USE OF WEAPONS

The man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe one of Special Circumstances, foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intigue, dirty tricks or military action.
The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and pushed him towards his present eminence, but despite all their dealings she did not known him as well as she thought.
The drone known as Skaffen-Amtiskaw knew both of these people. It had once saved the woman,s life by massacring her attackers in a particularly bloody manner. It believed the man to be a burnt-out case. But not even its machine intelligence could see the horrors in his past...