Author's Note- This is the thrilling conclusion to this story. There will be a shorter epilogue following this chapter that ties up more of the loose ends and explains more about the early history of SAMCRO. I hope that y'all find this to be a satisfying climax and why the people of Charming feel indebted to the Sons of Anarchy even a generation later. While the show heads in a much darker direction that will be addressed in the epilogue, I wanted as close to a feel good ending as I can right here. SOA is like my other fandom "24" where the show itself isn't always very happy, but I work with that the original writers give me.
I've never been to an actual 1950s nuclear fallout shelter before but just know that these exist in some buildings constructed during the Cold War era. Now that works has been fictionalized for the purposes of this story.
CHAPTER 26: FALLOUT
CHARMING WATER TOWER/DOWNTOWN STREETS
Keith handed his binoculars to officer Tincher and took his sniper rifle instead. "Look for the other vehicle, they've split up," he told Tincher. The cop nodded, feeling weird to be following the instructions of an outlaw biker.
Keith preferably would have used the rocket launcher, which required a less premise aim since it demolished everything in its blast radius, but he had no idea how big the Weathermen's bomb was and didn't want to trigger it, especially as the crowds had dispersed from the parade route and carnival and were making their way throughout the town center streets.
He carefully took aim and zoomed in, firing his first shot. Due to the wind, it was off, hitting the engine block instead. Some smoke began rising from the radiator but the BMW was still barreling forward. Keith took aim again, and this time, his sniper bullet went straight into the BMW driver's brain. The dead terrorist's foot slammed on the accelerator while his hands left the steering wheel and the vehicle went out of control.
Rogers tried to grab the wheel but the driver's body was in the way. The BMW jumped the curb and went some parking meters, flower pots and a postal box flying into the air. It then side swiped a tree and the right wheels became airborne, the BMW on his side as it slammed into an antiques store.
"Target down!" Keith radioed, "The vehicle just crashed into Carol Ann's Antiques!"
"Do you have a visual on Rogers or any of his men?"
"Got one guy coming in my direction, taking him out now!"
One of the Weathermen, bloodied from the wreck was crawling out onto the sidewalk in front of Carol Ann's. Keith got him in his crosshairs and in a split second later his head exploded like a ripe melon. Rogers heard the crack of the sniper rifle and saw the blood from the dead Weatherman splatter into the store.
"We need to head out the back!" Rogers said to Mike and he nodded. "Check on the bomb, make sure we can still detonate it remotely!"
"Yes, Professor," Mike answered as he went into the BMW's trunk and checked the explosive wiring on the powerful homemade bomb they had built at his father's isolated seaside estate. "The bomb's still intact."
"Good. We're already in the town center. Looks like I won't be returning to campus. I'm going to take the bomb into a crowded area and detonate it there. I need you to cover me and then get out of here. Can you do that?"
"Yes. I believe in this, you can count on me."
DOWNTOWN STREETS
However, Rogers and Mike saw the approaching motorcycles as Chico and Thomas pulled up, expressions of rage and determination on their hardened faces.
"Hold them off, looks like we're going to blow the bomb here. It should still destroy everything in a four block radius."
"I can throw the bomb from an elevated position! Main Street's on the other side of this building!" Rogers said.
"That's Mike Grayson and Professor Rogers," Chico said, remembering the photos they had seen. "Roger's got the bomb so watch your fire!"
Clay hurled a grenade in Mike's direction and Keith squeezed off several shots with his sniper rifles but Mike dove through a window, shattering it and going into a shoe store, rolling along the ground and out of the line of fire even as the heavy caliber firepower decimated the plastic pricing signs and cardboard shoeboxes in the store.
"Mike! Get up there on the roof now and finish them!" Rogers screamed into his military-style radio as he went out into the dumpster area and parking lot behind the shoe store. Rogers went up a fire escape, carrying the heavy bomb which was in a sports bag. Despite being over 50 years old, he was still fit due to his daily workouts in the campus gym. He saw Chico and Thomas coming and fired off several shots that bounced off the dumpster, forcing the bikers to take cover.
