talking about El Paso, that’s Castillo Syndicate territory, and as it turns out, César Castillo has identical twin sons by the names of Aquiles and Ulises. According to records we’ve obtained through our counterparts in Mexico, the Castillo brothers are each six foot three.”
    “And I take it we still don’t have any witnesses at the scene who will identify the twins as the shooters?” Greyhill asked.
    “No, but Mr. Navarro was able to put them in the vicinity at the time of the incident,” Jackson said.
    “How?”