The solution: Wait only one frame but check every time if the 10 seconds have already passed, then trigger the state change of the ENTITY
To accomplish that increase an arbitrary skill, f.i. skill10 by time_step.
my.skill10 += time_step;
Every second my.skill10 will increase by 16 (because the engine time scale is "ticks"). That means if your skill is above 160, 10 seconds have passed:
if(my.skill10 > 160) { get out of cover }
Alternatively, you could increase by 1/16*time_step per frame and my.skill10 will equal to the seconds that have passed (it could be better to use time_frame instead).