Thomas reloaded and opened fire, several of his bullets clanging off the fire escape. On of them hit Rogers in the foot and the professor yelled out in pain, but he was already on the roof with the bomb and scampered away. It was clear now that Rogers was making his way across the long rooftop of the commercial block. Mike was nowhere to be seen at this time but they knew they had to pursue Rogers before he could blow the bomb.
Not long after making it to the roof, Chico felt a sharp pain in his lower back and saw that he had been shot, the bullet coming right out through his abdomen. As he fell onto the roof he turned and saw a muzzle flash and Mike walking toward him with an AK-47. The Weatherman was well armed with an ammo belt on him. Mike opened fire again but Chico rolled along the roof, the bullets sending tiles flying in all directions. Then, however, Thomas also reached the roof and fired a shot into Mike's chest. The Weatherman looked at Chico in shock, then Chico sent his own bullet into Mike's torso, dropping him.
"It's over, Rogers!"
"No, it's not," he said, then held up the bomb. "Timer's already been set and I'm the only one who can deactivate it. Look at those people down there. They don't even know I'm here. They'll never evacuate in time."
Rogers then raised his pistol with one hand and picked up the sports bag with the other. Thomas fired two shots that separated Roger's right hand from his body and the sports bag fell to the roof. He and Chico then both shot Rogers several times in the chest and the professor went over the roof.
The two Sons rushed over and saw that there was two minutes left on the timer."
"We need to get it to the football field and get Lenny out of there! Go! Go!" Chico shouted.
They carried the bomb down to their bikes. As the countdown continued mentally through his head, he raced back down the streets into the Charming High School football field, where the injured Lenny was still on the grass. Chico grabbed Lenny and got him onto his bike, then they all raced toward the school. Thomas dropped the bag underneath the bleachers which hopefully would absorb part of the blast. Then as the countdown continued, they both rode their bikes into the school hallways until they reached a stairwell reaching down into the basement storage area.
"C'mon! Hurry! It's going to blow at any time!" Chico shouted.
Thomas rushed down the stairwell and they all took cover. Several seconds later, the bomb detonated, completely obliterating the bleachers and sending them sailing hundreds of feet through the air. The fireball shattered every window in the school and the shock wave overturned several cars in the parking lot. Entire trees were uprooted by the force. Thomas, Lenny and Chico were blown toward the door by the suction wave caused by the explosion but landed harmlessly on the floor.
ST. THOMAS HOSPITAL, MATERNITY WARD
Deanna had managed to make her way past the police roadblock, the other Weathermen gunning down two officers in the process. She pulled Professor Rogers's Bonneville up under overhang by the main entrance of St. Thomas hospital and got out.
"Ma'am, valet parking is over in the other lane," a uniformed hospital employee said, walking over to her.
Deanna pulled out a machine pistol and shot him dead on the spot, creating a sudden panic. She and the two other Weathermen than killed two more civilians as they entered the main lobby, one of them looking amusingly at a sign that indicated the hospital was a "gun free zone" and all firearms were banned from its premises. "At least it doesn't say bomb free," one of them joked darkly.
They saw a doctor in a lab coat running toward a side door and shot him in the back, then one of the Weathermen grabbed the young woman working the reception desk.
"Where's the maternity ward?"
The girl's teeth clattered as she struggled to speak. "You….you'll kill me anyway."
"Fucking bitch," the Weatherman cursed and forced his pistol into her mouth, the round exiting through her brain.
"This way!" Deanna said, glancing at one of the overhead signs and grabbing a map of the hospital. "We're not far." Since Professor Rogers was dead and there would be no mass casualties being brought in from the parade, it was the maternity ward that they would strike.
CHARMING STREETS
"We got 911 calls originating in St. Thomas Hospital!" Unser radioed JT.
"Jesus Christ! We're five minutes out!"
"Also have reports of officers down at our checkpoint on 8th Street. Hurry up! Our men are all bogged down trying to clear this chaos here and evacuate the parade route in case Rogers and Grayson left any more bombs on the way!"
"We're on our way now!" JT shouted into the radio. "Any news about the explosion at the high school?"
"There are reports of injuries from broken glass in the surrounding neighborhood but no reports of fatalities! We still have no contact from Chico or the rest."
