Drone

“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?” Myers asked.

“By pulling up traffic-camera images of both men in Juárez approximately three hours before and one hour after the incident.”

Myers frowned. “But not in El Paso?”

“No.”

“Were they seen inside the Hummer?”

“No. Nor were they in tactical gear. Either by accident or intent, they went to a location outside of traffic-camera range. There, they could have changed into tactical gear, stolen the Hummer, crossed the border, committed the shootings, crossed back over the border, ditched the Hummer and the tactical gear, then returned back to their own vehicle.”

“That’s a lot of ifs,” Greyhill said.

Jackson shrugged. “It’s not conclusive, but it’s another straw on the camel’s back.”

Donovan leaned forward. “So do you think the Castillo twins are the shooters?”

Jackson hesitated. “At the very least, they’re the prime suspects. And they certainly have the means, motive, and opportunity.”

Myers glowered at Jackson. “You were asked a straightforward question. The answer is either yes or no. Which is it, Mr. Jackson?”

Jackson glanced back at his boss, Nancy Madrigal. Are you sure you want to go through with this? Madrigal nodded in the affirmative. “From an intelligence perspective? The answer is yes. No question in my mind. But without further evidence, it seems to me it would be difficult to obtain a conviction in an American court of law.”

Myers turned to her attorney general. “Do you agree with Mr. Jackson’s legal opinion?”

Lancet leaned back in her chair, processing the president’s question. “A conviction would be difficult, yes, and probably impossible in an American court, based on the lack of hard admissible evidence. But the rules of evidence are one thing; the question of guilt is quite another. I agree with Mr. Jackson’s intelligence assessment. As a former prosecutor, my gut tells me these two men are the shooters. I’m just not sure what that gets us. The question now is, what do we do with this new information?”

“Same problem, same solution. We’ll hand our analysis off to the Mexican government and ask them to investigate further,” Myers said. “At the very least they can bring them in for questioning.”

“It’s one thing to ask the Mexicans to arrest a dealer or a shooter. It’s something else again to ask them to bring in the sons of César Castillo,” Madrigal said.

“I’m the first to admit I’m no expert on Mexican politics, but it seems to me that they would want to cooperate on this matter, just out of a sense of human decency if nothing else. They’ve partnered with us on the drug war for years. All we’re asking for is further investigation. What am I missing?” Myers asked.

All eyes turned to Dr. Strasburg, who’d been as silent as a Buddha until now.

“Madame President, your counterpart, President Antonio Guillermo Barraza, was also just recently elected to office. And like you, he narrowly won a hotly contested race, and he prevailed, in part, because he promised, like you, to give his people a respite. Mr. Molina, would you please tell the president about the AFI?”