She shook her head. "No, they won't have to do anything. It's the displacement effect. You see, we are not _really_ here, in a way, it is a sort of illusion, but more real for us than for you. When we return to our own time, we will remember all that happened, but you will remember nothing, since the translator does not really exist in your time. You will just forget, it will be as if none of this had ever happened, as if you had never met me, never heard of a 'time-translator'." It sounded plausible, in a way, but there was a flaw in the logic. "If everybody in this time forgets, why so much to-do about secrecy? Won't anyone else I tell forget too?" "There is a limit to the possible displacement. If the limit is exceeded, according to the Alwyn hypothesis the continuum itself may be altered, and one of the ways in which it might change would be to eliminate the irritant--in other words, all of us concerned directly." "I see. So they figured two of us put too much of a strain on the displacement, that's why they killed this other joker--what was his name, anyway?" "Nelson. Perhaps," she said uncertainly, "that might be it." "And maybe they figure even one is too much strain, better to be safe than sorry, huh?" "No, I don't think so. Killing requires even more displacement than ... loss of memory. Really, I don't understand it, you see, I am just a sort of employee, they don't confide in me. If they knew I had been talking to you about these things like this--" she shuddered and smiled wryly. "Perhaps I too know too much, perhaps I should be worrying about the pros and cons of various types of displacement for myself." Dolan looked at her thoughtfully. "This displacement thing," he said gently, "I'll forget you too?" She nodded. "You will forget me. But I will remember you--for a long time, I am afraid." He frowned and kicked at a tuft of sod. "I don't want to forget you. Do you have to leave with the others? Couldn't you stay? For a little while anyway? You haven't really had a good chance to see our world yet." "No. They would never trust me out of their control. If I refused to go ... well ..." she shrugged. "And I don't suppose I could go back with you to your world, spend some time there, either?" "No, that would be to travel into your own future, which cannot be done." "I see." Dolan leaned back against the tree, thinking. "Well, there's one thing sure," he said. "If the machine can't be fixed, it can't be fixed, there isn't much they can do about it. You may _all_ stay in this time yet."