"Dammit, please tell me they had a way of making it!"
"They headed into the school which sustained heavy damage. If they made it to the basement they should be fine. Look I'll give you an update as soon as we know something but we also got the FBI on the way. I'm directing them to the hospital but you need to stop Deanna before she can trigger the second bomb!"
MATERNITY WARD, ST. THOMAS HOSPITAL
Deanna followed behind the two other Weathermen, a male and female as they shoved open a door leading into a well-lit skybridge leading into the older part of the hospital, where the maternity ward was housed. Two patients saw the armed Berkeley students approaching them and gasped. The Weathermen killed them with automatic gunfire in an almost robotic motion.
Next up was the nurses station where three nurses were currently checking the computer monitors and patient charts of the new mothers and their babies.
"What are you doing?" one of the nurses almost shrieked as she saw the armed terrorists enter with their AK-47s and Czechoslovakian machine pistols pointed forward. Deanna also had a backpack containing the bomb even as she held weapons in both hands.
"The same thing this country's doing in other countries!" the male Weatherman shouted. Then all three of them opened fire at the nurses station for over ten seconds. The first nurse was dead within seconds and the others desperately tried to fight back with anything they had, including staplers and chairs but were no match for the cold, merciless Soviet weapons and the Berkeley students who carried them.
Another nurse who was conducting her rounds threw a food tray at the approaching Weathermen, who stepped aside, then the nurse came at them with a pair of scissors, the only weapon she had on them. She knew she had to do what she could to delay these attackers before they could slaughter the innocent newborn children whose rooms lined this very hallway.
She almost managed to stab the male Weatherman, but the female gunned her down with an automatic round to the chest. They shoved a medication cart out of the way and went around the corner, arriving in the NICU where several babies were being triaged.
"Let's do it!" the male terrorist said.
They killed a doctor as they forced their way into the first room where a young mother had been singing to her premature child. The Weathermen grabbed her as Deanna walked over to the 1-day old infant with her pistol drawn. The woman screamed in completely turmoil.
"Stop! Please! I don't even know you!"
"Were those women and children in that hospital in Hanoi given a chance to beg for their lives before American planes dropped tons of bombs on them?"
"That has nothing to do with me, please! And even the news mentioned that was an accident!" She didn't mention that the casualty figures were also significantly inflated by North Vietnam's communist propaganda machine.
"You stand by idly while this country murders innocent people around the world. I'm sick of people who think the life of a white Christian American is worth more than a child in another country that we're destroying."
Suddenly, there was the sound of shattered glass and deafening motorcycle engines as JT and the bikers crashed through the glass windows of the NICU waiting area and arrived on the scene. JT fired a burst from his Uzi and shot the female terrorist in the leg.
Deanna and the remaining Weatherman both rushed out of the room with their guns blazing. The female terrorist also opened fire into the hallway, forcing Clay to duck while Piney took a position by the corner. JT saw Deanna run down the hallway with the backpack.
"Take these guys out now! I'm going after her!" JT shouted.
As JT ran down the hallway in pursuit, one of the Weathermen tossed a hand grenade into the lounge. Piney took refuge in an adjacent restroom while Clay went back into the hallway. The blast destroyed the wall to the bathroom and sent the stalls collapsing on Piney but he came out shooting. He saw the female terrorist firing from the ground and finished her off with a shot to the chest. In the distance, they could hear police sirens as the remaining Charming PD squad cars pulled up at the hospital. Unser got out of his vehicle and felt a sudden bout of nausea as he saw the dead bodies littering the main entrance and lobby area.
The Weatherman remaining in the NICU area crouched behind the nurses desk next to the bodies of the nurses they had just shot and reloaded. He then picked up one of the nurses' bodies with him as he got up and blasted away at Piney. He was making his way toward the nursery where over ten newborns and their families were trapped, most of them huddling together in fear.
Piney fired back but the Weatherman blocked those shots with the nurse's body.
