I've done a few of those missions. You were doing it right, it was just apparently bugged. When they work correctly, once you hit the right time, you'll get an updated mission alert, and the contact will meet you in SC. Then, when he gets close enough, you do that "follow my wake and we'll talk" thing. Drop into his wake, he'll update the mission. It'll then either finish, or you'll get the next step.
But yeah. Many of these have expired on me, but it's not limited to eyes. I mostly do combat missions, and about half of the targets just never show up.
EDIT: Also, the eye symbol I think is only supposed to signify a secret intelligence/spy mission.