BY GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES

 The notebooks, briefcase and even a wooden breakfast tray looked unremarkable
 during the apartment search of an accused Cuban spy. Then a co-defendant
 started cooperating and told the FBI to go back for a second look.

 Voila! Built into each item was a slim ``secret compartment'' used to stash
 incriminating paperwork and photos, FBI Agent Jose Orihuela testified Friday at
 the conclusion of the first full week of the Cuban spy trial.

 If the jurors were expecting high-tech spy toys, they were disappointed. Orihuela
 also testified that two defendants used eyeglasses and mustaches or colored
 contact lenses to change their appearance.

 Orihuela did not say whether such techniques were tried and true tools of spying
 or reflections of a low-rent operation stuck in the 1950s.

 But defense attorney Paul McKenna touched on the issue when, in opening
 statements, he told jurors about the apartment of his client, Gerardo Hernandez:
 ``It wasn't what you might think, some James Bond pad. It was more like an
 Austin Powers pad.''

 Hernandez's apartment, at 18100 Atlantic Blvd. in North Miami Beach, was where
 FBI agents found the items during a Nov. 10, 1998, search. Hernandez is
 accused of conspiring to commit espionage and conspiring to murder four
 Brothers to the Rescue fliers who were shot down by Cuban MiGs over the Florida
 Straits.

 Orihuela established that Hernandez had multiple sets of identification documents
 under different assumed names: Manuel Viramontez and Daniel Cabrera.

 Spies typically have two identities, the agent testified. ``Cover'' identities carry a
 biographical history that agents can use in their everyday lives complete with
 relatives' names and business cards. ``Escape'' identities are used only to flee
 and are supported with documentation that can withstand close scrutiny.

 Manuel Viramontez was the name Hernandez used in Miami. The Cabrera
 documents -- including a U.S. passport, Social Security card, driver's license and
 birth certificate -- were secreted inside a small notebook stashed in a closet, the
 agent said.

 Hidden inside two other notebooks were fake identification documents for
 co-defendant Ruben Campa and another co-defendant believed to have fled to
 Cuba to avoid prosecution.

 Agents also found papers titled ``Places of Pass'' reflecting addresses, times and
 secret signals -- apparently for meetings in New York City to ``pass'' information
 to their Cuban intelligence contacts.

 Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kastrenakas also showed jurors pictures of
 Hernandez and Campa posing in front of the Statue of Liberty and the
 Southernmost Point buoy in Key West. The spy ring allegedly targeted Key
 West's Boca Chica Naval Air Station for observation.

 The five defendants were arrested Sept. 12, 1998, and charged with acting as
 unregistered foreign agents. Three are accused of penetrating U.S. military
 installations to try to get defense secrets to Havana.