"You son of a bitch," Piney said as he fired furiously, making sure the Weatherman couldn't reach the nursery that easily. Gunfire also came from the opposite end of the hallway. The Charming police had now made their way into the NICU area and were engaging the Weatherman. The college student ducked into a storage room to reload. He then rolled a grenade down the hallway, forcing the police to retreat to a stairwell as the end of the hallway.
He then focused his attention on Piney, who squeezed off three more shots with his pistol. One of them struck the Weatherman in the shoulder, causing him to lean against the wall in main, but he quickly recovered and opened fire on the group of policemen that were coming, killing one of them with a burst to the chest.
He then made his way out of the closest, running toward another wing of the hospital. He opened fire back at Piney but Piney ducked behind a medication cart, the bullets striking several IV and nutrition bags instead, raining fluids all over the hallway. Piney then pushed the cart forward, opening fire furiously. One bullet went through the cart and struck Piney in the abdomen but he continued forward. He then stood up with his pistol and fired a single shot into the Weatherman's brain, the terrorist's forward motion continuing as he fell face down on the hallway in an expanding puddle of blood.
ST. THOMAS HOSPITAL – RADIOLOGY DEPARTMENT
JT wished he had a radio on him like he had during the battle in Vietnam, both to call in backup and to speak with someone with St. Thomas Hospital's floorplans to see where the heck she was going. While St. Thomas was the only hospital in Charming, JT had been healthy most of his life and hadn't spent much time there besides visiting a few friends undergoing surgery.
Deanna ran down a narrow hallway, entering the hospital's radiology department. She saw a technician run in front of her and immediately shot her in the chest, killing her instantly. She went around a corner and saw a young woman in scrubs cowering behind a medication cart in tears.
"Please, don't…" she begged.
Deanna smiled coldly and shot her in the head.
Was there some like of secret escape route that his target knew? Was there something about the building's structural aspects that Deanna was intending to target that that bomb in her backpack? Then a bright yellow and black sign caught his eye. It was the sign for the nuclear fallout shelter, which was added when this hospital was renovated back in 1950, when the events in Berlin and the Korean Peninsula threatened to trigger a larger confrontation with the Soviet Union.
He whirled around the corner and saw her, but she was waiting and ready to engage with her Makarov pistol.
JT was taken surprise as two bullets from Deanna's gun whizzed right by his head and slammed into an office, shattering a video screen where a patient's chest x-ray images were displayed. JT returned fire and ducked behind a chair, Deanna's next three shots hitting the office wall. When he heard the next break in the gunfire, JT rushed out of the room and charged down the hallway, emptying his clip and putting a new one in. He also took out a gun he had taken from a dead security guard at the hospital entrance.
Then he saw the rather bulky backpack with the UC Berkeley mascot on it sitting alone, and sure enough, right beyond it was the nuclear fallout shelter. Made sense for it to be off the radiology department as they would have sensors to take into the shelter to check if the containment was intact in the event the Soviets did launch a nuclear ballistic missile into Charming.
He saw that there was actually a piece of blast-proof glass allowing rescuers to see into the fallout shelter and vice versa. Sure enough, Deanna was in there with a remote detonator in case the timing mechanism failed to trigger the explosion. JT could picture the scenes of chaos elsewhere in the hospital as staff and law enforcement officers frantically tried to evacuate everyone they could.
JT fired several shots into the door lock, but to no avail. The shelter was impenetrable though the radio signals but still work for Deanna to be there with the detonator. Meanwhile, the timer on the bomb was definitely counting down, with less than 5 minutes He was at a dead end here, except for one option. And it was one he had never tried before, but he had no other choice left. JT picked up the telephone attached to the wall that was the only means of contacting the inside of the shelter.
"I know who you are, Deanna! I remember you from the Sunvalley Mall!"
"Fuck you!" Deanna shouted into the intercom in the shelter.
"I bet you don't even have any real idea what you're doing this for!" JT said.
"Oh I know very well why I have to do this, just like we had to kill those war criminals at the military credit union!" Deanna paused. "I guess you're so used to having all the power when you're killing poor defenseless villagers and indigenous freedom fighters in Vietnam. We're speaking out for those subjugated around the world who are dying everyday because of American capitalist imperialism!"
