His expression tightens automatically when the agents come close, but other than assuming the posture of someone who so dearly wants to say I told you so, he remains completely non-threatening. Once he's free and his things are returned to him, he digs through his pack to find that length of rope again, but he pockets it immediately. He has been told it makes him look unstable to carry it around, tying and untying and retying, and he doesn't want these agents to think he's anything other than a perfectly competent, perfectly trustworthy man from the future.

When he's finally on his way out, he strikes up conversation again. "So, you're on a team," he says. "I admit, I pictured you camping out in the wilderness, living off the land and all that."