Jak can't count.

No, I'm serious. Jak is the worst person at communicating numbers. Numerical values seem to have no meaning to him.

You don't get what I mean, do ya? Fair enough, half the time I'm not sure I get what I mean.

This is what I mean. We get a call from Sig, saying that there's metalhead activity at the pumping station. Jak wonders off to take the call, leaving me sitting out by myself in the zoomer whilst he talks about it.

When he comes back, I ask him, "So, Jak. How many metalheads are we talking about?"

He shrugs at me and waves a hand. "Oh, y'know. A couple."

The actual meaning of a couple is one or two. Three at most. Hell, I'd even allow four under the category of a couple.

Twelve is not a couple. Twelve is a dozen. And fourteen is definitely well out of the bounds of 'a couple'.

You don't believe me?

Okay, how many Krimzon Guard is, "well, y'know, some"?

Some. Some doesn't sound like a lot. Some sounds like it's more than 'a few' and less that 'lots'. Definitely a lot less than 'many', 'tonnes' and 'a shit load'.

Yeah, so Jak's definition of numbers is different from everyone else's, because I know that eight squads of KG are not 'some' in my books, it's a shit load of the bastards.

Absolutely nothing less than a shit load. At four per squad, it's more than I want to deal with, even with dark and gruesome.

But that's okay. For the most part I can understand what Jak means, even if I don't want to. When he doesn't want to upset me, the implied value of the word decreases in direct correlation of the number of things that will upset me.

Heh. I sound like a mathematician when I speak like that.

Geez, I've been listening to Vin too much. All these brainy types are making me sound weird.

But it's true. The more it will upset me, the more Jak dismisses it and makes it seem less than it really is.

I know this, y'know? I knew it for a fact. He's always been that way. 'A little dangerous' at Misty Island was Jak for 'Yeah, it's hell dangerous and crawling with Lurkers', which I knew but I chose to believe him anyway.

And that, that is the root of my problem. Because every single damn time I choose to believe what Jak is telling me over what I know to be the truth. He says it's a little issue, I believe him, despite the fact that I know that he only says 'little' issue when it's a big one.

Hell, if they're calling Jak in on it, it's going to be a lot worse than I want it to be. That's a given in this business.

And every time, I make the mistake of listening to Jak. Because, y'know, he's Jak. He's looking out for me.

So, I guess that's the reason I believed him when he said once. Because, y'know, I always believe Jak. I mean, he didn't know I was listening in, I weren't meant to be there, so when he said 'once' I really believed it.

"Just once," he said. I honestly thought he meant it. I needed him to mean it this time. Just once, I needed him to be telling the truth about that, I needed to know that just once was the one truth he'd tell.

But I knew, y'know? I dunno how I knew, but I did. I knew that he was lying when he told him 'just once' and I knew he'd lied to someone else about those stupid numbers.

So I asked him. I came out and asked him. "How many times? You and Torn, how many times?"

When he told me "Just a few, Dax," and glanced away, I knew.

I knew he meant it was no less than 'too many'.