"You don't know a damn thing about the world, Deanna." The countdown continued. There was no way him nor anyone can defuse the bomb in the time they had left. "All you know is what people like Professor Rogers and those hacks in the media chose to tell you."
Deanna laughed proudly at JT. "Coming from you? A fucking, Bible thumping, racist hick from Charming who probably never even left this podunk little down before going to war for the government like an ignorant little pawn? People here need to know what America's doing to the rest of the world and pay for the part they're playing in it!"
She continued her rant. "And yeah I know all about Charming. You people think you're so great and down to Earth. You go to the gas station and you act all friendly with the cashier making small talk while you put a dollar or two into a collection jar on that counter for some kid with cancer. You don't care that that cashier can't raise a family on minimum wage! You don't even think about the fact that if we had single payer healthcare, that kid's family or church wouldn't have to have a collection jar on a fucking checkout counter or have a stupid little community cookout to make money."
"It's you who've lived in a sheltered, pathetic little bubble your entire life! You think you know the world cause you've taken a few of Professor Rogers's classes, been to a few rallies and Bob Marley shows and heard Saul Alinsky speak a few times on campus. I got my first job when I was 15. My family and my friends, we know what its like to work hard for what we have. For all your self-righteousness, I'll bet you've never worked behind a cash register a single day in your life. Oh, that's for people beneath you. You pay for your fancy little car yourself? You have a single fucking friend who didn't go to college?"
Deanna was silent.
"Well do you? Figures," JT said, then went on. "And you just accused me of being a racist. Tell me, how many black or Hispanic friends do you have? Yeah, you march alongside the Nation of Islam and the Brown Berets of Aztlan but you ever had a black or Hispanic person in your home who wasn't there to clean it? Well let me tell you something. The reason I started this club, the reason we came after you was because you murdered one of my closest friends, a man named Otis Cross. Not that it even matters to any of us, but he happened to be black. Otis saved my life in Vietnam when the government decided to hang us out to dry. One of our guys in my club is a Mexican American who was born and bred in Charming. We never saw him as a Mexican. He was just one of the good ol' boys just like the rest of us. That's something I don't expect you to understand."
Deanna still didn't respond, but JT saw some hesitation appear on her face, and she was now beginning to visibly sweat more and her tight grip on the trigger was slightly loosening even as she continued looking at the timer on the bomb. She must be wondering what JT was still doing there as unlike the bedridden patients, JT could still escape the hospital before the explosion. The Weathermen would have abandoned each other, like they had when she was in jail, but JT still stood here in an attempt to save his fellow citizens.
"And I know people like you, Deanna," JT said finally. "People like my cousin who are going to raise their family the way you were raised. You see, all that talk about speaking out for the voiceless? Deep down its you who truly feels voiceless and powerless. I've seen what it's like. Your whole life's been planned for you. Every decision in your life's been made for you. Simply graduating from high school or even going to community college was never an option for you. You're going to get that fancy degree at Berkeley, and then you're going to go to grad school or you're totally worthless in your parents' eyes. Professor Rogers knows that too! He channeled that for his own twisted cause! You hate the world you were raised in, and you're willing to latch on to any cause to rebel against it! If it wasn't socialism it would be something else, anything to give your life some purpose.
"It's your own life that's empty, and killing all these innocent people in this hospital isn't going to change that!"
A tear fell from Deanna's eyes as she realized the truth of what JT was saying. "There's no going back for me. We've come too far."
"You can still stop, Deanna," JT said. "Trust me, you don't want any more blood on your hands."
She was now trembling in a rather pathetic way as the false reality the Weather Underground had built collapsed around her. She had let Rogers and the other Weathermen convince her it was about America's sins in Vietnam, but in the end it was really about her. She also resented the life she saw in Charming because it was a life she could never live.
"Please, Deanna. You can end this right now."
JT braced for what he assumed would be explosion as Deanna pushed some more buttons. But there was nothing, and when JT opened his eyes again, the timer was dark. With the clock off, JT fired a shot into the trigger to permanently disable it just as Wayne Unser came in with three other Charming police officers.
"JT! We've secured this section of the building! State police bomb squad's on the way!" Unser said as his men entered the fallout shelter and took Deanna into custody.
