Goodbye Nobby Clarke

After a botched attempt by Meres to run over and kill a mercenary, Ronald Clarke (Michael Robbins), as he arrives from abroad at Tilbury Docks, Hunter decides to give the case to Callan - as they had served together in Malaya - and are two of a kind. Callan visits Clarke in hospital after receiving a post-card from him, and learns that he has been working in Africa, but has returned to England for good, to stay with his wife, Rena (Fionnuala Flannagan), and their child.

Before he leaves, Callan notices that Clarke is armed, and realises that Hunter must be responsible for the car accident. Hunter admits this to Callan and goes on to explain that Clarke has been training an army on one side of an African civil war, the side opposite to that supported by the British government. A bargain is struck in which Hunter assures Callan that Clarke will not be killed, provided Callan can stop Clarke from going back to Africa.

Callan meets with Clarke, now out of hospital, who admits to him his African activities, but although Clarke says he has returned to England for good, Callan mentions that he would be interested in joining Clarke's mercenary army. Clarke passes this information onto Kanaro (Dennis Alaba Peters), his African contact.

At the launderette where she works, Rena is asked to run a new branch by the owner, Sheppick (Alfred Hoffman). She refuses, saying that she intends giving up work now that her husband is home. Callan arrives to talk to her, and over a coffee, she asks him to stop Nobby if he ever thinks of returning to Africa. When he gets back to his flat, Callan finds an intruder - Clarke - who offers Callan a chance to play his war games for real.

Under Callan’s instructions, Lonely follows Clarke to various locations around the country, and supplies Callan with the address of a warehouse where Clarke spends most of his time. After an unproductive visit to the warehouse, Callan meets Lonely at the launderette, where he takes advice on the safe containing Sheppick’s takings. Lonely passes to him a cosh he stole from the warehouse, which has Clarke’s fingerprints on it, then tells Callan that Clarke has been buying up fake passports by the dozen.

Callan now realises that Clarke is actually recruiting for more mercenaries. One recruit is Toby Meres, who, on hearing Callan's name, mentions that he knew a David Callan who worked for British intelligence, and the man's description matches. At the launderette, Callan knocks Sheppick unconscious with the cosh from Clarke's warehouse, and steals money from the safe. He takes the money to the warehouse where he is attacked by Clarke, but manages to get the better of him in the struggle. From there, he phones the police, telling them that Clarke was responsible for the robbery.