Your breath isn’t bad necessarily, it just tastes a little stale and you may be speaking to someone soon. How many tic-tacs do you typically use? One? Two? As many as you can fit?
If they’re orange, it won’t matter how many you eat.
Yum! Orange Tic-Tacs. 
Those are candy, not breath fresheners, though.
I usually pop Tic-Tacs in pairs.
Two. I chomp one and saliva the other.
Rarely used the things but when I have I found two to be enough.
Two. Unless they’re orange. Then however many I can shake into my mouth all at once and chew.
Repeat until box is empty.
Three. But then I have a big mouth.
Four, but that’s because I only eat the “tic” half of each one.
I’d take the other half, but that would be tacky.
To the OpP 2 Altoids is the answer.
And who wants to eat a box of tacks?
If one just had a tooth pulled, they could become in gum tacs.
I’d do four. Two, given the situation, seems like just enough to add to the smell, not cover/eliminate it.