"It's over, Wayne," JT said, nodding at the disarmed device.
FBI HELICOPTER, AIRBORNE OVER CHARMING
"Well is the threat contained?" Special Agent Jarrett said into the radio.
"Yes, sir! We need a bomb squad here to dispose of the device but it's been deactivated. All the terrorists are dead, including Walt Rogers."
"Okay, the bomb squad's on the way. Keep me posted with any new developments." He disconnected the radio and turned to Smalls and the pilot. "Okay, that situation's stable for now. We'll continue to Teller Automotive and see what's up with JT. Maybe he can lead us to Tasker."
"If JT and the other Sons are there, should we attempt to take them alive?" Smalls asked.
"No," he answered. "Washington's going to want some answers about what happened here today and it's going to be our ass on the line. This is our way of distancing ourselves from this mess. We'll blame it on Tasker, and on the Sons for provoking this attack. The way the mood is now in most of the country, the American public will easily blame some psychotic Vietnam veterans. The Weathermen only arose in response to what America's doing in the world."
TELLER AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR
"We're here. Looks like something went on down there. Somebody crashed a truck through the gate and we got bullet holes and shell casings everywhere."
Jarrett ordered a fly-by of he scene with the gunners leaning out of the FBI helicopter, watching for any signs of armed men anywhere on the garage property. "It looks clear now," said the pilot. "Party's over already."
"Set her down," Jarrett ordered, "And secure the area. Stay alert, we still don't know who the hell's inside."
Several armed agents hopped out of the chopper and rushed through the cloud of dust, some of them checking the area of the lot full of parked vehicles while others prepared to enter the building. "Wonder what on Earth happened here," one of them commented as he saw the inside of the garage strewn with weapons and bloodstains.
HIGHWAY 99, CHARMING
JT and the rest of the club except Lenny were now riding southbound on the Highway 99 bypass. Clay, Chico and the others had gone up to the hospital to drop off Lenny at the emergency room so he could have his crash injuries treated, and they were now taking the loop around downtown Charming and approaching the exit they usually used to get to their clubhouse.
After a while, the traffic died down completely, and the freeway was completely deserted in front of them.
"Weird," JT said, "The 99's never this empty not even at midnight."
"They're probably not letting people go to far yet, until they make sure there's no other bombs around Charming," Chico said.
"No, there's something wrong about this. Definitely something wrong. We're taking the next exit and heading to the Wahewa reservation."
It was then that he realized the next exit, along with the rest of the highway was blocked off the FBI vehicle and several unmarked FBI vehicles and agents with their weapons drawn.
Agent Jarrett saw the Sons of Anarchy bikers arriving and shouted into the bullhorn. "John Teller and the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club. This is the FBI! You will stop immediately and dismount your bikes or you will be fired upon!"
JT continued to go forward. He looked to the right and saw that unfortunately this part of the Route 99 Bypass was lined by an irrigation canal that was too wide for their bikes to jump across, and in any case the FBI helicopter would be able to hunt them down from the air if they tried to escape into open country.
The FBI gunners opened fire in front of the bikes, kicking up pieces of blacktop. JT finally eased to a stop, as did the others.
"Take off all your kuttes and thrown them to the ground! Drop your weapons! Hands where we can see them!" Jarrett demanded loudly.
None of the bikers moved at all, and JT's hands were firmly on his AR-15.
"If anyone has a shot, take it!" Jarrett said to his men.
"I got it!" Agent Smalls radioed and took aim at JT. As his finger squeezed the trigger, however, a sudden gust of wind came down from the hills, causing his bullets to strike the wheels of JT's motorcycle instead and he fell over onto the blacktop along with his bike.
Suddenly they all heard the echo of two rifle shots then Smalls's lifeless body fell forward off the overpass, standing in the middle of the highway. Several agents opened up with their bolt-action shotguns and automatic weapons on the rooftops and the treeline but couldn't find any targets. Suddenly some sirens appeared and Unser came out of his squad car after pulling up at the scene.
"Hold your fire!" he shouted, then red crosshairs appeared in the middle of Jarrett's chest and on the bodies of the other FBI agents in their tactical gear.
