Excerpt from The Scientist and the Spy by Mara Hvistendahl, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

He let the men off with a warning. "If you're going to be on somebody's property, you need to let them know," he said.

Before the men sped off, one of the other deputies recommended speaking with some local farmers with extensive crop knowledge. Maybe one of them could help the Chinese visitors with their agronomy research, he suggested. In Iowa, people were nice almost to a fault, especially when it came to an interest in corn.

After the men left, Bollman turned to the friendly deputy. "You know, you don't necessarily need to be telling him that," he said. "About farms to visit."

"Oh, these guys are OK," his colleague replied.

"Something doesn't seem right here," Bollman insisted. "Why haven't they gone up to Iowa State?"

Later that day, the memory of the incident began to bug him. He filed a report, just in case. He filled in the lines at the top of the form, leaving other identifiers blank:

Type of Suspicious Activity: TRESPASSING IN FARM FIELD
Name: HAILONG MO
Race: ASIAN

Excerpted from The Scientist and the Spy by Mara Hvistendahl. Copyright © 2020 by Mara Hvistendahl. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.