The FBI agents continued to fire and then more gunfire came from a billboard on the right side of the highway.
"Stop firing! That's an order! Stop shooting! Stand down! Jesus Christ!" Jarrett shouted in a panic as the automatic weapons fire died down. He watched as over a dozen armed civilians appeared from the surrounding area with their sights all still trained on him and his agents. It was clear that Unser had a role in planning this counter ambush. Police chief Hancock and Officer Tincher were also there with their flashing lights, pointing their service weapons at the FBI agents rather than the civilians. JT, Piney, and the other Sons dismounted their bikes and also removed their firearms from inside their kuttes.
Unser walked over to JT, who looked at him in shock. "We just overheard on the chatter that they intended to stage a shootout and kill all of you," Unser said. "We couldn't let that happen, especially after y'all just saved this town."
JT nodded, a quick plan forming in his mind. "Whatever I say, just play along. We're both getting out of here."
"Officer Unser, Chief Hancock, what the hell is this?" Jarrett demanded incredulously.
"Your unit is surrounded on all sides! You will listen to what we have to say. You make one wrong move, and you're all dead!" Unser shouted. Jarrett looked around at the civilians then at the local police. "You think you're starting another insurrection again, are you guys? You good ol' country boys want to fight another war with Washington? We all know how that turned out in 1865!"
"We'll do what we must in order to protect our own," JT said. "This is Charming."
JT and his men could see the FBI sharpshooters make a futile attempt to acquire targets, but while they had attempted to ambush the Sons and provoke a shootout to justify the use of force, what even JT didn't know was that Unser, the Charming PD, and the armed locals, fresh from the knowledge of what the Sons of Anarchy had done for them, had set up a wider cordon and created an even larger ambush.
"You son of a bitch," Jarrett snarled at JT.
"This is as much a surprise to me as it is to you boys," JT said, then smirked. "Kinda makes me feel good. Glad to know there's still people in this country who appreciate people like me. Gotta love Charming, right?"
"You shut the fuck up and listen to me, John Teller. I, and every federal agent under my command, will make it my life's mission to finish you, and each and every one of your men. Wherever you are in this world, I'm going to find you, and I'm going to put a fucking bullet in your head, just like you did to Mark Tasker. Yeah, Tasker was a real pain in the ass, but he was one of us. And all of these yahoo buddies of you who showed up on their own accord as you say, they know about that? That they're obstructing a federal law enforcement action?"
"You won't do a thing to this club," JT said evenly, looking Jarrett straight in the eye. "Not today, and not ever."
"Oh you really so sure about that?"
"You make one wrong move, you may kill us, but all of you will be dead. As for another day, let's just say that we have our leverage." JT reached into his kutte pocket and revealed a tape recorder with a cassette tape inside. "This is what happened in the last useful minutes of Agent Tasker's miserable, pathetic life."
Jarrett visibly squirmed as he heard Tasker's screams of pain and fear as JT and his club members tortured the corrupt agent for information regarding the attack. "And if you go to your friends in the media to smear us, the public will also know it was your man who collaborated with a terrorist organization to launch an attack against American citizens. You see, Mr. Jarrett, I've already made several copies of this tape and they're in the hands of people I trust. If I ever die by your hand, or get arrested, copies of this tape will be sent to all of the major news stations. Yes, the media cares about their agenda, but above all, they care about their ratings."
It was clear that Agent Jarrett had been beat, and that his plans of setting up a massacre of the Sons was turned on their head. He didn't know if there really were copies of the recording, but he couldn't risk it. He despised JT and everything about him, but ultimately knew that JT was a man of his word. If he didn't go after him again, then the recording would not be released and Tasker's involvement in the failed Weather Underground attack would remain secret. That would be in the best interests of the Bureau, he decided.
"Stand down!" Jarrett ordered his men, then some of the agents took Agent Smalls's body and dragged it back into one of his vehicles. There would also be no charges into his death as Smalls had participated in their own conspiracy and had opened fire first on JT.
JT nodded at Jarrett. "You go on now, and get the fuck out of my town."